“Carbon Queen: The Remarkable Life of Nanoscience Pioneer Mildred Dresselhaus” by Maia Weinstock

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Rating: 5/5 Stars

A fascinating book on the life of ‘Carbon Queen’ Mildred Dresselhaus. As the description of the book states, she started out impoverished, but through her own efforts and ability to connect to people, she worked her way through education and research, eventually producing and leading a scientific effort to understand the properties of carbon in its many forms, leading to the world we now know, full of the fruits of her efforts (like carbon fibre, single molecular layers of carbon graphite and many others).

The book also emphasizes that hers was not an easy journey. Her own thesis advisor discouraged her research and did not think much of women (although he did apologize to her in later years) and American society did not (and still does not) value the work of women in academia. She not only proved them wrong, she was also one of the leaders pushing universities (like MIT) to end gender discrimination, and also leading and encouraging women (and also men from disadvantaged backgrounds) to pursue their scientific studies. She also had a very supportive husband who saw what she was capable of doing and was willing to help her achieve what she wanted at a time of gender discrimination in the scientific field.

Whether you know or not of her life and her work, this is a great book to read: easy to read with enough scientific details to give you an idea of what she was doing, along with a wealth of references to oral histories and scientific papers for you to get an idea of the breath and depth of her scientific and advocacy work.

Book read from 2022/04/08 to 2022/04/19