Shirley Ann Jackson (1946- )

March 03, 2007 
/ Contributed By: Sara Diaz

Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson

Image courtesy Shirley Ann Jackson

Shirley Ann Jackson, born in 1946 in Washington, D.C., has achieved numerous firsts for African American women.ย  She was the first black woman to earn a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.); to receive a Ph.D. in theoretical solid state physics; to be elected president and then chairman of the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); to be president of a major research university, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York; and to be elected to the National Academy of Engineering.ย  Jackson was also both the first African American and the first woman to chair the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Jacksonโ€™s parents and teachers recognized her natural talent for science and nurtured her interest from a young age.ย  In 1964, after graduating as valedictorian from her high school, Jackson was accepted at M.I.T., where she was one of very few women and even fewer black students.ย  Despite discouraging remarks from her professors about the appropriateness of science for a black woman, she chose to major in physics and earned her B.S. in 1968.ย  Jackson continued at M.I.T. for graduate school, studying under the first black physics professor in her department, James Young.ย  In 1973, she earned her Ph.D.

Shirley Jackson completed several years of postdoctoral research at various laboratories, such as Fermi in Illinois, before being hired by AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1976, where she worked for 15 years.ย  She conducted research on the optical and electronic properties of layered materials, surface electrons of liquid helium films, strained-layer semiconductor superlattices, and most notably, the polaronic aspects of electrons in two-dimensional systems.ย  She is considered a leading developer of Caller ID and Call Waiting on telephones.

After teaching at Rutgers University from 1991-1995, Jackson was appointed chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission by Bill Clinton.ย  In 1999, Jackson became President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she still serves today.ย  In 2004, she was elected president of AAAS and in 2005 she served as chairman of the board for the Society.ย  Dr. Shirley Jackson is married to a physicist and has one son.

About the Author

Author Profile

Sara Diaz holds a B.A. in chemistry and Spanish language and literature from Whitman College. She worked for several years in the biotechnology industry as an engineer before pursuing her graduate studies at the University of Washington. In 2007, she earned her M.A. in the history of science and twentieth-century U.S. history. Diaz is holds a Bank of America Endowed Minority Fellowship through the UW Graduate Opportunities & Minority Achievement Program and is currently working on her Ph.D. in Women Studies. In her research Diaz examines the strategies and struggles women scientists of color. Her interests include scientists of color, science education; and the social study of the institution of science with respect to race, gender, sexuality, and power. Diaz is a member of the Diversity Committee of the Student Section of the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4s) and serves as the Graduate and Professional Student Senate representative to the Faculty Council on Multicultural Affairs. She is also a participant in the University of Washington Science Studies Network and the Sloan Social Science Research Group.

CITE THIS ENTRY IN APA FORMAT:

Diaz, S. (2007, March 03). Shirley Ann Jackson (1946- ). BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/jackson-shirley-ann-1946/

Source of the Author's Information:

Diann Jordan, Sisters in Science: Conversations with Black Women Scientists on Race, Gender and Their Passion for Science (West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press, 2006); http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/jackson_shirleya.html; http://www.rpi.edu/president/profile.html.

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