Shelia Nash-Stevenson | |
|---|---|
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| Alma mater | Alabama A&M University |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Marshall Space Flight Center Hughes Aircraft Company |
Shelia Nash-Stevenson is an American physicist and engineer. Nash-Stevenson was the first Black woman in Alabama to earn a PhD in physics. [1] [2]
Nash-Stevenson was born and raised in Lawrence County, Alabama. [3] She graduated from Austin High School at the age of sixteen. [4] She studied science and electronic and electrical engineering at Alabama A&M University in 1981. [5] [6] She was the first person to graduate from the Alabama A&M University physics masters program, where she was a NASA Fellow. [4] She worked at Marshall Space Flight Center. Her professor, M. C. George, encouraged her to enter a PhD program. [4] She was the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate in physics at the Alabama A&M University in 1994. [3] During her postgraduate studies she had two children. [4] She is three-times magna cum laude. [3] At the time she was one of fewer than twenty African-American women with a physics PhD in the United States. [3] [7] She was a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. [6] She worked on photon avalanche upconversion. [8]
Nash-Stevenson joined the United States Army Ballistic Missile Defense Systems Command. [3] She holds a patent for an optical fiber holder. [3] She joined Nichols Research Corporation as a scientist, then Hughes Aircraft Company as a technical researcher. [5] She joined the instrumentation group in Marshall Space Flight Center's avionics lab, where she worked for nearly ten years. [4] She was awarded a NASA Fellowship in 1998, and eventually joined the space craft and vehicle systems group. [4] [9] During her fellowship she returned to Alabama A&M University as a professor. She was at Kennedy Space Center to watch the STS-95 launch. [9] She spoke at the 2013 Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics. [10]
In 2013 Huntsville, Alabama recognised her efforts for the community. She is the only African-American to serve on the Madison City School Board [3] [11] and she's a member of the Madison Rotary Club. [5] [12]
She won the Modern Figure award of NASA and was selected to attend the premiere of Hidden Figures. [3] [13] She took part in several panel discussions and interviews after the film was released. [4] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] She gave the convocation talk at Elms College in 2017. [19] In 2018 she was honoured by the WEDC Foundation Women Honoring Women program. [20] She was featured in the AT&T Alabama African-American calendar. [21]
In her personal life, Nash-Stevenson is a board member for the First Missionary Baptist Church and a charter member of the Madison Rotary Club in her hometown. [22]