Vera Kistiakowsky

Vera Kistiakowsky (b. 1928) is an American research physicist, teacher, and arms control activist.^[1] She is professor emerita at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the physics department and Laboratory for Nuclear Science, and is an activist for women's participation in the sciences. Dr. Kistiakowsky is an expert in experimental particle physics and observational astrophysics.^[2] Her professional career began in the nuclear chemistry field, later moving to nuclear physics, and then particle physics, and finally astrophysics.^[3] She received her A.B. in chemistry from Mount Holyoke College in 1948 and a PhD in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1952. She began her career at MIT in 1963 and was the first woman appointed MIT professor of physics. She is the daughter of physical chemist George Kistiakowsky, who taught at Harvard and served as President Dwight D. Eisenhower's science advisor. She married Gerhard (Jerry) Emil Fischer, a fellow student at the University of California in Berkeley, in 1951, and has three children.^[4]

Early Life

Kistiakowsky's early education in the sciences was greatly influenced by her father. He made special arrangements so that she could spend summers in Los Alamos with him where he was working on the Manhattan Project. During this time she was also attending Mount Holyoke College where "she excelled in chemistry and math, just like her father. 'I thought very highly of my father,' says Vera. 'He told me very seriously that I should find something to do that would support me and not rely on getting married and finding someone who would support me.'"^[5]

Career

Prior to working at MIT, Kistiakowsky worked at Columbia University as a research fellow assisting a nuclear chemist in the chemistry department. It was at Columbia that she made the switch from chemistry to physics, finding support to become a research associate in the physics department. Kistiakowsky and her family moved to Massachusetts when her husband got a job at Cambridge Electronic Accelerator in Cambridge. She then worked at Brandeis University for a short time as an assistant professor before starting work at MIT. ^[6] At MIT she began her career as a staff member of the MIT Laboratory for Nuclear Science where she worked from 1963 to 1969. She was Senior Research Scientist in the MIT Department of Physics from 1969 to 1971. In 1972 she was the first woman appointed MIT professor of physics.^[7]

Committee and Organization Work

In 1969 she co-founded the Boston area group Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), a precursor to the Boston chapter of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS). Kistiakowsky served as chair or member on numerous MIT committees and groups relating to women at MIT and affirmative action at MIT, including the Women's Forum, and the Ad Hoc Committee on the Role of Women at MIT. Other committees that she has been involved in include: the American Physical Society's Committee on the Status of Women in Physics, the National Research Council Conference on Women in Science and Engineering, and the Association for Women in Science, Women in Science and Engineering. ^[8]

References

External Links

• 2014 Video Interview with Vera Kistiakowsky by Cynthia C. Kelly Voices of the Manhattan Project