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= Dr. Alice Mary Dowse Weeks =

Early Life and Family
Alice Mary Dowse and her twin sister Eunice Dowse were born August 26, 1909, in Sherborn Massachusetts. Alice's mother Jessie Parker Dowse was raised in Uxbridge, Massachusetts and attended Tufts University. Jessie worked as a teacher until marrying Arthur Dowse, who worked as a banker among other occupations. Alice's mother was an advocate for her children's education as well as women's rights and encouraged them to learn at a young age.

Alice married Dr. Albert Weeks, and long-term friend and companion, in May 1950. Albert, a petroleum geologist, encouraged Alice in her career and helped to motivate her to complete her dissertation.

Education
Alice, who was homeschooled in her early years, attended and graduated from Sawin Academy and Dowse High School in 1926. She then attended Tufts University, receiving a bachelor in science and mathematics, graduating cum laude in 1930. After teaching at the Lancaster school for girls for roughly 2 and a half years, she returned to Tufts to take several geology courses. Following the end of her time at Tufts, she attended Harvard University, MA, for graduate school, where she received her master’s of science degree in 1934. Due to financial instability, and the additional pressures of being a woman in science at Harvard, Alice was unable to continue working towards her doctorate. Allegedly, Alice had to sit outside of classrooms for certain lectures that did not permit women to attend. She accepted a Research Fellowship at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and after a year began working there as a laboratory instructor. After another year working at Bryn Mawr, Alice returned to Harvard to continue to work towards her doctorate in 1936.

During this time, Alice also began working as a professor at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, as a laboratory instructor of historical and physical geology, geomorphology, cartography, and much more. She later became a member of the faculty as an assistant professor. Alice’s knowledge and skill in cartography, as well as being ambidextrous, led to her teaching map-making to Navy Officers during WWII. Due to the constraints and rationing that came with the War, it wasn’t until 1949 when Alice was awarded her Doctorate.

Career and Legacy
Alice's work focused on radioactive deposits, and from 1949-1961 she worked for the USGS Uranium Exploration. Weeks was a charter member of the Women Geoscientists Committee of the American Geological Institute and earned fellowships at the Geological Society of America, the Mineralogical Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Weeks later went on to become a professor of mineralogy at Temple University in Philadelphia, where she founded their Geology Department. Weeksite, a uranium silicate mineral, is named after her. Weeks is also recognized for identifying uranophane in 1953 along with Mary E. Thompson of the U.S. Geological Survey and was the first to propose the concept of oxidation of ore deposits that contain uranium, vanadium, and other accessory metals.

Role of Women in Science
During Alice's time, women were not widely accepted in the world of geology, and she occasionally was not permitted to attend specific classes, having to sit outside. In order to collect samples from uranium mines, Alice was forced to dress up as a man to evade the superstition against allow women from entering mines. As one of the first woman geologists, she was listed in the "American Men of Science" well before it was changed to "American Men and Women of Science”.

Later Life and Death
In 1976, Weeks retired from Temple University, and in 1980 the Northeastern Section of the Geological Society of America held a symposium on uranium in her honour. Suffering from Alzheimer's disease, Weeks died on August 27, 1988; her sister Eunice also had Alzheimer’s.