Rate My Professor Sheila Widnall

Sheila Widnall is Institute Professor Emerita and Professor Emerita of Aeronautics and Astronautics in the School of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Born in Tacoma, Washington, she entered MIT as a first-year student in 1956 and earned her B.S. (1960), M.S. (1961), and Sc.D. (1964), all in Aeronautics and Astronautics. Widnall joined the MIT faculty in 1964 as an Assistant Professor, becoming the first woman appointed to the School of Engineering faculty. She advanced to Associate Professor (1970), Professor (1974), Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics (1986), and Institute Professor (1998). She served as Associate Provost (1992-1993 and post-1997), the first woman Chair of the Faculty (1979-1981), and chaired key committees including Admissions, Discipline, Educational Policy, and Departmental Reorganizations. From 1993 to 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed her Secretary of the Air Force, the first woman in that position, where she oversaw personnel, operations, policy formulation, R&D, and co-chaired the Department of Defense Task Force on Sexual Harassment and Discrimination. She also directed University Research for the U.S. Department of Transportation (1974-1975) and headed MIT's Fluid Mechanics Division (1975-1979) and Fluid Dynamics Research Laboratory (1979-1990).