(b. 1946) THIS THEORETICAL PHYSICIST WENT FROM STUDYING BEES UNDER HER PORCH TO HEADING THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION - LEAVING A LONG LIST OF 'FIRSTS ' IN HER WAKE.
'Aim for the stars,” her father told her, “and you’ll hit the treetops. But you’re sure to get off the ground.” Shirley Ann Jackson did. As a child in the 1950’s, her efforts to unlock the secrets of science began beneath the porch of her D.C. home, where she recorded the behavior of bees- adjusting for variables like heat, light and diet.
An assistant principal at her segregated high School pointed her toward MIT. But as the first black woman to attend the prestigious technical college Jackson was the target of discrimination. Some students refused to sit near her, and one faculty member suggested she “learn a trade”. Instead of feeling sorry for herself, Jackson responded by volunteering in the children’s ward of a local hospital to keep things in perspective. And, undaunted, she focused on her physics. She became the first black woman to obtain a PhD from MIT and the first in the nation to earn a doctorate in physics. Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson added yet another first to her resume when she became the first African American and the first woman to chair the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Dr. Jackson continues to make history today as the first African American woman to lead a national research university, RPI in Troy, New York. Her commitment to education may be her most enduring legacy. “One wants to be recognized in one’s own field by other scientists,” she says, “but I also want to have an impact on young people.” Jackson aims to “close the talent gap” by encouraging women and minorities, and by engaging very young children in the mysteries of science.
Credits: Shirley Ann Jackson photo is courtesy of photographer, Mark McCarty.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.rpi.edu/web/President/profile.html
http://www.nwhp.org/tlp/biographies/jackson/jackson_bio.html
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