Mildred Dresselhaus was born Mildred Spiewak in Brooklyn, New York on November 11, 1930. She received a bachelor's degree from Hunter College, a master's degree from Radcliffe College, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. In 1960, she ended up at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She worked at Lincoln Laboratory, a defense research center, where she was one of two women on a scientific staff of 1,000. Her research into the fundamental properties of carbon helped transform it into the superstar of modern materials science and the nanotechnology industry. In 1968, she was the first woman to secure a full professorship at M.I.T. and worked to promote the cause of women in science. She published more than 1,700 scientific papers and co-wrote eight books. She received the National Medal of Science, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Kavli Prize in Nanoscience, and the Enrico Fermi Prize. She died on February 20, 2017 at the age of 86.
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