Dr. Shirley A. Jackson, a Life Member of the MIT Corporation, has been named by President Clinton as the new chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Her appointment was confirmed without opposition by the Senate earlier this month. A condensed-matter physicist, Dr. Jackson received the SB from MIT in 1968 and in 1973 became the first black woman to receive a PhD from MIT. A faculty member at Rutgers University, Dr. Jackson was also a research staff member at AT&T Bell Laboratories for a number of years. The NRC is responsible for the civilian use and disposal of nuclear materials in the US.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on April 12, 1995.
