Melba Phillips

Melba Newell Phillips (February 1, 1907 – November 8, 2004) was an American physicist and a pioneer science educator.

Melba Phillips was born on February 1, 1907, near Hazleton, Gibson County, Indiana.

She was the only daughter and eldest of Eilda Elizabeth (Meehan) and Virgil B. Phillips' four children.

Phillips graduated from Union High School in 1922 at the age of fifteen.

Intending to become an educator, Phillips studied mathematics at Oakland City College in Indiana, where she earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1926.

Afterwards, Phillips taught at her former high school for two years before entering graduate school.

Phillips earned a master's degree in physics from Battle Creek College in Michigan in 1928 and a doctorate in physics (PhD) at the University of California, Berkeley in 1933.

She was one of the first doctoral students of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who later became scientific head of the Manhattan Project, the Allied effort to develop the Atomic bomb.

Initially, she took part-time and temporary positions at Battle Creek College (1928–30) and at Connecticut College for Women (1937–38).

Phillips also held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California and at Bryn Mawr College.

One of the first doctoral students of J. Robert Oppenheimer at the University of California, Berkeley, Phillips completed her PhD in 1933, a time when few women could pursue careers in science.

In 1935, Oppenheimer and Phillips published their description of the Oppenheimer–Phillips process, an early contribution to nuclear physics that explained the behavior of accelerated nuclei of radioactive hydrogen atoms.

In 1935, Oppenheimer and Phillips published their description of the Oppenheimer–Phillips process, which explained the behavior of accelerated nuclei of radioactive, "heavy hydrogen" atoms.

The Oppenheimer–Phillips effect was one of the earliest contributions to nuclear physics.

In an era when few women were working as scientists, Phillips became a leading science educator and spent the majority of her career as a professor of physics.

Phillips began teaching during the Great Depression.

In early 1936 the American Association of University Women announced that Philips was the recipient of its Margaret E. Maltby award, one of six women to receive its research fellowships for the 1936–37 academic year.

Phillips's research focused on application of quantum mechanics to the study of nuclear physics.

Phillips was also known for her refusal to cooperate with a U.S. Senate judiciary subcommittee's investigation on internal security during the McCarthy era which led to her dismissal from her professorship at Brooklyn College, where she was a professor of science from 1938 until 1952.

Before accepting a full-time faculty position at Brooklyn College in 1938, Phillips worked as a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

Phillips also taught at the University of Minnesota (1941–44) and served as associate director of a teacher-training institute at Washington University in St. Louis (1957–62) before joining the faculty at the University of Chicago (1962–72) as a professor of physics.

Except for three years during World War II, when she taught at the University of Minnesota (1941–44), Phillips spent a decade as a professor of physics at Brooklyn College (1938–52).

She also conducted research on a part-time basis at the Columbia University Radiation Laboratory.

In 1945, while teaching at Brooklyn College, Phillips helped organize the Federation of American Scientists at a meeting held in Washington, D.C.

In 1952 Phillips was summoned to appear before the McCarran Commission, a judiciary subcommittee investigating internal security during the McCarthy era.

Although Phillips appeared before a subcommittee hearing in New York and agreed to answer questions relating to her work as a scientist and physics educator, she invoked her Fifth Amendment rights when asked about other topics, including questions about whether she was a member of the Communist party.

As a result of her refusal to cooperate with the commission as a matter of principle, Phillips, a highly regarded physics educator, was dismissed from her professorship at Brooklyn College and her part-time position at the Columbia University Radiation Laboratory.

She remained unemployed as a college professor for five years.

While unemployed, Phillips lived on her modest savings and co-authored two science textbooks: Principles of Physical Science (1957), with Francis Bonner, and Classical Electricity and Magnetism (1955), with Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky.

Both of these publications became standard textbooks in collegiate-level science courses.

Phillips returned to teaching in 1957, when she became associate director of a teacher-training institute at Washington University.

Phillips remained at St. Louis until 1962, when she joined the faculty at the University of Chicago as a professor of physics.

Under her guidance the university began teaching physical science courses to non-science majors.

She also made laboratory work part of its curriculum.

During her retirement years, Phillips was a visiting professor at Stony Brook University (1972–75) and taught at the University of Science and Technology of China, Chinese Academy of Science (1980) in Beijing.

Phillips was a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In addition to teaching, Phillips co-authored science textbooks and was active in the American Association of Physics Teachers.

Phillips retired as a professor emerita from the University of Chicago in 1972, but continued to teach elsewhere.

In 1981, the AAPT established the Melba Newell Phillips Medal in her honor to recognize outstanding service to the organization.

(The college publicly and personally apologized to Phillips for the dismissal in 1987.)