Mildred S. Dresselhaus

Millie Dresselhaus
Millie Dresselhaus at the White House in 2012
Born	Mildred Spiewak (1930-11-11)November 11, 1930 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	February 20, 2017(2017-02-20) (aged 86) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Nationality	American
Fields	Applied physics
Institutions	Cornell MIT
Alma mater	Hunter College Cambridge University Harvard University University of Chicago
Doctoral students	Gregory Timp
Known for	Carbon nanotubes
Notable awards	National Medal of Science (1990) IEEE Founders Medal (2004) Harold Pender Award (2006) Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize (2008) Oersted Medal (2008) Vannevar Bush Award (2009) Enrico Fermi Award (2012) Kavli Prize in Nanoscience (2012) Presidential Medal of Freedom (2014)

Mildred "Millie" Dresselhaus (née Spiewak; November 11, 1930 – February 20, 2017), known as the "queen of carbon science", was the first female Institute Professor and professor emerita of physics and electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dresselhaus won numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science, the Enrico Fermi Award and the Vannevar Bush Award.

Millie was born Mildred Spiewak on November 11, 1930, in Brooklyn, the daughter of Ethel (Teichtheil) and Meyer Spiewak, who were Polish Jewish immigrants.

Raised in the Bronx, Dresselhaus received her high school degree at Hunter College High School. She received her undergraduate degree at Hunter College in New York in 1951, and was counseled by future Nobel-Prize-winner Rosalyn Yalow to pursue further education in physics. She carried out postgraduate study at the University of Cambridge on a Fulbright Fellowship and Harvard University, where she received her MA from Radcliffe College. She received a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1958 where she studied under Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi. She then spent two years at Cornell University as a postdoc before moving to Lincoln Lab as a staff member.