Black Excellence: Willie Hobbs Moore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Hobbs_Moore
Willie Hobbs Moore (May 23, 1934 – March 14, 1994) was an African American physicist and engineer. She is the first African American woman to earn a PhD in physics.[1]
From 1961 to 1962 Moore worked at a Junior engineer at Bendix Aerospace Systems, where she calculated the radiation from various types of plasmas and also wrote proposals. From 1962-1963 Moore took a job at Barnes Engineering Company where she worked on approximating the IR radiation from wakes of space reentry vehicles. By the end of 1963, Moore was working at Senor Dynamics as a theoretical analyst of stress-optical devices.[2]
Next Moore was a research associate at the Institute of Science and Technology at the University of Michigan where she modeled optical hypersonic wakes and certified existing flow-field models. In 1967, Moore began working at KMS Industries as a system analyst where she supported optics design staff and established computer requirements for optics. Then Moore worked as a senior analyst at Datamax Corp in 1968.[2]
In 1977, Moore was hired by Ford Motor Company as an assembly engineer.[19] Moore expanded Ford’s use of Japanese engineering and manufacturing methods in the 1980s.[1] She did this in part by writing a technical paper which communicated the concepts of Japanese engineer Genichi Taguchi as working design methods for practical use.[20] Moore went on to become an executive at Ford; in this position she oversaw the warranty department of the automobile assembly.[18]
In January 1991, Ebony magazine named Moore as one of their 100 “Most Promising Black Women in Corporate America”.[20]