Celebrating Millie
Symposium commemorates the life and career of pioneering professor and beloved mentor Mildred Dresselhaus.
On Sunday, Nov. 26, the MIT community welcomed family, colleagues, friends, former students, and other associates of the late MIT Institute Professor Emerita Mildred "Millie" Dresselhaus to a daylong symposium celebrating her life.
Guests from various periods of Dresselhaus' life filled the day with stories of her impact as a researcher and as a member of numerous communities, both at MIT and beyond. Institute Professor Sheila Widnall of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, who spoke to attendees via prerecorded video, described some of the many positive changes Dresselhaus helped to bring about for women at MIT, who comprised just 4 percent of the student body when Dresselhaus first joined the Lincoln Laboratory in 1960.