Deborah J. Jackson
Personal Information
Born: 1952
Country of Birth: USA
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: Black
Education
1974, BS Physics, MIT; 1980, PhD Physics, Stanford University
Professional Life
Field of Study: Aerospace Engineering; Physics; Inventor
Institution/Corporation: National Science Foundation; Jet Propulsion Laboratory; RAND Corporation; Hughes Research Laboratories; IBM; Bell Labs
Degrees & Memberships: Fellow National Society of Black Physicists; Ford Foundation Fellowship; Bell Laboratories Cooperative Research Fellow; Sigma Xi Fellow; Senior Member IEEE; American Physical Society; Optical Society of America
Awards & Achievements
Awards: Ford Foundation Fellowship; Chair of American Physical Society Edward A. Bouchet Award
Achievements: 1st African American female to recieve a PhD in Physics at Stanford University; developed optical device used in military applications; specialized in nonlinear optics; evolved a methodology for developing photonic processors while at Rand Corporation; contributed to Ultra Stable Oscillator on Mars Global Surveyor & Cassini-Huygens; worked on single photon detectors for use in cryptography
1st African-American female recipient of a PhD in Physics from Stanford University
Born into a military family, attended 13 different schools before earning a high school diploma in Brunssum, Netherlands
Developed optical devices that could be used in military applications
It took her 13 years to recover from a car accident in 1988
Attended the launch of Cassini-Huygens at Cape Canaveral
Holds 2 patents