Born: 12 September 1915, United States
Died: 13 December 1996
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following was written by Nina Baker and is excerpted from the book From Alchemy to Transport Phenomena: A Global History of Women in Chemical Engineering.
The first woman to serve as president of a USA scientific body (the American Vacuum Society), Dorothy M. Hoffman (1915-1996) got her BSc in chemical engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1947) and MSc from Bucknell University (1948). She was an expert in thin film technology and (like Brophy and Hart) her first job was with General Electric, where she was asked to investigate what was causing the spots on dishes cleaned in their Hotpoint dishwashers. Later she worked at International Resistance Co. as a Research Engineer, rising to Head of Process Development, before moving to the RCA David Sarnoff Research Laboratory (1962), developing the evaporative coatings used on solar cells, optical video discs, kinescope parts and optical wave guides. She remained there until her retirement in 1994.