Deborah Jackson

Last updated
Deborah J. Jackson
Born
Topeka, Kansas, U.S.
Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stanford University
Scientific career
Institutions National Science Foundation

Jet Propulsion Laboratory
RAND Corporation
Hughes Research Laboratories
IBM

Contents

Bell Labs

Deborah J. Jackson is an American physicist and Program Manager at the National Science Foundation, and a Fellow of the National Society of Black Physicists. She was the first African American woman to receive a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University. [1] She is an expert on "electromagnetic phenomena" with a research and development career that spans the full range of the electromagnetic spectrum from materials studies using hard x-ray wavelengths, to nonlinear optics and spectroscopy in the near-infrared, to the fielding of radio frequency instrumentation on deep space missions such as Cassini and Mars Observer.

Early life and education

Jackson was born in Topeka, Kansas to a military family. [2] She attended 13 different schools, earning her high school diploma at an international school in Brunssum, Netherlands. [3]

She graduated with a Bachelor's in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1974, and was the first member of her family to study science. [2] [4] Her role models were Prof. Margaret MacVicar and Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson. [2] She worked summer jobs at Bell Labs, Argonne National Laboratory and as a tutor for Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [2] She was admitted to graduate school at Cornell University, Stanford University and University of Wisconsin–Madison, but chose Stanford University because of the atmosphere - it had the largest number of African-American graduate students in physics at that time. [2] She received a Ford Foundation Fellowship and Bell Labs Cooperative Fellowship. [3] She earned her PhD at Stanford University in 1980, working on high resolution spectroscopy using lasers. [3] [4]

Research and career

Jackson was a researcher at IBM Watson Research Center. [3] [4] At IBM she demonstrated that multi-photon ionization is coherently linked with nth order parameter processes. In 1981 she joined the Hughes Research Laboratories, developing optical devices that could be used in military applications. [4] She specialized on Nonlinear optics and diagnostic detection techniques across the full electromagnetic spectrum. [5] At HRL Laboratories she pioneered the integration of electronic components (including lasers and photodetectors) on very high speed integrated circuits. [6] She had a car accident in 1988, and her recovery took 13 years. [2] She joined the Defense Policy and Analysis group at the RAND Corporation, where she reviewed new technology in photonics between 1988 and 1992. [2] [4] While at RAND, she evolved a methodology for developing photonic processors. [7]

In 1992 she joined Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she was initially based in the Spacecraft Telecommunications group. [2] [6] She contributed to the Mars Global Surveyor Ultra Stable Oscillator and the Cassini–Huygens Ultra Stable Oscillator. [4] These oscillators were like onboard clocks, and allowed the spacecraft to synchronize their communication frequencies with earth through the use of vibrating crystals. [2] She attended the launch of Cassini–Huygens at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station . Eventually, she joined JPL's Quantum Technologies Group to work on quantum networks and learn about quantum computing. [4] She worked on single photon detectors for use in cryptography. [2] In 1994 she was appointed to the National Research Council committee on women in science and engineering. [3]

She joined the National Science Foundation in 2006. As a Program Director in the Engineering Research Center (ERC) Program Office, she leads the Microelectronics, Sensors, and Information Technologies Cluster. [5] She is an Engineering Research Center Program Director and manages the Engineering Research Center's industrial liaison officer's group. [8] [9] [10] The ERCs in her management portfolio include: [1]

Current Portfolio:

● TANMS ERC (Translational Applications of Nanoscale Multiferroic Systems), UCLA

● POETS ERC (Power Optimization of Electro-Thermal Systems), Univ. Illinois-Urbana Champaign

● NASCENT ERC (Nanomanufacturing Systems for Mobile Computing and Mobile Energy Technologies), UT-Austin

● CBBG ERC (Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics), Arizona State University, Phoenix

● PATHS-UP ERC (Precise Advanced Technologies and Health Systems for Underserved Populations), Texas A&M University, College Station

Graduated Portfolio:

● LESA (Lighting Enabled Systems & Applications), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)

● CenSSIS ERC (Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems), Northeastern Univ.

● EUV ERC (Extreme Ultraviolet Science &Technology ERC), Colorado State Univ-Ft. Collins

● QoLT ERC (Quality of Life Technologies Engineering Research Center), Carnegie Mellon Univ.

● MIRTHE ERC (Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and the Environment), Princeton Univ.

She has also represented the National Science Foundation at the Korean Science and Engineering Foundation Forum, the African Laser Center and the National Science Teacher's Association. [11] In 2014, she joined the founding editor board of the Translational Materials Research (TMR) Journal. [12]

Honours and fellowships

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eli Yablonovitch</span> American physicist

Eli Yablonovitch is an American physicist and engineer who, along with Sajeev John, founded the field of photonic crystals in 1987. He and his team were the first to create a 3-dimensional structure that exhibited a full photonic bandgap, which has been named Yablonovite. In addition to pioneering photonic crystals, he was the first to recognize that a strained quantum-well laser has a significantly reduced threshold current compared to its unstrained counterpart. This is now employed in the majority of semiconductor lasers fabricated throughout the world. His seminal paper reporting inhibited spontaneous emission in photonic crystals is among the most highly cited papers in physics and engineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John A. Rogers</span> Chemist and materials scientist

John A. Rogers is a physical chemist and a materials scientist. He is currently the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Neurological Surgery at Northwestern University.

Federico Capasso is an applied physicist and is one of the inventors of the quantum cascade laser during his work at Bell Laboratories. He is currently on the faculty of Harvard University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony M. Johnson</span> American physicist, ultrafast optics (born 1954)

Anthony Michael Johnson is an American experimental physicist, a professor of physics, and a professor of computer science and electrical engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). He is the director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Photonics Research (CASPR), also situated on campus at UMBC. Since his election to the 2002 term as president of the Optical Society, formerly the Optical Society of America, Johnson has the distinction of being the first and only African-American president to date. Johnson's research interests include the ultrafast photophysics and nonlinear optical properties of bulk, nanostructured, and quantum well semiconductor structures, ultrashort pulse propagation in fibers and high-speed lightwave systems. His research has helped to better understand processes that occur in ultrafast time frames of 1 quadrillionth of a second. Ultrashort pulses of light have been used to address technical and logistical challenges in medicine, telecommunications, homeland security, and have many other applications that enhance contemporary life.

Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSECs) are university based research centers supported by the MRSEC Program of the Division of Materials Research at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The centers support interdisciplinary research on materials science. MRSECs are a significant component of NSF's center-based research portfolio. MRSECs were established by NSF in 1994 but their roots go back to the post-Sputnik era. These centers required significant changes in the conduct of materials research and education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milton Dean Slaughter</span> American physicist and professor

Milton Dean Slaughter is an American theoretical and phenomenological physicist and affiliate professor of physics at Florida International University. Slaughter was a visiting associate professor of physics in the Center for Theoretical Physics, University of Maryland, College Park while on sabbatical from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) of the University of California from 1984 to 1985. He is also chair emeritus and university research professor of physics emeritus at the University of New Orleans (UNO). Prior to joining UNO as chair of the physics department: He was a postdoctoral fellow in the LANL Theoretical Division Elementary Particles and Field Theory Group (T-8); LANL Theoretical Division Detonation Theory and Applications Group (T-14) staff physicist; LANL Theoretical Division affirmative action representative and staff physicist; LANL assistant theoretical division leader for administration and staff physicist (T-DO); LANL Nuclear and Particle Physics Group staff physicist—Medium Energy Physics Division (MP-4); and LANL Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) project manager (laboratory-wide).

Nadya Mason is the dean of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago, since October 2023. Prior to joining the University of Chicago, she was the Rosalyn Sussman Yalow Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As a condensed matter experimentalist, she works on the quantum limits of low-dimensional systems. Mason was the Director of the Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (I-MRSEC) and, from September 2022 through September 2023, the Director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. She was the first woman and woman of color to work as the director at the institute. In 2021, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Chekesha M. Liddell Watson is an Associate Professor of Material Science and Engineering at Cornell University. She researches colloidal materials, and the relationship between micron and submicron length scales.

Yuri Suzuki is a Professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University. She studies novel ground states and magnetic phenomena. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and an American Competitiveness and Innovation Fellow of the National Science Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willie Rockward</span> American academic

Willie S. Rockward is a physics professor and has served as the chair of the department of physics and engineering physics at Morgan State University since August 2018. His research interests include Micro/Nano Optics Lithography, Extreme Ultraviolet Interferometry, Metamaterials, Terahertz imaging, Nanostructure Characterization, and Crossed Phase Optics. From 2018 to 2020 he was the president of the National Society of Black Physicists.

Kai-Mei Fu is an American electrical engineer and physicist. They are an Associate Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington where they are the director of the Optical Spintronics and Sensing Lab.

Leslie Ann Kolodziejski is an American professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She works on fabricating novel photonic devices after synthesizing the constituent material via molecular-beam epitaxy. She is a recipient of the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation and is a fellow of The Optical Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Dionne</span> American physicist and materials scientist

Jennifer (Jen) Dionne is an American scientist and pioneer of nanophotonics. She is currently senior associate vice provost of research platforms at Stanford University, a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator, and an associate professor of materials science and engineering and by courtesy, of radiology. She serves as director of the Department of Energy's "Photonics at Thermodynamic Limits" Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC), which strives to create thermodynamic engines driven by light, and she leads the "Extreme Scale Characterization" efforts of the DOE's Q-NEXT Quantum Science Center. She is also an associate editor of the ACS journal Nano Letters. Dionne's research develops optical methods to observe and control chemical and biological processes as they unfold with nanometer scale resolution, emphasizing critical challenges in global health and sustainability.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hatice Altug</span> Turkish/American bioengineer

Hatice Altug is a Turkish physicist and professor in the Bioengineering Department and head of the Bio-nanophotonic Systems laboratory at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), in Switzerland. Her research focuses on nanophotonics for biosensing and surface enhanced spectroscopy, integration with microfluidics and nanofabrication, to obtain high sensitivity, label-free characterization of biological material. She has developed low-cost biosensor allowing the identification of viruses such as Ebola that can work in difficult settings and therefore particularly useful in case of pandemics.

Peter J. Delfyett Jr is an American engineer and Pegasus Professor and Trustee Chair Professor of Optics, ECE & Physics at the University of Central Florida College of Optics and Photonics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prineha Narang</span> American computational materials scientist

Prineha Narang is an American physicist and computational material scientist. She is a Professor of Physical Sciences and Howard Reiss Chair at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Narang currently serves as a U.S. Science Envoy approved by the Secretary of State to identify opportunities for science and technology cooperation. Before moving to UCLA, she was first an Environmental Fellow at Harvard University Center for the Environment and then an Assistant Professor in the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. Narang’s work has been recognized internationally by many awards and a variety of special designations, including the Mildred Dresselhaus Prize, the 2021 IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Computational Physics, a Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and a Max Planck Sabbatical Award from the Max Planck Society. Narang also received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2020, was named a Moore Inventor Fellow by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation for the development for a fundamentally new strategy for single molecule sensing and environmental toxin metrology using picoscale quantum sensors, CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and a Top Innovator by MIT Tech Review. Narang was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2023.

Carmen S. Menoni is an Argentine-American physicist who is the University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University. Her research considers oxide materials for interference coatings and spectrometry imaging. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, American Physical Society, Optica, and SPIE. Menoni served as the President of the IEEE Photonics Society from 2020 to 2021.


Wendell Talbot Hill III is an American physicist and professor at the University of Maryland. His research career has largely focused on the intersection of laser physics and quantum science.

Harry Lee Morrison was an American theoretical physicist and the first African American physics faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focused on statistical mechanics within theoretical physics, and he was known for his demonstration in 1972 of the absence of long-range order in quantum systems in two dimensions, that was a result from the breaking of a continuous symmetry.

Keith H. Jackson was an American physicist, a professor of physics, and former president of the National Society of Black Physicists.

References

  1. 1 2 Jackson, Deborah. "Deborah J. Jackson". Linked-In.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Straight Out of Science Fiction". Science | AAAS. 2005-03-11. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wini., Warren (1999). Black women scientists in the United States . Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN   0253336031. OCLC   42072097.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Deborah Jackson - Physicist of the African Diaspora". www.math.buffalo.edu. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
  5. 1 2 3 Roberson, Stephen. "Deborah Jackson". www.nsbp.org. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
  6. 1 2 Jackson, D.J.; Franson, J.D.; Gilbert, G.; Milburn, G. (2003). "Introduction to the issue on quantum internet technologies". IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics. 9 (6): 1453–1454. Bibcode:2003IJSTQ...9.1453J. doi:10.1109/jstqe.2003.820942. ISSN   1077-260X.
  7. ↑ Jackson, Deborah (1991). "A Structural Approach to the Photonic Processor". Unknown. Jackson, Deborah J. Bibcode:1991sapp.rept.....J.
  8. ↑ "Texas A&M System To Lead New NSF Engineering Research Center | Texas A&M Today". today.tamu.edu. 2017-09-12. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
  9. ↑ "Engineering Research Centers | NSF - National Science Foundation". www.nsf.gov. 22 July 2015. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
  10. ↑ "NSF-NIST Interaction in Basic and Applied Scientific Research in BIO, ENG & MPS | NSF - National Science Foundation". www.nsf.gov. 15 July 2011. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
  11. ↑ "Deborah J. Jackson | NSF - National Science Foundation". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
  12. ↑ Jackson, Deborah (2014). "Sizing up your innovation ecosystem". Translational Materials Research. 1 (2): 020301. doi:10.1088/2053-1613/1/2/020301. ISSN   2053-1613.
  13. ↑ Roberson, Stephen. "NSBP Fellows". www.nsbp.org. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
  14. ↑ "Sylvester James Gates, Jr". www.aps.org. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.