Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf

Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf was born in Bremen, Germany on February 22, 1922 to Adolph Friedrich and Elsa Kuhlmann.[1] She attended the University of Göttingen from 1942 where she received her doctorate in materials science in 1947. Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf continued her research under Sir Nevill Francis Mott at the University of Bristol.[1][2] She married Heinz Wilsdorf in 1950, with whom she travelled to University of the Witwatersrand to work as a lecturer in the same year.[1] In 1956 they moved to the United States to work at the University of Virginia as professors in the Physics and Materials Science departments.[1][2] She was named university professor of applied science in 1966; she was the first woman named as a full professor at the University of Virginia outside the schools of Medicine and Nursing.[1] In 1994 Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf and her husband funded a professorship in their name and former students created a memorial building on the campus in their name in 2001.[2]

Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf retired in 2005 and died after a short illness on March 25, 2010 in Charlottesville, Virginia.[3][4] Her papers are held at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia.

Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf published over 250 papers and has been a consultant to a number of corporations.[2] Her research was primarily in metallurgy and materials science (with her expertise in tribology), known for her design of electrical metalfiber brushes used as sliding electrical contacts.[2] She was a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Society of Metals.[5]

• Medal for Excellence in Research of the American Society of Engineering Education (1965 and 1966)
• Heyn Medal of the German Society of Materials Science (1988)[6]
• Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award (1989)
• Ragnar Helm Scientific Achievement Award of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (1991)
• Christopher J. Henderson Inventor of the Year (2001)
• Fellow of TMS-AIME (2006)[2]