Betsy Ancker-Johnson

Betsy Ancker-Johnson (1927 to 2020) was an American plasma physicist, born Betsy Ancker in St. Louis, Missouri, who is known for research into instabilities that can occur in plasmas in solids and for inventing a gigacycle range signal generator that uses semiconductor materials in magnetic and electric fields. She earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Wellesley College in 1949 and a doctorate from the University of Tübingen in 1953. Her career ran from UC Berkeley, Sylvania Electric Products and the RCA David Sarnoff Research Center to the Boeing Science Research Laboratories, where she rose to manager of advanced energy systems, while she served as an affiliate professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington from 1961 to 1973. In 1973 she became the first woman appointed by the president to the U.S. Department of Commerce, as assistant secretary for science and technology, then worked at Argonne National Laboratory and became the first woman vice-president in the automotive industry at General Motors. She published over 70 scientific papers and patents and was the fourth woman elected to the National Academy of Engineering.