Esther M. Conwell

Esther Marley Conwell grew up in New York City, the oldest of three daughters of immigrant parents. Education was important in her family. Conwell took biology and physics, but not chemistry, in high school. Her attraction to the innate order of physics, and her distaste for lab work, eventually led her to theoretical physics. Conwell obtained a physics B.A. from Brooklyn College in 1942, Phi Beta Kappa. A professor there, Professor Kurrelmeyer, suggested that she apply to graduate school. She attended the University of Rochester and completed a M.S. in physics in 1945 with Victor Weisskopf. Conwell collaborated with Karl Lark-Horovitz and Vivian Johnson at Purdue University on electron scattering by impurities in germanium. Her masters was initially classified then finally declassified in 1945 and subsequently her M.S. was awarded in which she determined the Conwell-Weisskopf theory. ==Career==

After her first year of graduate school, Conwell was employed by Western Electric as an assistant engineer*. She then became a staff member at Sylvania where she would work for 20 years. Her research focused on semiconductors – theoretical analysis of germanium and silicon. Conwell served as a Visiting Professor for the 1962-1963 academic year in Paris, France at the École Normale Supérieure. Her 1967 book, High Field Transport in Semiconductors, became a basic text in the field. After GTE bought Sylvania, her research focus changed to support of telecommunications and then moved into integrated optics. When GTE closed her lab, she spent a semester as the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor at MIT, courtesy of her former intern, Millie Dresselhaus. In 1972 she joined the Xerox Wilson Research Center, where her focus changed to glassy one-dimensional materials. She worked with conducting polymers that radiated light when they were properly stimulated. Xerography requires a significant amount of physics – to get an image on the surface of a photoconductor and then transport it somewhere else and Conwell was involved with the transport mechanism. Her research impacted the printers and cell phones that we currently use. Conwell was a research fellow at Xerox from 1981 to 1998. In 1989, Conwell helped bring the NSF Center for Photoinduced Charge Transfer to the University of Rochester which was a collaborative effort between Xerox, Eastman Kodak, and the University of Rochester. She became the Associate Director starting in 1991. After Conwell retired from Xerox, she maintained her affiliation with the University of Rochester, where she held a dual appointment in the chemistry and physics departments. She continued to serve as Associate Director of the Center. Conwell worked at the University of Rochester until her death at the age of 92. Her later research projects led to more knowledge of how electrical charges move through DNA. ==Awards, honors and affiliations==

Conwell performed extensive professional service and served on numerous government advisory boards. She was active in the American Physical Society, the American Institute of Physics, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. She served on the Defense Science Board, committees of the National Research Council, and the National Materials Advisory Board on Critical Materials. She was also a fellow of the American Physical Society. In 1960 she had received the Achievement Award of the Society of Women Engineers in "recognition of her significant contributions as a research physicist in the field of solid state research". She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (1980), the National Academy of Sciences (1990) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1992). She is the only member of the University of Rochester to achieve this. In 1997 she received the IEEE Thomas Alva Edison Medal for "fundamental contributions to transport theory in semiconductor and organic conductors, and their application to the semiconductor, electronic copying and printing industries." Other notable awardees include Alexander Graham Bell, Vannevar Bush, and Michael Pupin. In 2009, Conwell received the prestigious National Medal of Science from President Barack Obama, for "her broad contributions to understanding electron and hole transport in semiconducting materials, which helped to enable commercial applications of semiconductor and organic electronic devices, and for extending her analysis to studying the electronic properties of DNA." Conwell received honorary doctorates from the University of Rochester and Brooklyn College. ==* Legacy==

Conwell has received numerous awards and honors for her contributions to the field of semiconductor science. She was a pioneer in the field of theoretical physics and frequently the only woman in her classes and engineering workplaces. In 1948, the year Conwell received her Physics Ph.D., only five other women in the United States had received a similar degree (less than 2% of the total Ph.Ds.). ==Personal life==

Conwell married Abraham Rothberg, a novelist, in 1944. On November 16, 2014, Conwell was walking when she was struck by her neighbor's car as he was backing out of his driveway. Capt. David Catholdi of the Brighton Police Department stated that alcohol and speed were not factors in the incident. She was taken to Strong Memorial Hospital, where she died from her injuries several hours later. She was 92 years old and was still actively pursuing research. ==References==

Tietjen, Jill S. (2025). Chapter 12 "Esther M. Conwell". In Craig, Cecilia; Teig, Holly; Kimberling, Debra; Williams, Janet; Tietjen, Jill; Johnson, Vicki (eds.). Women Engineering Legends 1952-1976: Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award Recipients. Springer Cham. ==External links==