Carbon 119 (2017) 573e577 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Carbon journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/carbon Mildred S. Dresselhaus (1930 e 2017) e A Tribute from the Carbon Journal The international carbon community has seen the passing of one connected to the journal who knew and worked with Millie over of its most accomplished and beloved members, Professor Mildred the years. What follows are short personal narratives contributed S. Dresselhaus. Millie had a close connection to the Carbon journal by D.D.L. Chung, Carbon editorial board member and Dresselhaus as a member of its Honorary Advisory Board, a frequent attendee Ph.D. graduate; Mauricio Terrones, Carbon editor and collaborator, and invited speaker at the annual carbon conference series, a Katsumi Kaneko, Carbon board member and collaborator, Peter winner of the American Carbon Society Medal - its highest honor, Thrower, Carbon Editor-in- Chief Emeritus, Morinobu Endo, Carbon and collaborator and mentor to a number of scientists on our edito- Honorary Advisory Board Member and collaborator, Hui-Ming rial team. With such contributions and connections, there is no Cheng, former Carbon editor and visiting scholar in the Dresselhaus question that the journal would want to publish a tribute. laboratory, and Michael Strano, Carbon editor and current Dressel- We are not alone, however, in our desire to honor Professor haus colleague at MIT. Dresselhaus. Her achievements and fame extend beyond the For myself, I had admired her work for years through her invited normal bounds of our community to include such distinctions as lectures at the annual carbon conferences, but really got to know the Kavli Prize for Nanoscience, the Presidential Medal of Freedom her as a person just at the end - in the summer of 2016 at the Nobel conferred by Barack Obama, and her status as the first ever female Laureates' and Medalists' Roundtable event organized by Ljubisa full professor at MIT. Her life and career served as an inspiration to Radovic and Mauricio Terrones (see photo). As a moderator, I spent many both inside and outside the carbon materials community. time with Millie throughout the week-long meeting, and heard her Obituaries and tributes are being published by other journals and life story, including anecdotes about stepping over drunken sailors societies, and stories have appeared in the New York Times and on the way to school in her port neighborhood in New York City, on National Public Radio. I recently saw her featured in a General and throughout the week was lucky to have this last chance to Electric television advertisement focused on women in technical hear her free flow of ideas on science, politics, and careers. On careers, asking “What if Millie Dresselhaus, female scientist, was the panel itself, even among that elite company, Millie stood out treated like a celebrity?”. Well here at Carbon, and in the larger as a bright light – an irrepressible personality with something world of science, she very much is. insightful to say on every question. She had an extraordinary With all of this coverage, what can we add that has not already enthusiasm for science and for life and will be missed by many in been said? The Carbon group has therefore decided to publish a the international carbon community. tribute of a more personal nature, contributed by people formally - Robert Hurt, Editor-in-Chief Mildred Dresselhaus in the summer of 2016 at the Medalists Roundtable held in connection with the annual carbon conference at Penn State. Group photo, left to right: Ljubisa Radovic (organizer), Konstantin Novoselov (panelist), Peter Thrower (moderator), Mauricio Terrones (organizer), Mildred Dresselhaus (panelist), Robert Curl (panelist), Don Bethune (panelist), Morinubu Endo (panelist), Robert Hurt (moderator). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2017.04.057 0008-6223 574 Mildred S. Dresselhaus (1930 e 2017) e A Tribute from the Carbon Journal / Carbon 119 (2017) 573e577 D.D.L. Chung, University of Buffalo distinguish between electronic effects and lattice vibrational ef- Mildred S. Dresselhaus (fondly addressed as “Millie” by her stu- fects. We are also here working on few-layer transition metal dents and colleagues) is internationally known as “the Queen of dichalcogenides and phosphorene, which is our latest new research Carbon Science”. She is noted for her work on graphite, graphite direction.” intercalation compounds, fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, graphene and low-dimensional thermoelectrics. Her work emphasized the Dresselhaus also worked hard serving the research community. electronic and optical behavior of carbon nanostructures. She was the Director of the Office of Science at the U.S. Department According to the Web of Science (viewed on March 4, 2017), of Energy (2000e2001), the Chair of the governing board of the Dresselhaus has 1081 publications, 83167 citations (excluding American Institute of Physics (2003e2008), President of the Amer- self-citations) and h-factor 133. Even in 2016 (the last complete ican Physical Society, President of the American Association for the year of her life), she has 30 publications and almost 8000 citations. Advancement of Science, and Treasurer of the National Academy of Her authored books include (i) Raman Spectroscopy in Graphene Sciences. She worked so hard in reviewing manuscripts for journals Related Systems Wiley, 2011, (ii) Graphite Fibers and Filaments that she did this even while travelling. Springer, 2011, and (iii) Thermoelectricity: Thermoelectric and Ther- Dresselhaus was born in New York, NY, in 1930, and spent her momagnetic Properties in Low-dimensional and Nanoscale Materials”, childhood in a dangerous, low-income part of New York City. Her Springer, 2010. parents were recent Jewish immigrants from Poland. She had Dresselhaus was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of only one set of clothing, but her mother washed it every day. As a Freedom in 2014, the U.S. National Medal of Science in 1990, the child, she bought old issues of National Geographic. These issues Enrico Fermi Award in 2012, the $1 million Kavli Prize in Nano- helped nurture her interest in science. She played the violin regu- science in 2012, the von Hippel award in 2013, the Buckley larly, even at age 86. As a pianist, I played with her family of string Condensed Matter Prize in 2008, the Oersted Medal in 2008, the musicians while I was her student at MIT. I remember her cooking Medal of Achievement in Carbon Science and Technology from and her driving me back to my dorm at the end of the musical eve- the American Carbon Society in 2001, etc. In addition, she received ning. Dresselhaus received her B.S. degree from Hunter College in honorary doctorate degrees from a large number of universities, 1951 and her Ph.D. degree from University of Chicago (under the which include Harvard and Princeton. tutelage of Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi) in 1958. Dresselhaus has shepherded more than 60 Ph.D. students dur- Dresselhaus passed away on Feb. 20, 2017 after a 2-week illness. ing her 50 years (1967e2017) on the faculty of MIT, where she She was professionally active until the 2-week hospitalization. She last served as Institute Professor (the first female attaining this is survived by her husband, Gene (married in 1958), her four chil- rank in MIT) and was on the faculty of both Department of Electrical dren (Marianne, Carl, Paul and Eliot), her five grandchildren and Engineering and Computer Science and Department of Physics. I her many students, for whom she deeply cared. met Dresselhaus in 1973 as a student in her MIT graduate course At age 85, Dresselhaus attended the International Carbon Con- on solid state physics. I loved the course so much that I decided ference in State College, PA, in July 2016. In spite of her vast knowl- to do research under her. She was the person that introduced me edge, she took detailed and neat handwritten notes at essentially to carbon science. I was her first graduate student in the field of every talk that she attended. Her zeal for knowledge is unparal- graphite intercalation compounds. My Ph.D. thesis under her su- leled. She will remain my role model and continue to inspire me pervision was completed in 1977, a date which she remembered as I strive to follow her footsteps. even decades afterward. She was the person that originated my Mauricio Terrones, Pennsylvania State University professional name “D.D.L. Chung”, which differs from my Millie Dresselhaus is an inspiration for women, young and commonly used name “Deborah Chung”. In 2010, in connection mature scientists. Her energy, commitment to science and service with her 80th birthday celebration, I learned that I was her first fe- were unique. She touched and changed the life of numerous peo- male Ph.D. thesis student. Below is a private communication from ple in different aspects. Her departure constitutes a big loss for Dresselhaus to me in 2014. science and for humanity; she is irreplaceable! Millie was ener- “Deborah: getic, knowledgeable, cunning and active until the end. She was well organized and was always willing to help and assist students Your thesis work is historical for me as an early work on a single and colleagues at all levels. Her passion for science and music layer graphene layer where intercalants were used separate the was her driver; she started working at 5 a.m. every day. In confer- layers. My nanoscience efforts went from graphite intercalation ences, while wearing her characteristic red attire, she was car- compounds to fullerenes after their discovery and this led to the rying a bag full of papers and proposals to review. She always idea of stretching out fullerenes from C to C to … C and 60 70 100 sat in the first rows and was taking notes; her handwriting was perhaps making a tube that would be a single layer of carbon atoms beautiful.