M. Elaine Toms: Biography

• M. Elaine Toms lived from 1917 to 2019

Early Life and Education

• She was born in Seoul, Korea, which was under Japanese occupation at the time, on May 17, 1917
• Her parents were Presbyterian missionaries John and Ella Toms
• She had two older brothers, Robert Howard and Frederick Burton
• In 1923, her family moved back to New Jersey for her father to study at Princeton Seminary
• The family then relocated to Brownsburg, Pennsylvania, before settling in Woodstown, New Jersey
• Toms attended high school in Woodstown and graduated as valedictorian in 1934
• In 1935, she began her studies at Wilson College, a small private Presbyterian women’s college in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
• Toms majored in physics and received scholarships for all four years of her attendance
• Dr. Dorothy Weeks, the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics from MIT, served as her mentor
• Toms graduated from Wilson College in 1939 with a bachelor’s degree in physics

Early Career

• Following graduation, Toms' first job was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• She worked as a statistical clerk in the commercial research department at Curtis Publishing Company, known for the Saturday Evening Post and Ladies’ Home Journal
• Toms enrolled in a non-credit statistics course at the University of Pennsylvania in the fall of 1941, aiming to improve her job performance
• She remained at the company until she joined the U.S. Navy Women’s Reserve (WR), also known as Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES)

Naval Career

• In April 1943, Toms began her WAVES officer candidate training, traveling from Philadelphia to Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts
• Ensign Toms received her commission in June 1943 upon graduating
• She served eight months at Naval Operating Base (NOB) Norfolk
• She was then sent to pre-radar school at Harvard University from February to June 1944
• In July 1944, she attended a three-month advanced training program in radar at MIT
• Radar, which stands for Radio Detecting And Ranging, was a new technology for detecting changes in the spectrum of electromagnetic waves reflected off objects
• Toms' background in the science of matter and energy made her well-suited for the radar program
• After MIT, Toms was assigned to the Design Branch of the Electronics Division at the Bureau of Ships in Philadelphia
• Her branch designed electronic devices for surface ships and submarines, using innovations from the MIT Radiation Laboratory
• By 1945, she became an assistant project engineer in radio direction finder design

Radio and Post War

• Radio direction finders were used for navigation and as a countermeasure against enemy submarines
• She orchestrated a project to design an electronic device for ship detection using radio wave reflection
• Lieutenant (junior grade) Toms was discharged from the WAVES in December
• In February 1946, following her service, Toms returned to Curtis Publishing Company
• Within a year, she planned to pursue a master’s degree in physics at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn)
• She began working toward her master’s degree using the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, also known as the G.I. bill
• While pursuing her degree, she continued serving in the Naval Reserve
• In June 1949, Toms worked for two weeks at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in Arlington, Virginia
• In August 1949, she received her master’s of science from Penn
• In the summer of 1950, as part of her continued participation in the Naval Reserve, she trained at Radiological Defense Corps, Army Chemical Center, in Edgewood, Maryland
• There was an increased need for physicists during the early Cold War
• Toms renewed her research assistantship with Dr. William Stephens, focusing on low-energy nuclear physics

Nuclear Physics

• Toms studied photon-induced nuclear reactions, or photonuclear reactions, while working with Dr. Stephens
• When high energy light, like a gamma ray, hits an atom's nucleus, it can emit a proton or neutron
• Physicists began using particle accelerators in the 1930s to produce beams of particles for analysis
• The betatron, a recent advance in particle accelerators, produced high-energy electrons to generate gamma rays
• Toms studied sub-atomic particle behavior and exposed photographic plates to the beam to observe particle tracks, using a betatron
• Experimentation in this field involved "'survey experiments'—where the main concern is with the systematics of nuclear reactions and measurement"
• Government funding after the war supported American physicists in expanding atomic energy knowledge
• Toms joined the Nucleonics Division of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, DC, in 1954, without completing her doctoral degree
• Dr. Franz Kurie directed the division towards fundamental research, focusing on nuclear interactions through the study of electrons, protons, and other sub-atomic particles
• Kurie aimed to improve the understanding of material behavior in extreme environments and provide nuclear and atomic data for new equipment design
• The Office of Naval Research (ONR) funded the Nuclear Sciences division and Toms' research in a government-sponsored collaborative process

NRL Career

• The Nucleonics Division at NRL had already been involved in particle physics investigations by the end of World War II, after constructing its first betatron, a cyclic particle accelerator
• Toms studied the effect of a betatron beam on individual atomic nuclei
• She and other early particle physicists employed the accelerator as a tool to investigate nuclear structure
• In the 1960s, the Nuclear Physics Division at NRL studied nuclear structure, nuclear energy levels, and nuclear particle interactions in order to understand the interactions between elementary particles and matter
• Toms was assigned to the Photonuclear Reactions Section of the new LINAC Branch after the completion of an electron linear accelerator (LINAC) at NRL in 1966
• Her work remained the same: Documenting the various processes developed at NRL
• Toms had been a member of the American Physical Society (APS) since 1949
• She was elected as a fellow in APS in 1965
• This fellowship recognizes significant contributions to physics
• No more than 0.5% of the group's membership was recognized
• Toms was one of four women elected for this status out of 117 in this year
• She was included in American Men of Science, Who’s Who of American Women, and the Dictionary of International Biography
• Toms was recognized for her contributions to the larger community of American physicists

Later Life

• In the 1970s, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) encouraged cooperation between facilities that received their funding
• Toms participated in a program to share knowledge between ONR-sponsored laboratories
• She recognized her role in ensuring a “knowledge of relevance to Navy needs” through her study of particle physics
• Toms was often responsible for cataloging experiment data within her branch, and she was the only woman in the division and often the only physicist without a doctorate
• Toms compiled a comprehensive bibliography of findings from contributing authors in the U.S. and around the world to help sharing information in analysis of photonuclear activation
• The bibliography was originally published in 1955 and revised subsequently
• In 1967, the final edition included 1914 references with the help of 1588 contributing authors
• In 1967, Toms' compilations were useful in subsequent research in non-destructive detection of trace elements in material samples
• Throughout her career at NRL, Toms was an active member of Naval Reserve Research Company (NRRC) 5-9, headquartered at NRL
• Toms was the only former WAVE and the only female scientist in this company for most of her career
• Toms was promoted to commander in 1961
• She retired from NRL in June 1971
• She retired from the Naval Reserve December 1975, after 32 years of service with the rank of commander
• Toms spent her later years playing shuffleboard and enjoying retirement in Florida
• She relocated to a retirement community in Cromwell, Connecticut, later in life
• She was honored as the Cromwell’s Veteran of the Year for 2016
• Elaine Toms died in 2019 at the age of 102

Biography of M. Elaine Toms, including details of her early life, education, and career. Toms was born in Seoul, Korea, and later studied physics at Wilson College.