Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf was born in Bremen, Germany on February 15, 1922, to Adolph Friedrich and Elsa Kuhlmann.
Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf continued her research under Sir Nevill Francis Mott at the University of Bristol.
[1][2] She married Heinz Wilsdorf in 1950, with whom she travelled to University of the Witwatersrand to work as a lecturer in the same year.
She was the first woman to join the standing faculty of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University.
[3][4] Her papers are held at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia.