Francis Wick '97

Frances Wick ’97 earned a PhD in physics from Cornell University in 1908. She taught at Vassar College  and did ground-breaking work in luminescence. She did research at Cornell and Harvard, the General Electric Company, the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University and the Institute for Radium Research in Vienna. During World War I, she worked for the U.S. Signal Corps on airplane technology and gun sights.

She was an alumnae trustee of Wilson College and an honorary degree recipient. She once said, “When friends ask why do you always work during your vacations? I reply honestly that the greatest joy in life is absorbing, stimulating work.”