Mildred Dresselhaus

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mildred Dresselhaus (2012)

Mildred S. Dresselhaus (* 11. November 1930 in New York City as Mildred Spiewak ; † 20th February 2017 in Cambridge , Massachusetts ) was an American physicist . She was a professor of physics and electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Life

Dresselhaus was born in Brooklyn and grew up in the Bronx , New York . There she began to study at Hunter College and then went to Cambridge University in England in 1951 . A year later she moved to Harvard University , where she received her Masters degree from Radcliffe College in 1953 . In 1958 she received her PhD from the University of Chicago and married Gene Dresselhaus . She then spent two years at Cornell University .

She and her husband began her career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1960 at the Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington . During this time she turned away from research on superconductors and devoted herself to magneto-optics . It was only through their experiments that an understanding of the electrical structure of semimetals developed .

In 1967 she switched to the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science as a visiting professor, and since 1968 she has been Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering. At the same time she was a professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from 1973 and at the Physics Faculty from 1983. Since 1985 she has had the title of "Institute Professor", which at MIT is only given to deserving professors.

She achieved significant research results in the study of carbon nanotubes .

In 1984 she was president of the American Physical Society . From August 2000 to January 2001, she was the director of the US Department of Energy's scientific office . Since 2004 she has been chairman of the governing body of the American Institute of Physics.

In addition to her studies, Dresselhaus was also strongly committed to promoting women in disciplines such as physics, in which they are underrepresented.

Awards and honors (selection)

literature

  • Deborah DL Chung: Mildred S. Dresselhaus (1930-2017). In: Nature . Volume 543, No. 7645, 2017, p. 316, doi: 10.1038 / 543316a
  • G. Dresselhaus, FA Stahl: Mildred Spiewak Dresselhaus (1930–). In: Nina Byers, Gary Williams: Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth-Century Women to Physics. Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. 353-361, ISBN 0-521-82197-5 .

Web links

Commons : Mildred Dresselhaus  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
  • MS Dresselhaus. In: Physics History Network. American Institute of Physics
  • Nai-Chang Yeh: Mildred S. Dresselhaus (1930-2017): A fierce force of harmony . In: PNAS . tape 114 , no. 29 , July 18, 2017, p. 7478-7479 , doi : 10.1073 / pnas.1710692114 .
  • Morinobu Endo, Ado Jorio, Marcos A. Pimenta, Riichiro Saito, Antonio G. Souza Filho, Mauricio Terrones, David Tománek: Mildred S. Dresselhaus . In: Physics Today . tape 70 , no. 6 , 2017, p. 73 , doi : 10.1063 / PT.3.3603 ( scitation.org [PDF]).
  • Mildred S. Dresselhaus's Group Web Site. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, archived from the original on November 1, 2005 .;

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Institute Professor Emerita Mildred Dresselhaus, a pioneer in the electronic properties of materials, dies at 86 . Massachusetts Institute of Technology , February 21, 2017, accessed February 21, 2017.
  2. ↑ Oersted Medal . List of awardees on the American Association of Physics Teachers website , accessed February 21, 2017.
  3. ^ "Queen of Carbon" Mildred Dresselhaus died. In: derstandard.at . February 24, 2017. Retrieved February 25, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Dresselhaus, Mildred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dresselhaus, Mildred S .; Spiewak, Mildred (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH November 11, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH 20th February 2017
Place of death Cambridge , Massachusetts