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Mildred DresselhausProfessor of Physics and Electrical Engineering at MIT
Date of Birth: 11.11.1930
Country:  USA |
Content:
- Early Life and Education
- Career at MIT
- Research Contributions
- Awards and Honors
- Gothenburg Lise Meitner Award, Gothenburg Physics Centre (2013)
Early Life and Education
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Mildred S. Dresselhaus was the daughter of Polish Jewish immigrants. Growing up in the Bronx, her interest in science was sparked by free access to New York's many museums. She attended Hunter College High School, where she excelled academically and gained early teaching experience as a tutor.
During her undergraduate years at Hunter College, Dresselhaus was mentored by future Nobel laureate Rosalyn Yalow. She also tutored male veterans returning to school under the G.I. Bill, which helped her realize that science was not exclusively a male field.
After graduating from Hunter College, Dresselhaus pursued graduate studies at the University of Cambridge on a Fulbright scholarship and later at Harvard University, where she earned her master's degree. In 1958, she completed her doctorate at the University of Chicago.
Career at MIT
Following a stint at Cornell University, Dresselhaus joined the Lincoln Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She was appointed Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering in 1967, tenured the following year, and promoted to Professor of Physics in 1983 (later becoming Institute Professor Emerita of Physics and Electrical Engineering). In 1985, she was awarded the rank of MIT Institute Professor.
At MIT, Dresselhaus designed and taught an innovative course in solid-state physics geared towards practicing physicists and engineers. She also developed novel approaches to mentoring, organizing regular research group meetings where students and staff could learn from each other.
Research Contributions
Throughout her career at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Dresselhaus's research interests spanned superconductivity, magneto-optics, and the electronic structure of semimetals, including graphite. She made significant contributions to our understanding of the thermoelectric properties of low-dimensional structures, the allotropes of carbon, notably graphite, carbon nanotubes, and fullerenes.
Awards and Honors
National Medal of Science (1990)Compton Medal (2000)
IEEE Founders Medal (2004)
Harold Pender Award (2006)
L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award (2007)
Oersted Medal (2008)
Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize (2008)
Lise-Meitner-Lectures[de] (2008)
Vannevar Bush Award (2009)
Enrico Fermi Award (2010)
Kavli Prize (2012) "for her groundbreaking contributions to the study of phonons, electron-phonon interactions, and thermal transport in nanostructures"
Gothenburg Lise Meitner Award, Gothenburg Physics Centre (2013)
Presidential Medal of Freedom (2014)IEEE Medal of Honor (2015)
Honorary Doctorate from the University of Oxford (2016)
Benjamin Franklin Medal (2017)
