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A ONE-ON-ONE WITH WIDNALL By Lauren Clark
MIT engineering professor, chair of the MIT faculty, president of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Secretary of the U.S. Air Force. It’s an impressive list of accomplishments for any individual. What’s more impressive is that Institute Professor Sheila Widnall was the first woman to secure all of these posts. Sheila Evans Widnall came to MIT from Tacoma, Washington as one of only 23 women in the class of 1960 — a freshman class of more than 900 students. Encouraged by her undergraduate advisor, Holt Ashley (now an aerospace professor emeritus at Stanford), she went on to earn the S.M. and Sc.D. in aeronautics. She became MIT’s first female engineering professor in 1964, and then, the first female chair of MIT’s faculty. Aeronautical engineers around the world are familiar with Widnall’s foundational work in fluid dynamics, particularly aircraft turbulence and spiraling air flows.
Sheila Windall’s official portrait as Secretary of the Air Force. Appointed by President Clinton, she was the first woman to hold this position.
A One-on-One With Widnall
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