She devised a method of releasing chaff, a radar countermeasure technique credited with reducing losses among Allied bomber crews.

[5] Strothers, who "had the scientific equivalent of gardening green fingers",[2] was awarded a government grant to study for a higher degree, and elected to go to the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge, where she joined Sam Curran in a team under the direction of Philip Dee.

However, Britain lacked the capacity to mass-produce the fuse,[7] so the design was shown to the United States by the Tizard Mission in late 1940.

Soon afterwards they were transferred to the Telecommunications Research Establishment near Swanage, where Sam worked on centimetric radar, while Joan joined the Counter Measures Group in an adjoining lab.

[13] Window was first employed in Operation Gomorrah, a series of raids on Hamburg, and resulted in a much lower loss rate than usual.

[14] As part of Operation Taxable on 5–6 June 1944, Window was dropped by Avro Lancasters of 617 Squadron to synthesise a phantom invasion force of ships in the Straits of Dover and keep the Germans unsure as to whether the brunt of the Allied assault would fall on Normandy or in the Pas de Calais area.

[17] The mission of the laboratory was to develop the electromagnetic isotope separation process to create enriched uranium for use in atomic bombs.

[18] In Glasgow, the Currans, together with a few friends, in 1954 set up the Scottish Society for the Parents of Mentally Handicapped Children (Enable), which eventually grew to 100 branches and more than 5000 members.

Later, when Joan was a member of the Greater Glasgow Health Board and the Scottish Special Housing Association, the needs of the disabled were always at the forefront of her mind, and she did much to promote their welfare.

Joan promoted a special relationship with the Technical University of Lodz, and also devoted care and attention to the children's hospital of that city.