Evelynn M. Hammonds
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA USA
"Constantly confront racial and gendered stereotypes directly. If you run away from difficult perceptions or attitude in the culture, you're going to be running your whole life."
Career Roadmap
Evelynn M.'s work combines: Education, Science, and Learning / Being Challenged
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
You can't pay attention to those negative voices. This doesn't come naturally for a lot of people, so you have to fight through the perceptions that others have of you and not use those things as excuses to not succeed in what you are doing.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Physics, General
Spelman College
Bachelor's Degree
Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Graduate Degree
Physics, General
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Doctorate
History and Philosophy of Science and Technology
Harvard University
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
She grew up in Atlanta, Georgia; her father wanted to become an engineer, but no schools would accept an African American man into their engineering programs.
2.
Even so, his love of science was clearly passed down to her; her favorite toy as a child was a chemistry set.
3.
When she went to college, she noticed that she was the only African American woman in her physics and chemistry classes.
4.
She became interested in why she wasn’t seeing more women and people of color in these classes, and ended up making it her life’s work.
5.
Says that the diversity problem in STEM fields is a historical problem that dates all the way back to the Industrial Revolution.
6.
Over time, as science and engineering began to be viewed as “prestigious” jobs, women and minorities had to start fighting to be let in.
7.
Not only has her research shed light on the underlying issues contributing to inequalities in STEM, but her own career has also broken down countless barriers for women in these fields.
8.
She was the first African American woman to win tenure at MIT, and she was the first woman and first African American to be named Dean of Harvard College.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Society in general:
Why are you here? You can't be a scientist.
How I responded:
You can't pay attention to those negative voices. This doesn't come naturally for a lot of people, so you have to fight through the perceptions that others have of you and not use those things as excuses to not succeed in what you are doing.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
In my program at Georgia Tech, there were three African-American men, three white women, and I was the only African-American woman. It was a very anti-woman, anti-minority culture.