esther marly conwell - Department of Physics & Astronomy at the ...

ESTHER MARLY CONWELL 

1922 - Present

Education 

B.A. Brooklyn College 1942


M.S. University of Rochester 1945

Victor F. Weisskopf 

Master Thesis Advisor 

Theory of Impurity Scattering in Semiconductors 

Ρ=2.11 =2.11×10 102Κ-2T Conwell-Weisskopf Formula 

LN{1+36Κ2D2 (KT KT) 2E-4 } 

-3 3 / 2 LN{1+36


Ph.D. University of Chicago 1948 

“Atomic Physics”

“Having a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, 

any guy would figure on getting a nice 

professorship at a good university,” says Conwell. 

“But in physics in the early 1950s, there was no 

such thing for women, and no such thing for me.” 

Esther Conwell 

Subramanyan Chandrasekhar 

Nobel Prize 

Physics 

1983

Bell Laboratories

William B. Shockley 

Pulitzer Prize 

Physics 

1956 

Conwell gained what she describes as “a 

real taste of research,” working under 

Bill Shockley at Bell Laboratories.


Transistors and Semiconductors 

•Dielectric Principles 

•Use of Silicon and 

Germanium in small electronic 

devices 

•Doping


Transistors and Semiconductors 

Measurements of materials and 

effects 

•P germanium 

•N germanium 

•P silicon 

•N silicon 

•Lightly doped 

•Heavily doped 

•High Fields 

•Low Fields 

•Various Temperatures


Light Propogation in Waveguides 

Infuse impurities in glass 

Calculated the spatial modes 

Indexed profiles


Quasi One-Dimensional Organics 

•Crystals with an anisotropic 

structure 

•Electron wave function and 

conductivity is large in one 

direction 

•Tetracyanoquinodimethane 

TCNQ 

•100 New Organic Crystals 

•Three orders of magnitude more 

conductive than copper


Conducting Polymers and Electroluminesence 

•Extracted electrons in polymers 

leave positively charged holes 

•An electric field pushes electrons 

and holes toward each other 

•When they meet, they create an 

exciton 

•A short lived union the decay 

emits a visible light 

•Calculated the absorption spectra


Charge Motion in DNA 

•Polarons can be moved 

•Cancer Research 

•Semiconductors 

•Nanotechnology

Resume 

1946-51 Instructor Brooklyn College 

1951-52 Member of Technical Staff, Bell Telephone 

Laboratorie 

1952-72 Member of Technical Staff, General Telephone 

and Electronics Laboratory (GTE) 

1962-63 Visiting Professor Ecole Normal Superieure 

1963-72 Manager of Physics Department, GTE 

1972-73 Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

1972-81 Principal Scientist, Xerox Laboratories 

1975-77 Manager of Electrooptics Program, Xerox 

Laboratorie 

1981-98 Research Fellow, Xerox Laboratories 

1990- Adjunct Professor and Associate Director of the 

Center for Photoinduced Charge Transfer, University of 

Rochester

Honors 

•Achievement Award, Society of Women 

Engineers 1960 

•Distinguished Alumni Award, Brooklyn College 

1961 

•National Academy of Engineering 1980 

•National Academy of Sciences 1990 

•American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1992 

•Honorary D. Sc. Brooklyn College 1992 

•New York Academy of Sciences 1993 

•Fellow, American Physical Society 

•Edison Award of the IEEE 1997 

[ Some past winners of this IEEE award - 

Alexander Graham Bell, Robert Millikan, Nicolai 

Tesla, George Westinghouse.] 

•One of the 50 most important women of science 

Discover Magazine 2002 

•Dreyfus Senior Scholar Mentor Award 2005 

•University of Rochester Susan B. Anthony 

Lifetime Achievement Award 2006 

•American Chemical Society Award for 

Encouraging Women into Careers in the 

Chemical Sciences 2008 

She is the first woman to receive a major IEEE 

Medal.

Mother and Son 

Lewis Rothberg 

Department of Chemistry and Physics 

University of Rochester 

Author: Esther Conwell 

Contributions of Twentieth Century 

Women to Physics: Out of the 

Shadows .

Esther Conwell has co-written 3 books and has written or co-written more than 250 

papers.

She enjoys the beauty, discipline and order found in ballet.


Reference Citations 

•Byers, N., Williams, G., (2006). Contributions of Twentieth Century Women to 

Physics: Out of the Shadows . United Kingdom: Cambridge University Printing Press. 

315-323.- 

•http://www.rochester.edu/pr/Review/V65N3/feature3.html 



•Conwell, Esther, M. editor, (1988). Semiconductors and Semimetals Volume 27: 

Highly Conducting Quasi-One-Dimensional Organic Crystals. New York: Academic 

Press. 

•Rakhmanova, Svetlana V. and Conwell, Esther, M., Polaron Motion in DNA: 

American Physical Society, Contribution from Department of Chemistry, University 

of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627 Received: October 4, 2000, In Final Form: 

December 28, 2000 

•


Photograph Citations 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaron 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dielectric 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_optics 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LEDs 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCNQ 

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/diode.htm 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_equation 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistors 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-n_junction 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Weisskopf 

http://www.chem.rochester.edu/newsletter/newsletter_pdfs0506/5-articles2.pdf 

http://maps.uchicago.edu/westquad/abbott.html 

http://www.rochester.edu/aboutus/ 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subrahmanyan_Chandrasekhar 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Laboratories

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