Kirstine Meyer

Who was Kirstine Meyer?

Kirstine Bjerrum Meyer was a Danish physicist. She was a high school teacher for many years, working on her education and research in physics at the same time. She won the Gold Medal of the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters in 1899, for a paper examining whether there exists a general equation of state for all fluid bodies, Om overensstemmende Tilstande hos Stofferne. She received her Ph.D in physics from the University of Copenhagen in 1909, becoming the first Danish woman to earn a doctorate in natural sciences. Her dissertation, Temperaturbegrebets Udvikling gennem Tiderne, was an in-depth treatment of the history of the concept of temperature.

In 1902, Meyer founded Fysisk Tidsskrift, the Danish journal of physics. She was its editor until 1913.

In 1925, she was awarded the Tagea Brandt Rejselegat

She was sister of Jannik Petersen Bjerrum.