U.S. Scientist and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Institute Professor and Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering, Mildred Dresselhaus was selected as one of five prominent women scientists worldwide to receive the 9th L'ORÉAL-UNESCO Award for Women in Science on Thursday February 22.
The award, which is given to one woman from each continent, was presented by Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, and Lindsay Owen-Jones, Chairman and CEO of L'ORÉAL. U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO, Louise V. Oliver also hosted a reception in honor of Dr. Dresselhaus. The 2007 Laureates, who each received US$100,000, were selected after deliberation by the L'ORÉAL-UNESCO Awards International Jury in the Material Sciences, presided by Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Nobel Prize in Physics, in the presence of Professor Christian de Duve, Nobel Prize in Medicine 1974 and Founding President of the Awards. In addition to the United States, they included women scientists from Chile, Mauritius, New Zealand and Russia.
As the laureate for North America, Dr. Dresselhaus was recognized for her research on solid state materials, including conceptualizing the creation of carbon nanotubes, which are used in objects such as lightweight bicycles and flat-panel screens.
Professor Dresselhaus is a native of the Bronx, New York City, where she attended the New York City public schools through junior high school, completing her high school education at Hunter College High School in New York City. She began her higher education at Hunter College in New York City and received a Fulbright Fellowship to attend the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University (1951-52). Professor Dresselhaus received her master's degree at Radcliffe College (1953) and her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago (1958).
|
