MIT Institute Professor Mildred Dresselhaus, a pioneer in the electronic properties of materials, died Monday at age 86.
Credit: Ed Quinn
Mildred S. Dresselhaus was a celebrated Institute Professor Emerita of Physics and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, USA, whose research helped unlock the mysteries of carbon, the most fundamental of organic elements — earning her the nickname “queen of carbon science”. She was a winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Science (among others), leading the US scientific community and promoting women in STEM. Without hesitation she agreed to give her name to CUI’s guest professorship program, thus supporting its aims of providing excellent research conditions for international outstanding female researchers and role models for young women in the physical sciences. “We are truly sorry to hear that Professor Dresselhaus passed away,” says Prof. Klaus Sengstock, spokesperson of CUI. “It was certainly a big honor for CUI, when she agreed to support our project.”
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