DC-born Shirley Ann Jackson went from being valedictorian at Roosevelt High in Petworth, Washington DC, to become a respected physicist, working at Fermilab, CERN, and Bell Labs in both particle and solid-state physics. She went on to head the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and is now president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, becoming both the first woman and first African American to hold either post.
Physics Today features her in a new article discussing her career.