Shirley Ann Jackson

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Shirley Ann Jackson at the 2010 World Economic Forum in China

Shirley Ann Jackson (born August 5, 1946 in Washington, DC ) is an American physicist and president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute .

education

Shirley Ann Jackson was born in Washington, DC, the second of three children. Her mother, Beatrice, was a social worker and her father, George, held a senior position in the United States Postal Service . Jackson's parents encouraged their daughter's educational development and advocated her interest in science. Her father supported her in science school projects. At school she attended advanced classes in mathematics and science. In 1964, she graduated from Roosevelt High School in Washington, DC, top of the class.

Roosevelt High School, where Jackson went to school.

After graduating from high school, Jackson began studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In the academic year 1964, 43 of the 900 first-year students were women, and among the 8,000 Bachelor students, around 20 were black. Jackson initially felt isolated, but developed friendships with other students over the course of undergraduate studies . In response to a professor's advice that “girls of color” should learn a trade, she decided to study physics. She funded her studies through scholarships from Martin Marietta and the Prince Hall Masons nonprofit, as well as a part-time job at MIT's nutritional science laboratory. In 1968 Jackson graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics. In her thesis she dealt with superconductors .

Jackson continued her studies at MIT and did research in elementary particle physics as a PhD student . The Ph.D. was awarded to her in 1973. She is the first African American woman to earn a PhD from MIT and the second African American woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in physics.

Professional career

As part of her postgraduate research, Jackson worked in renowned physics laboratories in the United States and Europe. In 1973, she conducted research on hadrons at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois , and in 1974 as a visiting scientist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in the canton of Geneva . During that time she published three articles with a CERN affiliation. In 1976 she taught at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California and in 1977 she was a visiting researcher at the Aspen Center for Physics in Colorado .

From 1976 to 1991 Jackson worked at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey . There she mainly dealt with solid state physics , but also carried out research projects in theoretical, optical and quantum physics . Jackson has published over 100 scientific studies on these and other topics.

Between 1991 and 1995 Jackson was Professor of Physics at Rutgers University . In 1995 she was appointed chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by President Bill Clinton and officially sworn in on May 2, 1995. She is the first woman and first African American to hold this position. During her tenure, she had several energy supply systems shut down due to violations of safety regulations.

The Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center , opened in 2008 and included in Jackson's presidential plan.

In 1999, she became the first woman and first African American to be elected President of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), the oldest technical research university in the United States. Before Jackson's arrival, the institute was in a difficult financial position and had seen declining student numbers for years. Jackson put forward a detailed plan that indicated that the RPI should focus more on biotechnology and information technology and employ respected faculty in these areas. In the plan, approved by the University Council in 2000, Jackson also explained how the institute's foundation assets could be at least doubled. In the first eight years of Jackson's presidency, research funding increased from $ 37 million to $ 80 million, and total foundation assets in 2007 totaled $ 805 million. In 2001 she managed to secure an anonymous donation of $ 360 million to the university, the largest donation to an American university at the time. 180 new academic teachers were hired, 80 of them in new positions created especially for them. The number of university applications and the science awards received tripled under Jackson's leadership and the number of doctoral degrees awarded rose from 91 to 163 since the academic year 1999. The RPI developed into a leading technical research university during Jackson's presidency. In 2010, the institute announced that the university council had unanimously decided to extend Jackson's contract by ten years to 2020. Jackson is one of the ten highest paid university presidents in the world with an annual income of USD 1.75 million (as of 2011).

In addition to her employment at the Rensselaer Institute, Jackson has other responsibilities. In 2009, she was appointed to the United States President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology by President Barack Obama and co-chaired the Council on Innovation and Technology, a subdivision of the Council on Science and Technology. Jackson has served on the President's Intelligence Advisory Board since 2014 . She is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society , a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the British Royal Academy of Engineering . She is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Philosophical Society . She is a director of several companies including IBM , Medtronic and Marathon Oil . She was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and served on the board of directors of the Smithsonian Institution .

recognition

Jackson has received several awards and accolades throughout her career in recognition of her contributions to research and education. 53 universities have awarded their honorary doctorates , including Harvard University , the University of Dublin , the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne and the KAIST . In 1998 she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in recognition of her academic achievements.

Discover magazine named Jackson one of the 50 most important women in science in 2002, and in 2005 Time magazine named her perhaps the ultimate role model for women in science .

In 2006, Jackson was awarded the Presidential Prize by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers . A year later, she received the Vannevar Bush Prize, awarded by the National Science Board of the National Science Foundation , for "exceptional contributions beyond the boundaries of science and technology." In 2011, the American Association for the Advancement of Science recognized Jackson's scientific achievements and, in particular, her commitment to the inclusion of ethnic minorities and women in technical professions. In early 2016 she was awarded the National Medal of Science .

Private life

While teaching at Rutgers University, Jackson met the physicist Morris A. Washington and later married him. The couple have one son.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e James H. Kessler u. a .: Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20th Century . Oryx Press, Phoenix / Arizona 1996, ISBN 978-0-89774-955-8 , p. 177 ff.
  2. ↑ Daniel Donaghy: Jackson, Shirley Ann . In: Paul Finkelman (Ed.): Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-First Century . Volume 1. Oxford University Press , New York 2009, ISBN 978-0-19-516779-5 , pp. 12 f.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Diann Jordan: Sisters in Science: Conversations with Black Women Scientists about Race, Gender, and Their Passion for Science . Purdue University Press, West Lafayette / Indiana 2006, ISBN 978-1-55753-445-3 , pp. 121 ff.
  4. ^ A b Scott Williams: Physicists of the African Diaspora . From: Buffalo.edu , accessed March 1, 2014.
  5. ↑ Elizabeth R. Cregan: Marie Curie: Pioneering Physicist . Compass Point Books, Mankato / Minnesota 2009, ISBN 978-0-7565-3960-3 , p. 23.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h Ray Spangenburg and Diane Moser: African Americans in Science, Math, and Invention . Infobase Publishing, New York 2003, ISBN 978-0-8160-4806-9 , pp. 128 ff.
  7. ↑ Jackson, Shirley Ann - Author profile . INSPIRE-HEP . Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  8. ↑ CERN publications on the Inspire . INSPIRE-HEP . Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  9. ^ Wini Warren: Black Women Scientists in the United States . Indiana University Press, Bloomington 1999, ISBN 978-0-253-33603-3 , pp. 127 ff.
  10. ↑ a b c d e Audrey Williams June: Shirley Ann Jackson Sticks to the Plan . In: Times Higher Education , June 15, 2007.
  11. ↑ a b c Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D. . In: Energy.gov , United States Department of Energy , accessed on March 2, 2014.
  12. ^ Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Board of Trustees Votes Unanimously To Appoint President Shirley Ann Jackson for 10 More Years . From: Rpi.edu , June 15, 2010. Retrieved March 2, 2014.
  13. ^ Susan Adams: The Highest-Paid College Presidents . In: Forbes , December 15, 2013.
  14. ↑ Josh Gerstein: Obama overhauls intelligence panel . On: Politico.com , September 11, 2014. See also: President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts . On: Whitehouse.gov , August 28, 2014.
  15. ↑ Jennifer Adams: Jackson, Shirley Ann . In: Mary Zeiss Stange, Carol K. Oyster and Jane Sloan (Eds.): Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World . SAGE Publications , Thousand Oaks / California 2011, ISBN 978-1-4129-7685-5 , p. 784. doi: 10.4135 / 9781412995962.n429 .
  16. ↑ Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D. - Honorary degrees . From: Rpi.edu , accessed March 2, 2014.
  17. ↑ Darlene Clark Hine: Black Women in America . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005, ISBN 978-0-19-515677-5 , p. 120.
  18. ↑ Kathy A. Svitil: The 50 Most Important Women in Science . In: Discover , November 1, 2002.
  19. ^ Julie Rawe: Education: Steering Girls into Science . In: Time , February 27, 2005.
  20. ^ Rensselaer's Jackson honored by engineering society . In: Albany Business Review , February 21, 2006.
  21. ↑ 2007 - Shirley Ann Jackson . In: Nsf.gov , National Science Foundation, accessed on March 2, 2014.
  22. ^ AAAS Philip Hauge Abelson Prize - 2011 Award Recipient . From: Aaas.org , American Association for the Advancement of Science, accessed March 2, 2014.
  23. ^ Physicists Honored with National Medals . In: Capitol Hill Quarterly (American Physical Society). 11, No. 1, February 2016.
  24. ↑ Lisa Jones Townsel: Husbands of Powerful Women . In: Ebony , July 1996, p. 115 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Jackson, Shirley Ann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH August 5, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Washington, DC