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Jami Valentine

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Jami Valentine Miller
Born (1974-12-03) December 3, 1974 (age 49)
Other namesJami Valentine
Alma materJohns Hopkins University
Brown University
Florida A&M University
Known forJohns Hopkins University's first African-American woman to earn a PhD in Physics and Astronomy; Founder of African American Women in Physics Inc
Scientific career
InstitutionsU.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Thesis "Spin Polarization Measurements of Rare Earth Thin Films"  (2006)
Doctoral advisorChia-Ling Chien
Websitewww.DrJami.com

Jami Valentine Miller (born December 3, 1974) is a patent examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. She was the first African American woman to graduate with a PhD in physics from Johns Hopkins University. She created the website AAWIP.com,[1] which celebrates African American Women in Physics.

Early life and education

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Valentine was born in Philadelphia.[2][3] During junior high she joined the Philadelphia Regional Introduction for Minorities to Engineering (PRIME) program, which prepared her for a career in physics or mathematics.[4] She attended high school at Murrell Dobbins Vocational School, graduating in 1992.[4] She completed a bachelor's degree in physics at Florida A&M University, which she graduated cum laude in 1996.[5] Whilst at FAMU she was a "Life-Gets-Better" scholar, which allowed her to work as a summer research assistant at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.[6] She also worked in the Center for Nonlinear and Nonequilibrium Aeroscience.[7] Upon graduating from Fame, she moved on to Brown University for her postgraduate studies, earning a master's degree in 1998.[5] Valentine studied under Chia-Ling Chien at Johns Hopkins University, where she worked on spintronics.[5][8] Her research focused on novel rare earth metals for memory applications.[4] She successfully defended her dissertation, "Spin Polarization Measurements of Rare Earth Thin Films", in 2006.[9]

Career

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As a PhD student, Valentine realized that there were not many professors who looked like her.[10] From 1973 to 2012, only 66 black American women earned PhDs in physics, compared to 22,172 white men.[11] She became involved with national efforts to improve diversity in physics.[12] She developed the nonprofit African American Women in Physics (AAWIP), which honors the contributions of African American women to physics.[10] She has made efforts to meet and document as many of them as she can.[13] She has worked with the National Society of Black Physicists to increase awareness of underrepresented groups to physics.[14]

Valentine joined the United States Patent and Trademark Office as an electrical engineer, working on semiconductor and spintronic memory devices.[15][10] In 2012 she was appointed primary examiner.[10][16]

Honors and awards

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Valentine has been an invited speaker at several physics conferences as well as appearing on podcasts.[17] In February 2017 she was honored by the National Society of Black Physicists for distinguished service to the organization.[18] In 2016, she was honored with the Florida A & M University Distinguished Alumni Award.[19] She was an invited plenary speaker for the 2019 Physics Congress where she was to address more than 1,500 physics and astronomy students.[20] In 2022 she was honored with the Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Alumna Award. [21]

She was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2023, "for extraordinary contributions to diversity and inclusion in physics, both in the United States and internationally, and for essential contributions to the history and promotion of Black women in American physics, through the founding of African-American Women in Physics, Inc".[22]

In 2023 she was appointed to the Johns Hopkins University Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Advisory Board. She also sits on the Physics and Astronomy Advisory Council for Hopkins.[23]

References

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  1. ^ "AAWIP". aawip.com. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  2. ^ "Jami Valentine Miller Inspires the Next Generation". www.aps.org. Retrieved 2021-08-02.
  3. ^ "Dr. First Jami Valentine Miller". Society of Physics Students. 2019-02-26. Retrieved 2021-08-02.
  4. ^ a b c "Defending Your Graduate Life". Science | AAAS. 2005-09-23. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  5. ^ a b c "Alumni Spotlight Q&A with Jami Valentine, Ph.D." FAMU Forward. 2015-11-25. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  6. ^ "Jami Valentine Miller, PhD". drjami.com.
  7. ^ "For One New Rattler Ph.D, Life is about to Get Better!". rattlernation.blogspot.co.uk. 3 May 2006. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  8. ^ "People | Nanostructured Materials Lab | Johns Hopkins University". sites.krieger.jhu.edu. 10 September 2013. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  9. ^ "Spin Polarization Measurements of Rare Earth Thin Films by Jami Valentine | Waterstones". www.waterstones.com. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  10. ^ a b c d "Dr. Jami Valentine Honored by the National Society of Black Physicists". Brown University. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  11. ^ Kohli, Sonali. "In 39 years, US physics doctorates went to 66 black women—and 22,000 white men". Quartz. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  12. ^ Budil, Kimberly S. (2005). "Women in Physics in the U.S.: A Progress Report". AIP Conference Proceedings. Vol. 795. pp. 175–178. doi:10.1063/1.2128320.
  13. ^ "Scientist a pioneer in physics". The Denver Post. 2007-04-22. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  14. ^ "About – AAWIP". aawip.com. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  15. ^ Roberson, Stephen. "Jami Valentine". www.nsbp.org. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  16. ^ "Employee Profile of Jami M. Valentine — Patent Examiner". www.federalpay.org. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  17. ^ "Webinar: "Views from the Pipeline: Women of Color in the STEM Professoriate", 4/27, 1:00pm | Ohio State ADVANCE". advance.osu.edu. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  18. ^ "AASWomen Newsletter for February 17, 2017". womeninastronomy.blogspot.co.uk. 17 February 2017. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  19. ^ Dobson, Byron (May 26, 2016). "Local FAMU grads to be honored at FAMUNAA convention". Tallahassee Democrat.
  20. ^ "PhysCon 2019 – Making Waves & Breaking Boundaries". 13 December 2017. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  21. ^ "The Distinguished Alumnus/A Award | Johns Hopkins Alumni".
  22. ^ "2023 Fellows". APS Fellow Archive. American Physical Society. Retrieved 2023-10-19.
  23. ^ "Alumni".