Joan Clarke
CODE BREAKER & CRYPTANALYST
(1917 - 1996)
Joan Clarke graduated in 1939 with a double first
in mathematics, however this was only her degree,
as Cambridge did not admit women to "full
membership of the academic body" until after
WW2. The same year, Clarke was awarded the
distinguished Philippa Fawcett Prize and in 19391940,
she won the Helen Gladstone Scholarship.
In 1940, she accepted a post working for GCCS
(Government Code and Cypher School) who
aimed to break the enigma code that Germany had
developed to encrypt their messages. Her skills
didn't go unnoticed though, and she was soon
promoted to her own table, joining a team which
included Alan Turing, Tony Kendrick and Peter
Twinn. In 1947, Clarke was appointed a Member of
the British Empire (MBE) for her codebreaking
expertise during the war.
Roberta Bondar
ASTRONAUT NEUROLOGIST
(1945 - present)
Roberta Lynn Bondar was a Canadian
neurologist, researcher, and astronaut. The
first Canadian woman to travel into space, in
1981 she was admitted as a fellow in
neurology to the Royal College of Physicians
and Surgeons. Two years later, she was
chosen as one of the six original Canadian
astronauts, joining the team as a payload
specialist on the Discovery space shuttle
during the STS-42 mission, launching into
space on January 22, 1992, and returning to
Earth eight days later Her pioneering status
as Canada's first woman astronaut and the
first neurologist in space and her
accomplishments in space medicine brought
her numerous awards and led to her
appointment as an Officer of the Order of
Canada, Canada's highest civilian honour.
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