Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson ---- 2004 Serves as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

 Shirley Ann Jackson,  

FREng 

(born August 5, 1946)

Jackson began classes at MIT in 1964, one of fewer than twenty African-American students and the only one studying theoretical physics. 

While a student, she did volunteer work at Boston City Hospital and tutored students at the Roxbury YMCA.^[3] She earned her B.S. degree in 1968, writing her thesis on solid-state physics.^[4]
 
Jackson elected to stay at MIT for her doctoral work, in part to encourage more African-American students to attend the institution. 

She worked on elementary particle theory, and received her Ph.D. degree in nuclear physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973, the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate degree from MIT. 

Her research was directed by James Young, a professor in the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics.^[3][5] Jackson is also the second African-American woman in the United States to earn a doctorate in physics.^[2]

  In 2002, Discover magazine recognized her as one of the 50 most important women in science.^[2]