Mildred Dresselhaus - Biography

Mildred S. Dresselhaus (born Mildred Spiewak on November 11, 1930 in The Bronx, New York) is an Institute Professor and Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dresselhaus received her high school degree at Hunter College High School, undergraduate degree at Hunter College in New York, and carried out postgraduate study at the University of Cambridge on a Fulbright Fellowship and Harvard University. She received a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1958. She then spent two years at Cornell University as a postdoc before moving to Lincoln Lab as a staff member. She became a visiting professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT in 1967, became a tenured faculty member in 1968, and became a professor of Physics in 1983. She was promoted to Institute Professor in 1985.

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. and in 2005 she was awarded the 11th Annual Heinz Award in the category of Technology, the Economy and Employment. In 2000–2001, she was the Director of the Office of Science at the US Department of Energy. From 2003-2008, she was the Chair of the governing board of the American Institute of Physics. She has also served as President of the American Physical Society, President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and treasurer of the National Academy of Sciences. Dresselhaus has devoted a great deal of time to supporting efforts to promote increased participation of women in physics.

Dresselhaus is particularly noted for her work on graphite, graphite intercalation compounds, fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and low dimensional thermoelectrics. Her group has made frequent use of electronic band structure, Raman scattering and the photophysics of carbon nanostructures. Dresselhaus' former students include such notable physicists as Nai-Chang Yeh, Greg Timp, Mansour Shayegan, James S. Speck, Lourdes Salamanca Riba, and Ahmet Erbil.

She is married to Gene Dresselhaus, a well-known theorist, and has four grown children and several grandchildren.

Selected publications

External links

• Freeview video interview with Millie Dresslhaus by the Vega Science Trust
• Homepage
• Dresselhaus's MIT Page
• Biography of Dresselhaus from IEEE