Isabel Joy Bear AM (4 January 1927 – 8 April 2021)[1][2] was an Australian chemist who worked at CSIRO for over forty years.
Bear identified several metastable zirconium sulphate hydrates, and with Dick Thomas was the first to scientifically describe "petrichor", the smell of rain on dry soil.
[3] Her father had served in the Australian Defence Force, and bought a dairy farm in Derrinallum after returning from World War I.
[3] In the 1960s Bear identified several new metastable zirconium sulphate hydrates (a heptahydrate and pentahydrate) and worked to uncover their crystal structures.
During these investigations Bear noticed that the smell was due to a yellowish oil, which they named "petrichor" – blood of the stone.
[9] In 1967 Bear was promoted to the research staff in the Division of Mineral Chemistry at CSIRO, and was the first and only woman to hold such a position.