Joy Bear

1927 - 2021

Joy Bear had a stellar career as a chemist, but she was one of the most unassuming of

women. Committee members who had enjoying her company for years had no idea that she

was the first woman to win the prestigious Leighton medal for her research as a

chemist. Here is a link to an online article explaining how Joy and a colleague at the CSIRO

invented a word – petrichor – to describe the smell of rain. And here is an obituary from the

CSIROscope webpage.