Hazel Alden Reason
Hazel Alden Reason (April 1901 – 1976) was a British chemist who became a schoolteacher and wrote a popular book on the history of science.[1]
Life and Works
Hazel Reason was born in Friern Barnet, London. Her father, Will Reason, was a Congregational minister who campaigned and wrote around themes of social justice and poverty (books such as Poverty, Drink and the Community, Homes and Housing, Christianity and Social Renewal). Both her parents were university graduates.
She was educated at Milton Mount College For Girls in Gravesend. She graduated from Bedford College in 1924 with a BSc in Chemistry, and then obtained a position as a Senior Science Mistress at the County School for Girls, Guildford. In her spare time, she studied for an MSc (London) on the History of Science, which she completed in 1936.[2] She was elected a Chemical Society Fellow in 1936.[3]
She authored a book on the history of science, The Road to Modern Science, which was published in 1936. A second edition appeared in 1940 and a third revised edition in 1950. She commented in the Foreword that her object was to present the story of scientific discovery in a form that would appeal to intelligent boys and girls. She did not approve of the "great scientist approach" but rather her book covered ". . . the broad view of scientific discovery."
She was unmarried and lived in Guildford with her sister, the writer Joyce Reason, for much of her life.
References
- ↑ Marelene F. Rayner-Canham, Geoffrey Rayner-Canham. Chemistry Was Their Life: Pioneering British Women Chemists, 1880-1949 Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, 2008, p.478 ISBN 978-1-86094-986-9
- ↑ Journal of the Chemical Society , Volume 82, Part 2
- ↑ Proc.Chem.Soc.1936.7.