IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2016 - 23

A Bright Future
Dresselhaus has been an inspiration
to generations of young scientists,
and she does not want to give this up.
She still goes to MIT every day. "At age
75, I said I was going to retire," Dresselhaus says. "But it's ten years later
and I haven't done that yet." She did
reach a compromise with the university. She no longer accepts anything
more than a token salary for her work
since, to her, work is a vacation.
Over the years, MIT has been a family affair. Along with working with her
husband, two of Dresselhaus's children attended MIT, including her only
daughter Marianne, who had shown
such aptitude for mechanics as a child.
Today, Marianne's daughter Leora is a
Ph.D. candidate at MIT.
Marianne double-majored in nuclear engineering and mechanical engineering ("Not to be like her mother,"
Dresselhaus says). It was the 1970s,
and she was interested in the growing
field of nuclear engineering. She may
have liked to have had a little distance
from her parents, but MIT offered exactly what she was looking for, and
so Marianne went to MIT. She met her
husband there, a fellow MIT student
and a computer science major. They
shared knowledge, and Marianne
became very effective with computers. They moved to California shortly after. Marianne occasionally travels
with Dresselhaus, which her mother
enjoys very much.
It's Wednesday, which means that
granddaughter Leora stopped by Dresselhaus's office for lunch. Her research
focus is terahertz spectroscopy, specifically the vibrational properties of solids
("studying explosives," as Dresselhaus
tells it). Leora measures the effects of
shock waves in materials with ultrafast
optical techniques. "She's starting into
a new research area," Dresselhaus explains. "She has the courage to pioneer
something new. I'm not surprised that
she's doing her own thing."

She runs a hotel on the border of CaliLunch is nothing fancy-no trips to
fornia and Nevada, which Dresselhaus
the heart of Kendall Square. "We just quisays provides her with much material for
etly come to my office for a sandwich, and
her stories.
we talk about what we're doing and whatever we're thinking about," Dresselhaus
says. "This has been going on for some
Leaving a Legacy
years now."
In 2013, the inaugural recipient of the
The relationship has meant a lot
Mildred S. Dresselhaus Fund was sciento Dresselhaus, whose granddaughter
tist Polina Anikeeva. "I think of Millie as
spent her childhood on the opposite
one of my greatest role models," Anikecoast. "She grew up in California. I saw
eva explains. "As a part of my Ph.D. theher when I visited, but how ofsis committee, she has not only
ten can I visit? It's been nice
helped shape my dissertahaving her close by, and
tion but also read every
Dresselhaus
she's been a big help
page-and fixed gramno longer
to me. Family things
matical mistakes. Her
accepts anything
come up, and I disdedication to science
cuss many things
and mentoring is
more than a token
with her. It's really
unparalleled."
salary for her work
nice to have someWhen Anikeeva
since work, to her,
body young and acreceived the award,
is a vacation.
tive and doing things."
she thought that DresFor Leora, the Ph.D.
selhaus knew, but Dreslandscape is much different.
selhaus who hadn't wanted
According to the National Center
to bias the selection committee's
for Science and Engineering Statistics,
decision, was as surprised as the award's
in 1958, fewer than 3% of doctoral derecipient. "I remember walking into her
grees in the physical sciences and fewer
office for a joint picture, and she looked
than 1% in engineering were awarded
over and smiled, saying, 'Oh, it's you-
to women. By 2006, those numbers had
that makes sense'," Anikeeva recalls.
risen to 29% and 20%, respectively.
Anikeeva's research lies at the inLeora is not the only granddaughter
terface of materials science and neuin the sciences. Granddaughter Elizaroscience, and she is working with her
beth is an undergraduate at the Universtudents to develop optoelectronic and
sity of Pennsylvania (UPenn), and her
magnetic materials and devices. These
wide swath of scientific interests seems
materials and devices monitor and modto mimic her grandmother's. "When
ulate neural activity and development
she started, she didn't know what main the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral
jor," Dresselhaus says. "She thought
nervous system.
chemistry, then electrical engineering,
"The award allowed me to take scithen physics." Today, she has settled on
entific risks and work on ideas that are
a double major. Elizabeth was named a
a little more obscure and challenging,
Vagelos Fellow at UPenn, where, in the
and hence difficult to fund through trasame spirit as her grandmother, she
ditional routes," Anikeeva says, showing
has given much of her fellowship
that the fellowship is working as Dresmoney away.
selhaus envisioned.
Not everyone in the family is a techie. Leora's sister is the literary one,
-Katianne Williams is a freelance
inheriting Dresselhaus's traits of queswriter specializing in the technology field.
tioning, imagining, and asking "what if"
in a totally different direction-fiction.

june 2016

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