19 Facts About Mildred Dresselhaus

Mildred Dresselhaus, known as the "Queen of Carbon Science", was an American nanotechnologist.

Mildred Dresselhaus was an Institute Professor and Professor Emerita of physics and electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mildred Dresselhaus was born on November 11,1930, in Brooklyn, New York City, the daughter of Ethel and Meyer Spiewak, who were Polish Jewish immigrants.

Mildred Dresselhaus's family was heavily affected by the Great Depression so from a young age Dresselhaus helped provide income for the family by doing piecework assembly tasks at home and by working in a zipper factory during the summer.

Mildred Dresselhaus credited New York's free museums, including the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with sparking her interest in science.

Mildred Dresselhaus was raised and attended grade school in the Bronx.

Mildred Dresselhaus graduated with her undergraduate degree in liberal arts in 1951.

Mildred Dresselhaus carried out postgraduate study at the University of Cambridge on a Fulbright Fellowship and received her MA from Radcliffe College.

Mildred Dresselhaus received a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1958 where she studied under Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi.

Mildred Dresselhaus then spent two years at Cornell University as a postdoc before moving to Lincoln Lab as a staff member.

Mildred Dresselhaus had a 57-year career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mildred Dresselhaus became the Abby Rockefeller Mauze Visiting Professor of electrical engineering at MIT in 1967, became a tenured faculty member in 1968, and became a professor of physics in 1983.

Mildred Dresselhaus was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1990 in recognition of her work on electronic properties of materials as well as expanding the opportunities of women in science and engineering.

Mildred Dresselhaus has served as president of the American Physical Society, the first female president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and treasurer of the National Academy of Sciences.

Mildred Dresselhaus devoted a great deal of time to supporting efforts to promote increased participation of women in physics.

Mildred Dresselhaus was particularly noted for her work on graphite, graphite intercalation compounds, fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and low-dimensional thermoelectrics.

Mildred Dresselhaus's group made frequent use of electronic band structure, Raman scattering and the photophysics of carbon nanostructures.

Mildred Dresselhaus's research helped develop technology based on thin graphite which allow electronics to be "everywhere", including clothing and smartphones.

Mildred Dresselhaus remarried in 1958 to Gene Dresselhaus who became a well known theoretician and discoverer of the Dresselhaus effect.