Born: 20 September 1894, United States
Died: 19 January 1989
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Helen Dorothy Hall
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.
Helen Dorothy Hall Brophy, BSE ChE, PhD (1894-1989) was the University of Michigan’s first female chemical engineering graduate (1918).
Her 1920 PhD had to be in Chemistry, because the University of Michigan did not offer PhDs in engineering at that time. She used her chemical engineering principally in the metallurgy field, with General Electric, publishing 7 papers from 1923-33 on purification and determination of metals in alloys and registering 3 US patents relating to alkali metals.