Materials are arranged in the order created during the interview process with the first file containing administrative materials created before, during, and after the interview.
Accession No. PA.2002.0011: Irene Peden, 2002 May
[identification of item], Irene Peden Oral History, SPEC.PA.56.0117, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program, Ohio State University
Contains audiocassettes.
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Processed by: Audrey Wimbiscus, 2023 November; Finding aid written by: David Mezick, 2023 November
As of 2023, Irene Carswell Peden (born September 25, 1925) is an electrical engineer and the first woman to conduct her own research in Antarctica’s interior. She was born in Topeka, Kansas. Peden received a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Colorado in 1947. Starting in 1949, she worked for the Aircraft Engineering and Antenna Laboratory at the Stanford Research Institute. Peden began graduate school at Stanford University in 1955, studying electrical engineering. She earned her Master’s degree in 1957 and a PhD in 1962. In 1962, Peden became an assistant professor at the University of Washington, where she was the first female engineering faculty member.
During the 1960s, Peden worked on research with Donald K. Reynolds and Myron Swarm. She remained at the University of Washington while Reynolds and Swarm travelled to Antarctica. Their research studied the behavior of very low frequency (VLF) radio waves in the ionosphere, which is a layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. Equipment for this work was installed 12 miles from Byrd Station in Antarctica at a substation called “Longwire.”
In 1970, Peden became the first woman to conduct her own research in Antarctica’s interior. She lived and worked at “Longwire” substation during this time. Her team studied the electromagnetic properties of the Antarctic ice sheets and the underlying terrain, and how VLF radio waves propagate over long distances. Peden continued this research after leaving Antarctica.
After returning to the United States, Peden continued to work at the University of Washington. She eventually changed the focus of her research to the study of sub-surface remote sensing. Peden became a Fellow of the of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1973. From 1991 to 1993, she served as Director of the Division of Electrical and Communications Systems at the National Science Foundation. In 1994, Peden retired from the University of Washington as Professor Emerita of Electrical Engineering. Peden Cliffs, located in Antarctica, was named for Irene Carswell Peden.
The Irene Peden Oral History, dated 2002, contains audio recordings, administrative information, and transcripts of the interview between Peden and Brian Shoemaker of the American Polar Society conducted on May 8, 2002. This interview was a part of a series of polar oral histories sponsored by American Polar Society and Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Major topics discussed include Peden's family life, her education in electrical engineering, her early career, the gender-based discrimination she faced, how she got a job as a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington, her research with Donald K. Reynolds and Myron Swarm studying the behavior of very low frequency (VLF) radio waves in the ionosphere in Antarctica, her struggle to get the United States Navy to approve her travel to Antarctica for her own research, her experience as a researcher in Antarctica and the conditions there, and her study of the electromagnetic properties of the Antarctic ice sheets and the underlying terrain and how VLF radio waves propagate over long distances.