Mildred Dresselhaus, the “Queen of Carbon Science”, passes away

Mildred Dresselhaus, the pioneering scientist and engineer, has sadly passed away at the age of 86. Born in 1930 in Brooklyn and raised in the Bronx, Dresselhaus was the first female Institute Professor at MIT – where she focused mainly on graphite, graphite intercalation compounds, carbon nanotubes and low-dimensional thermoelectrics – and a significant figure in the development of nanoscience as a new field of energy research.

Her influential work on carbon began in 1963 with the publication of a key paper on graphite, and her further studies into the electronic structure of carbon were fundamental to establishing research into the electronic structure of carbon nanostructures and fullerenes. She worked unceasingly to explore the individual layers of carbon atoms and carbon fibers, demonstrating new carbon structures and providing the basis for the discovery of a 60-carbon structure that came to be known as the buckyball, while her research into fullerene led to the discovery of carbon nanotubes.

This work on nanomaterials also led her to being the first to exploit the thermoelectric effect at the nanoscale, showing how to efficiently harvest energy from the temperature differences in materials that conduct electricity. As MIT president Rafael Reif has said, “A physicist, materials scientist and electrical engineer, she was known as the ‘Queen of Carbon’ because her work paved the way for much of today's carbon-based nanotechnology”.

“A physicist, materials scientist and electrical engineer, she was known as the ‘Queen of Carbon’ because her work paved the way for much of today's carbon-based nanotechnology”MIT president Rafael Reif

Millie, as she was widely known, was on the MIT faculty for 50 years. Initially carrying out postgraduate study at the University of Cambridge and Harvard University, she received an MA from the latter and a PhD from the University of Chicago, where she studied under Enrico Fermi.

She was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1990 for her research into the electronic properties of materials, as well as for promoting opportunities for women in science and engineering. Millie also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama in 2014 and was the first woman to win the National Medal of Science in Engineering. Her work was distinguished by many other awards, including the National Medal of Science and the Enrico Fermi Award, and she was the first solo recipient of a Kavli Prize for her contribution to the study of phonons, electron-phonon interactions, and thermal transport in nanostructures.

Millie carried out a number of important roles throughout her long career, including the director of the Office of Science at the US Department of Energy, chair of the governing board of the American Institute of Physics, president of the American Physical Society, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and treasurer of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Editors of the CARBON journal have added a tribute to the CARBON journal homepage, and an MIT tribute may be found on MIT Technology Review.

Readers are welcome to leave their own tributes and comments below.