University of California at Berkeley Jennie Patrick (born 1949) is an American chemical engineer and educator.
[1] At Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979, she became one of the first African American women in the United States to earn a doctorate in traditional chemical engineering.
[4] They bought two sets of encyclopedias for their children, which Patrick read, along with books from the local public library.
[1] Patrick knew that she wanted to be a chemist by junior high school,[3] so she was the first Black student to sign up for Gadsden High,[3] which had the scientific equipment Patrick needed for scientific studies, unavailable in the local black schools.
"[3] While at Gadsden, Patrick experienced discrimination and abuse from both students and teachers, as well as protesters against integration.
"[4] Her parents were supportive, though the families of Black students who enrolled in integrated schools had been threatened by the Ku Klux Klan.
[3] During her time at Berkeley, other students and faculty felt and expressed that she did not belong there,[4] and even destroyed her work.
[1] She recalls a particular professor who would "spit on the floor in front of [her]" every time he entered the classroom, and purposefully tried to throw her off by leaning over her to stare at her during an exam.
Though she did not need a PhD to be an engineer, she "always wanted the highest education possible", and "felt like [she] would not have completed the process without doing so.
[4] Patrick enjoyed the tough and challenging atmosphere, and was a very dedicated student, working seven days a week.
[3] She studied thermodynamics, homogeneous nucleation, heat and mass transfer, and worked as a research assistant.
[4] Her advisor was Robert C. Reid, a world-renowned thermodynamicist, and her thesis topic dealt with nucleation phenomena.
[3] She went on to head a new, state-of-the-art supercritical fluid extraction technology program and design a pilot plant at Philip Morris Research Center in Richmond, Virginia.
She worked as a research section manager for five years, with both technical and managerial responsibilities[4] Talking about her role at Rohm and Haas, she explained: "we really [were] the brain power for making sure that their plants ran well, making sure that we developed new technology in terms of process technologies for their facilities.
"[3] In 1990, she was made assistant to the vice president at Southern Company Services in Birmingham, Alabama, a position she held for three years[4][8] During this time, Patrick also served as an adjunct professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1982–1985)[3] and at Georgia Institute of Technology (1983–1987).
[8] She lived in a dorm with honor students she had individually selected to mentor, "to give them exposure to someone mature".
"[4] She left Tuskegee University in 1997, worked for three years as a technical consultant at Raytheon Engineers and Constructors in Birmingham, Alabama, and studied the education of urban children.
[10] She was awarded the Presidential Citation from the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education in 1987, and made it into the World's Who's Who of Women in 1989.
[3] Patrick married a physician and former practicing chemical engineer, whom she describes as her "very best friend" and "just a wonderful human being".