Mildred Dresselhaus[1] (née Spiewak; November 11, 1930 – February 20, 2017),[2] known as the "Queen of Carbon Science",[3] was an American physicist, materials scientist, and nanotechnologist.

Dresselhaus was born on November 11, 1930, in Brooklyn, New York City, the daughter of Ethel (Teichtheil) and Meyer Spiewak, who were Polish Jewish immigrants.

Her older brother informed her of the opportunity to apply to Hunter College High School, where she excelled and gained practice as a teacher by tutoring fellow students.

[9]While attending Hunter, one of her professors, and future Nobel-Prize-winner Rosalyn Yalow took interest in Dresselhaus and encouraged her to apply for graduate fellowships and pursue a career in physics.

[2][6] She carried out postgraduate study at the University of Cambridge on a Fulbright Fellowship and received her MA from Radcliffe College.

[12][13][14][15] As the exotic compounds she studied became increasingly relevant to modern science and engineering, she was uniquely positioned to become a world-leading expert and write one of the standard textbooks.

[16] Her groundwork in the field led to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov isolating and characterizing graphene, for which they were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize.

Her former students include such notable materials scientists as Deborah Chung,[24] and physicists as Nai-Chang Yeh and Greg Timp.

Dresselhaus devoted a great deal of time to supporting efforts to promote increased participation of women in physics.

[27] Dresselhaus was the face of a 2017 General Electric television advertisement which asked the question "What if female scientists were celebrities?"

Her group made frequent use of electronic band structure, Raman scattering and the photophysics of carbon nanostructures.