Prof. Mildred S. Dresselhaus, fondly known as “Millie” and “Queen of Carbon Science,” passed away at age 86 on February 20, 2017. She was a pioneer in the research of carbon nanomaterials, a giant in experimental condensed matter physics, a fine musician, a compassionate mentor and role model to young people, a strong advocate for women in science and engineering, and a selfless and impactful citizen of the scientific community

Yeh, Nai-Chang

Caltech Authors - Main

RETROSPECTIVE
Mildred S. Dresselhaus (1930–2017): A fierce force
of harmony
Nai-Chang Yeha,1
Prof. Mildred S. Dresselhaus, fondly known as “Millie”
and “Queen of Carbon Science,” passed away at age
86 on February 20, 2017. She was a pioneer in the re-
search of carbon nanomaterials, a giant in experimental
condensed matter physics, a fine musician, a compas-
sionatementor and rolemodel to young people, a strong
advocate for women in science and engineering, and a
selfless and impactful citizen of the scientific community.
I still remember my first meeting with Millie in
September of 1983. I was a first-year Massachusetts
Institute of Technology graduate student, newly arrived
in the United States from Taiwan. Having never left
Taiwan while Taiwan was still under the martial law
before my journey to Boston, I was understandably
anxious about what may lie ahead in a completely
strange environment. Nonetheless, Millie was able to
make me feel at ease and welcome almost instanta-
neously with her trademark brilliant smile when wemet.
Since then, I have had the good fortune of becoming
one of her doctoral students.
As an advisor, Millie was always supportive but also
allowed her students sufficient freedom to develop
their own research direction and independence. She
held weekly group meetings and met with students to
discuss research regularly, despite her busy schedule
and many commitments. Millie was amazingly patient
when interacting with students, and she placed strong
emphasis on training students’ communication skills so
that they could deliver ideas and research results with
rigor, clarity, and efficiency. She generously supported
her group members attending multiple conferences per
year to ensure that they could broaden their horizon and
receive proper exposure to the research community. In
addition to being a fine academicmentor, Millie was com-
passionate andgenerous. Every ThanksgivingMillie would
host and personally prepare a wonderful dinner for her
groupmembers in her house. The feast wouldbe followed
by a nice chamber music concert, where Millie played
the violin together with her family of string musicians.
I completed my doctoral thesis on the electronic
and magnetic properties of various types of graphene
intercalation compounds in January of 1988, and
with Millie’s recommendation I was able to start my
postdoctoral research on high-temperature supercon-
ductivity at IBM’s, Watson Research Center in New
York. In 1989 I joined the physics faculty at the Califor-
nia Institute of Technology, where Millie became a
trustee shortly afterward. She visited me often when
she came to Pasadena for the Board of Trustees meet-
ings. Millie would show up with bags full of papers that
she had been diligently working on while she was trav-
eling, such as draft chapters of her group theory book,
manuscripts she was reviewing for scientific journals,
draft reports she was writing for various committee
duties, and letters of recommendation for her students.
When we met, Millie was always encouraging and in-
terested in my research, asked good questions, and
was also spirited in describing her own work.
Millie made many important contributions to the
research fields of graphite, graphite intercalation com-
pounds, carbon fibers, fullerenes, carbon nanotubes,
graphene, and thermoelectric effects of low-dimensional
and nanoscale structures. Among her various “firsts”:
Millie theoretically predicted and then experimentally
Millie Dresselhaus and Nai-Chang Yeh at the Kavli Foundation reception during
the 2016 Kavli Prize Week in Oslo, Norway.
aDepartment of Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125
Author contributions: N.-C.Y. wrote the paper.
The author declares no conflict of interest.
1Email: ncyeh@caltech.edu.
7478–7479 | PNAS | July 18, 2017 | vol. 114 | no. 29 www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1710692114
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verified with Raman spectroscopy that single-wall carbon
nanotubes could be either semiconducting or metallic,
depending the chiral vector of the nanotube (1). She also
pioneered the theoretical notions and then provided
experimental proof-of-principle verifications of using
quantum-well superlattice structures and quantum-wire
samples to significantly improve the thermoelectric fig-
ure of merit of materials (2, 3). These ideas stimulated
subsequent advances in the employment of nanoscale
constituents to further enhance the thermoelectric figure
of merit (4).
Millie won many distinguished professional honors
and awards, including the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers Medal of Honor (2015), the
Presidential Medal of Freedom (2014), the Von Hippel
Award, Materials Research Society (2013), the Kavli
Prize in Nanoscience (2012), the Enrico Fermi Award
(2012), the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize,
American Physical Society (2008), the Oersted Medal
(2007), L’Ore´al-United Nations Educational, Scientific,
and Cultural Organization Awards for Women in Sci-
ence (2007), the Dwight Nicholson Medal for Outreach,
American Physical Society (1999), and the National
Medal of Science (1990). She also received many hon-
orary degrees, and was an elected member of the Na-
tional Academy of Engineering, National Academy of
Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.
Millie advised more than 75 doctoral students in her
career, including about 20% women and a significant
number of African Americans. According to the Web of
Science on May 3, 2017, Millie had published 1,205 pa-
pers, received 82,983 citations (excluding self-citations),
and reached an h-index of 133 (https://webofknowledge.
com). Among many important services to the scientific
community, Millie was President of the American Physical
Society in 1984, Treasurer of the National Academy of
Sciences from 1992 to 1996, President of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science in 1997, and
Director of theOffice of Science at the US Department of
Energy from 2000 to 2001.
In addition to her breathtaking accomplishments in
physics, education, and scientific services, an attribute
of Millie that made her stand out among many
scholars was the harmony with which she conducted
herself, no matter what the circumstances may be.
Millie had the unique ability to handle all chal-
lenges with calm, wisdom, fairness, and firmness.
Perhaps it had something to do with the musician in
her. Music was an important part of Millie’s life
since her childhood, and she kept up playing clas-
sical music regularly until age 86, typically twice a
week in the evenings at home with friends. Prof.
Patrick Lee, her colleague at the Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology and one of her chamber music
friends, recalled how skillful Millie was as a violinist
and how kind and patient she was in guiding less-
experienced players.
Millie was a fierce force of harmony in all aspects of
her life. Her legacy will live on through her work, her
services, and all of the souls she generously touched.
1 Dresselhaus MS, Dresselhaus G, Saito R, Jorio A (2005) Raman spectroscopy of carbon nanotubes. Physics Reports 409:47–99.
2 Hicks LD, Dresselhaus MS (1993) Effect of quantum-well structures on the thermoelectric figure of merit. Phys Rev B Condens Matter
47:12727–12731.
3 Hicks LD, Dresselhaus MS (1993) Thermoelectric figure of merit of a one-dimensional conductor. Phys Rev B Condens Matter
47:16631–16634.
4 Dresselhaus MS, et al. (2007) New directions for low-dimensional thermoelectric materials. Adv Mater 19:1043–1053.
The directors and codirectors of various Kavli Nanoscience Institutes
spontaneously gathered around Prof. Millie Dresselhaus at Oslo City Hall during
the Kavli Prize Banquet on September 6, 2016. From left to right: Profs. Lieven
Vandersypen (Delft University), Nai–Chang Yeh (California Institute of
Technology), Cees Dekker (Delft University), Millie Dresselhaus (Massachusetts
Institute of Technology), Paul Alivisatos (University of California, Berkeley), and
David Muller (Cornell University).
Yeh PNAS | July 18, 2017 | vol. 114 | no. 29 | 7479


Mildred S. Dresselhaus (1930–2017): A fierce force of harmony

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Mildred S. Dresselhaus (1930–2017): A fierce force of harmony

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