Shirley Jackson

Shirley, an American physicist born in 1946, is the first African-American female to have earned a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is also the second African-American woman in the US to earn a doctorate in physics as well as the first to receive the National Medal of Science. In 1995, President Bill Clinton appointed her as Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Shirley was the first woman and first African-American to hold that position.