Dresselhaus to receive
Heinz Award
For immediate release
Further information from
Philip F. Schewe, AIP
301-209-3092
College Park, MD, 16 May 2005-----Mildred S. Dresselhaus, chair of
the American Institute of Physics (AIP) governing board, will be one
of six Americans to receive Heinz Awards when they are bestowed on
May 24 in Washington, DC. The awards, initiated in 1993 and
presented by the Heinz Foundation, recognize notable achievement in
a variety of cultural areas, and are accompanied by a prize of
$250,000. Dr. Dresselhaus is receiving her Heinz Award under a
category called Technology, the Economy and Employment.
Her record of service to scientific organizations is perhaps
unmatched, having been president of the American
Physical Society(APS), the American Association
for the Advancement of Science(AAAS), and treasurer of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
She has won the National Medal of Science and has received twenty
honorary doctorate degrees.
Dr. Dresselhaus had this to say of her award: “My service to the
physics community, such as through my present position on the board
of the American Institute of Physics, is in resonance with the
activities recognized by the Heinz Awards.”
In the Clinton administration, she directed the Office of Science at
the US Department of Energy. The larger part of her career,
however, was devoted to the study of condensed matter physics. In
addition to teaching for over 35 years at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Dr. Dresselhaus' work in physics produced a
number key breakthroughs including her recent work in increasing
our understanding of carbon nanotubes, which are atom-thin walls of
carbon that may lead to unprecedentedly high-strength materials.
She received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago in
1958. Continuing the story from that point, her citation by the
Heinz Foundation reads in part: “ Following her doctoral work at the
University of Chicago, she focused her initial research on solid
state physics and superconductivity. In 1960 she and her husband,
physicist Gene Dresselhaus, moved to the Lincoln Laboratory at MIT
where they remained for seven years, after which she joined the MIT
faculty. The mother of four, Dr. Dresselhaus faced unique
challenges in the workplace, which perhaps provided the inspiration
to assist other women in pursuing scientific careers. In 1970 she
co-founded the Women’s Forum at MIT - established to equalize
opportunities for all women at MIT. In 1973 she received a Carnegie
Foundation grant to encourage women’s study of traditionally
male-dominated fields, such as physics and was appointed as the Abby
Rockefeller Mauze chair, endowed in support of the scholarship of
women in science and engineering. When Dr. Dresselhaus arrived at
MIT in 1960, women comprised just 4 percent of the undergraduate
student population; the percentage of women today is over 40
percent.”
Another physicist, Sidney Drell, will also receive a Heinz Award.
A physics professor at Stanford University, longtime deputy director
at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), an educator, and
arms control advisor, Dr. Drell will receive the Heinz Award for his
work in public policy, specifically for his "efforts to reduce the
danger and proliferation of nuclear weapons." Drs. Drell and
Dresselhaus, both former APS presidents, have enjoyed playing music
together (both play the violin) on several occasions.
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