She said that she would see one woman student at most in her classes in the 1960s. The recent increase in women scientists can be seen in the average age of scientists' ages in certain fields. In physics, for example, the average woman physicist is 32 years old and the average man is 45. While that still is a very big difference, women and men in science now can have the same expectations for careers, she added. What's important is that once scientists are established, they must help the people coming after them, Professor Dresselhaus said.
Science writers can play an important role as well.
She also recently completed a graduate text book on fullerenes called The Science of Fullerenes and Carbon Nanotubes. Professor Dresselhaus was named Institute Professor in 1985, a title MIT reserves for only a handful of scholars of special distinction. She was awarded the National Medal of Science, the nation's highest honor in science and technology, in 1990. She also is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering and is a past president of the American Physical Society.