Shirley Ann Jackson is the 18th President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the oldest technological university in the United States, located in Troy, New York. Jackson is president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Physical Society, and has advisory roles and involvement in many other prestigious national organizations.

She is a trustee of the Brookings Institution, a life member of the M.I.T. Corporation, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She also serves on the board of directors at the New York Stock Exchange and is a director of several major corporations.

Jackson's research specialty is theoretical condensed matter physics, especially layered systems, and the physics of opto-electronic materials. In government, she has worked as chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where she spearheaded the formation of the International Nuclear Regulators Association (INRA) and was elected that group's first chairman.

In industry and research, she worked as a theoretical physicist at the former AT&T Bell Laboratories, where she is best known for her advancements on polaronic aspects of electrons in two-dimensional systems. And in academe, she was previously professor of theoretical physics at Rutgers University.

The first African-American woman to receive a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in any subject, Jackson is one of the first two African-American women to receive a doctorate in physics in the U.S. She is the first woman and first African-American to become chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the first African-American woman elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and is now the first to lead a national research university.

Inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame for her significant and profound contributions as a distinguished scientist and advocate for education, science and public policy, Jackson has also been inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame.

Jackson holds a doctoral degree in theoretical elementary particle physics and a bachelor of science degree in physics from M.I.T., and has received 23 honorary doctoral degrees. She is married to Morris A. Washington, also a physicist. They have one son, Alan, a graduate of Dartmouth College.

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