Nationality American Institution Ford Motor Company Doctoral advisor Samuel Krimm Fields Physics, Engineering | Name Willie Moore Academic advisor Samuel Krimm | |
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Institutions Ford Motor Company, Datamax Thesis A Vibrational Analysis of Secondary Chlorides Died 1994, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States | ||
Alma mater University of Michigan | ||
Willie Hobbs Moore
Willie Hobbs Moore (1934–1994) was the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in physics.
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Education and career
Willie Hobbs was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on 23 May 1934. Moore moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1952 to attend the University of Michigan. She earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1958 and her master's degree in 1961. While working toward her doctoral degree, she also held positions at technology firms in Ann Arbor including KMS Industries and Datamax Corporation. She also held engineering positions at Bendix Aerospace Systems, Barnes Engineering, and Sensor Dynamics, where she was responsible for the theoretical analysis. Moore completed her thesis, A Vibrational Analysis of Secondary Chlorides, under the supervision of Samuel Krimm at the University of Michigan in 1972. This work was applicable to important questions in the vibrational study of macromolecules.
After receiving her doctorate, Moore worked at the University of Michigan as a research scientist until 1977, continuing spectroscopic work on proteins. In the five years following her dissertation, she published more than thirty papers with Krimm and collaborators. She was hired by Ford Motor Company in 1977 as an assembly engineer. Moore expanded Ford's use of Japanese engineering and manufacturing methods in the 1980s. In 1991, Ebony magazine named Moore as one of their 100 "most promising black women in corporate America". The University of Michigan established the Willie Hobbs Moore Award for mentoring in her honor.
Personal life
Moore was a tutor, a member of Links Inc., a member of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church]], and the chairwoman of the Juanita D. Woods Scholarship Fund. She was married to Sidney L. Moore, who taught at the University of Michigan's Neuropsychiatric Institute, for thirty years. They had two children Dr. Dorian Moore, MD. and Christopher Hobbs Moore, RN. Willie also had three grandchildren Sydney Padgett, William Hobbs Moore, and C. Jackson Moore.
Moore died at home, of cancer, on 14 March 1994.