People who have it too easy in early life have a disadvantage for later on, because they get to thinking that everything is going to be easy. (quoted 2017-12-30 in the Toronto Daily Star) Mildred Dresselhaus More Quotes by Mildred Dresselhaus More Quotes From Mildred Dresselhaus Follow your interests, get the best available education and training, set your sights high, be persistent, be flexible, keep your options open, accept help when offered, and be prepared to help others. Mildred Dresselhaus helping-others sight inspirational Some people don't like competition, but competition is fine. It generates new ideas, keeps you alert. Mildred Dresselhaus competition people ideas I'm happy to keep doing science and being a mentor to anyone who asks for advice. Mildred Dresselhaus mentor asks advice Mentoring is about listening to people, helping them go over what the issues are and how to clarify ways to deal with any problems that may arise. Mildred Dresselhaus problems go listening people One of the over-riding things for many who grow up in poverty is the simple desire to escape. I think it was sort of obvious to me that escape had to be through education. Mildred Dresselhaus me poverty simple education When I came to M.I.T. in 1960, only 4 percent of the students were female. Today, it's about 40 percent of undergraduates. At Lincoln Lab, they had 1,000 men and two women. But we had a very good boss, and he treated us just like everybody else. Mildred Dresselhaus good women today men At my first job as an independent researcher at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, they told me I could work on most anything, but not what I knew something about. That is actually very good advice to a young person starting a career because you bring new ideas to the field. Mildred Dresselhaus good me you work The best thing about having a lady professor on campus is that it tells women students that they can do it, too. Mildred Dresselhaus lady best women students Diversity and inclusion of women and underrepresented minorities in science should not affect the way education is handled or research is carried out. So diversity should not be a problem but rather an opportunity to involve a large talent pool. Mildred Dresselhaus women education opportunity science All the leadership positions that I have had have one common denominator: none has required that I give up my science work. Mildred Dresselhaus give leadership work science We're all concerned about sustainable energy. If we could recycle waste heat to generate energy, we could use it for something useful. Mildred Dresselhaus something heat waste energy My older brother was a musical prodigy, and he got a scholarship to the Bronx House Music School. We moved to the Bronx when I was 4 to be close to his music school. Then I got a music scholarship myself, at the age of 6, but that was for a school down in Greenwich Village. I had to take the elevated train and then the subway to get there. Mildred Dresselhaus myself music brother age Hunter High School was a real turning point for me. I found out about its existence through the music school. Nobody I knew had gone to one of these special high schools, and my teachers didn't think it was possible to get in. But Hunter sent me a practice exam, and I studied what I needed to know to pass the exam. Mildred Dresselhaus nobody me music school Superconductivity helped broaden my professional phase space. When I started my work, it was already known that magnetic fields could quench superconductivity. I found that the transition was not continuous, that superconductivity was initially enhanced in the presence of magnetic fields, then it would suddenly fall off. Mildred Dresselhaus professional space work fall The concept of graphene came along in 1947, but nobody paid much attention to it. I was fascinated because it had a linear E versus K while everything else that people were working on at that time had a quadratic dispersion relationship. I wondered why this was and what was so special about it. That was my fascination. Mildred Dresselhaus nobody time relationship people A carbon nanotube is just a graphene sheet that's rolled up seamlessly, and this happens in nature; carbon nanotubes are found in mineral deposits around the planet. Mildred Dresselhaus planet just nature happens My entry into the field of hydrogen came as a great surprise. President Bush of the United States was interested in hydrogen for energy applications, and I was asked to chair a committee on hydrogen for the Department of Energy. Mildred Dresselhaus chair great surprise energy Energy is one topic on which different countries can work together collaboratively. If we can all produce energy from an element that's available in abundance on our planet, that would be a good thing, but we have to learn how to produce energy in large quantities, cheaply, efficiently and without detriment to the environment. Mildred Dresselhaus good energy together work I think having four children made me a good mentor. As a parent, you get to know young people as they mature and grow up and to also learn about some of the difficulties they face. Mildred Dresselhaus good me you children I was very much taken with carbon fibers because they seemed like the perfect medium to explore transport studies in carbon-based systems. Mildred Dresselhaus explore because like perfect
