Shirley Ann Jackson

Shirley Ann Jackson
Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board
In office
August 29, 2014  January 20, 2017
Serving with Jami Miscik
PresidentBarack Obama
Preceded byDavid Boren
Chuck Hagel
Succeeded bySteve Feinberg
President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
In office
July 1, 1999  July 1, 2022
Preceded byCornelius Barton
Succeeded byMartin A. Schmidt
Personal details
Born (1946-08-05) August 5, 1946
Washington, D.C.
SpouseMorris Washington
EducationMassachusetts Institute of Technology (BS, MS, PhD)
WebsiteOfficial website

Shirley Ann Jackson, FREng (born August 5, 1946) is an American physicist, and was the 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is the first African American woman to have earned a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in Theoretical Elementary Particle Physics. She is also the second African American woman in the United States to earn a doctorate in physics.