Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson
“Sometimes, a window in time opens for you, and if you are prepared to step through then it can create opportunities for you to make a real difference in the world,” says Jackson. “I’ve had that kind of extraordinary set of opportunities. I have always felt it’s important to make a difference and leave an imprint.”
Jackson earned both her bachelor’s degree and doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is the first African American woman to receive a doctorate from MIT. “Not many alumni can see the mark of their leadership on an institution 50 years after they graduate,” MIT President Dr. L. Rafael Reif told Rensselaer Alumni Magazine.
“A co-founder of the Institute’s Black Students Union, she has always had a knack for bringing people together around shared values,” Reif added. “Both MIT and RPI have benefited immeasurably from her brilliance, her vision, her leadership, and her extraordinary commitment to inclusive excellence.”
Before becoming president of RPI 23 years ago, Jackson, a theoretical physicist, had a ground-breaking, distinguished career. The four years prior to her RPI presidency were spent as chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC); she was the first woman and first African American to hold that position. The chairman is the principal executive officer and official spokesman for the NRC.
Dr. Thomas Wellock, historian for NRC, says two things stand out from Jackson’s time as chair. Although she didn’t create risk-informed, performance-based regulation, its implementation took root during her time at NRC. Prior to the mid-1990s, the NRC generally based decisions on expert judgment.
“By the 1990s, when Jackson comes into office, there was a methodology and growing body of data that allowed the NRC to move in a new direction where they would be able to quantify risk,” says Wellock. “You could look at new ways of approaching safety based on a quantification rather than an expert’s judgment of safety.
