Lois Graham

Lois Graham
Born	1925
Died	November 4, 2013
Nationality	United States
Other names	Lois Graham McDowell Lois G. McDowell
Education	B.S.ME, RPI, 1946 M.S.ME, IIT, 1949 Ph.D.ME, IIT, 1959
Awards	President (1955–1956) and Fellow Life Member, SWE NSF-GRF, 1979 IIT Professional Achievement Award, 1980 IIT Julie Beveridge Award, 1991 IIT Person of the Millennium, 1999 RPI Hall of Fame, 2003 AAUW Named Scholarship Honoree, 2010–2011 Nominee, National Women's History Project National Women's History Month Honoree, 2013 IIT Lifetime Achievement Award, 2015 Fellow, ASHRAE
Scientific career
Fields	thermodynamics cryogenics combustion
Institutions	Carrier Corporation Illinois Institute of Technology

Dr. Lois Graham (known early in her career as Lois Graham McDowell or Lois G. McDowell) (1925 – November 4, 2013) was the first woman in the United States to receive a PhD in mechanical engineering. She is recognized for her contributions as a professor of thermodynamics and cryogenics, and for her lifelong work recruiting young women into careers in science and engineering.

Graham was among the first women to be admitted to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), and she was the first woman to be awarded a degree in mechanical engineering by the university. She was the first female engineering graduate student at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), the first to receive a master's degree in engineering from IIT, and the first female faculty member in its engineering department. Graham taught for nearly 40 years in IIT's Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering program, and founded IIT's Women in Science and Engineering Program, which recruited female high school students into science and engineering careers.

Graham was a Fellow and the fourth National President of the Society of Women Engineers, and the first female Fellow of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-conditioning Engineers (now ASHRAE). She was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, received Person of the Millennium and Lifetime Achievement awards from IIT, and is inducted into RPI's Hall of Fame.

Early life and education

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Graham was born in 1925 and grew up in Troy, NY, one of three siblings.

In 1942, Graham enrolled at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), where her father was on the faculty, one of four women who were the first to be admitted. She followed an accelerated schedule that was available during World War II. She became one of the first two women to graduate with a degree at RPI (Class of 1946), and the first woman from the university to graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering.

Illinois Institute of Technology

After graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Graham joined the Carrier Corporation as a test engineer, leaving after a year and a half to pursue a master's degree. According to Graham, she was turned away by MIT (who requested "every single textbook I had used when I was in college and every portion of that textbook I had covered"), CalTech (who sent her a postcard stating, "We do not accept women"), and the University of Illinois (who told her, "we cannot accept out-of-state students at this time"), but was offered a teaching assistantship by the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).

I was at Carrier for a year and a half, and I think after about a year I was starting to get bored. I didn’t feel I had enough responsibility. And so I talked to my immediate boss and told him that. And he said, “Well, you’re too young.” Too young? (Laughs) Well, I don’t know whether that was the real reason or not, but in any case, I figured, all right, I’m going to go back to school and get older.

— Lois Graham, 2003 SWE interview

Career

1953 photograph of Lois Graham in Popular Science

In 1949, Graham became the first female faculty member in IIT's engineering department, and the first female graduate student accepted into its Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering program. Graham has said in interviews that IIT had to make an adjustment upon her arrival: converting a small closet into a ladies restroom. Later that year, Graham became the first woman to receive a master's degree in mechanical engineering from IIT.

Even early in her career, Graham received attention for being a woman in a male-dominated field. In September 1953, Graham was featured in Popular Science, which ran a picture of her, identified as "Lois G. McDowell," with the caption:

A WOMAN ENGINEER, Lois G. McDowell, teaches thermodynamics at Illinois Tech. She is glad that other women, at her school and elsewhere, are studying to become engineers.

— Popular Science, September 1953

Society of Women Engineers and Women in Engineering

1953 Society of Women Engineers board meeting; Lois Graham is standing, on the right

Graham was a Fellow Life Member of the Society of Women Engineers, which she joined in 1952, two years after it was founded. At SWE, Graham worked to increase the number of women pursuing careers in engineering, science, and math. She wrote articles published by SWE advocating for improving the career counseling available to young women, and for increasing the recruitment of young women into the engineering field in order to end a shortage of engineers in the country. To bolster her arguments, Graham marshaled allies by citing other influential people, from outside academia, who had spoken favorably about women in engineering. For example, in one article, Graham employed a quote by Arthur Sherwood Flemming(then the Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization, and later US President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare), in which he said, "[W]e haven't got a chance in the world of taking care of that deficit of engineers . . . unless we get women headed in the direction of engineering schools." Graham argued that young women could not only help themselves, but also help their country, by pursuing careers in engineering.

Graham served as SWE's fourth National President from 1955 until 1956. In 1955, SWE released a 40-page report entitled Women in Engineering, aimed at influencing how female engineers were viewed by the public. Graham has said in an interview that an early title under consideration for the booklet was "Petticoats and Slide Rules." The report listed accredited engineering programs, their curricula and prerequisites. It also included information about scholarships for women, statistics about women in the engineering field, and suggested reading lists. SWE distributed the Women in Engineering booklet to over 400 high schools around the United States, as well as colleges and universities, corporations and government agencies, and engineering societies. Ultimately, the enthusiastic response led to SWE running out of copies of Women in Engineering, and a new edition was issued in 1958.

First woman in United States to receive PhD in mechanical engineering

In 1959, Graham was awarded a PhD by the Illinois Institute of Technology and became the first woman in the United States to receive a PhD in mechanical engineering. Her doctoral work focused in the field of combustion, and her dissertation thesis was entitled Effect of adding a combustible to atmosphere and surrounding diffusion flame.

Graham was appointed Assistant Director for Engineering and Science in 1974. In 1975, she became one of the few women to hold the rank of full professor. In 1977, she became Program Director for IIT's Education and Experience in Engineering Program. She also served as the Director of IIT's Minorities in Engineering Program. In 1979, she was listed as a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow. In 1980, she received the IIT Professional Achievement Award, and in 1991, the IIT Julie Beveridge Award.

IIT's Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Program

In 1981, Graham founded the Women in Science and Engineering Program (WISE) at the Illinois Institute of Technology. WISE employed women engineers in the private, public, and academic sectors, as well as graduate and undergraduate students, to engage directly with female high school students in order to increase enrollment of women into college engineering programs. WISE has a three-prong approach: encouraging high school girls in a supportive environment to pursue STEM careers; engaging them in hands-on activities that expose them to various math- and science- related fields; and preparing them to pursue an undergraduate engineering degree by advising on course selection, college applications, and similar matters. Fall, winter, and summer programs were offered, often free of charge, in which female high school students attended college lectures, socialized and networked with engineering students, faculty, and professionals, and participated in hands-on projects inside and outside of the laboratory, such as building a generator or planning a moon colony. WISE also engaged in outreach to parents, teachers, and counselors, to educate them about the opportunities available to young women to pursue math and science careers.

Retirement

After 39 years at IIT, Graham retired in 1985 and moved back to upstate New York. On December 8, 1999, Graham was awarded the Person of the Millennium award by IIT students, an award, Graham said, she "prized above all others."

On June 6, 2003, Graham was interviewed for the Society of Women Engineers Oral History Project. Discussing "engineering as a career for women," she said:

[A] guidance counselor, when they see a young woman who does like math and science, tends to think of teaching. The fact that there are lots of things a person can do with that kind of background just doesn’t seem to come up. Of course, I talk engineering, but really, it includes science. I mean, women should be in the scientific end of things. I never felt that to get women interested we had to push the so-called, I don’t know, 'feminine side' of engineering. I don’t see — I mean, we have — I’ve talked with a lot of girls in mechanical engineering, and they were all interested in mechanical engineering, not something else because it’s 'something a woman might be willing to do.' I know that a lot of women who went into engineering went into chemical engineering first, because to people who are guidance counselors, it was a more logical step — 'well, women have been in chemistry, so okay, maybe going into engineering wouldn’t make a difference.' Even recently I read an article which talked about the fact that, well, women will go into bioengineering or something like this in preference because that’s something that they think a woman can do. ... But I think a woman can do anything if she wants to. I don’t think she has to go into a 'softer' science. It’s simply a question of wanting to use your brains on this type of problem.

— Lois Graham, 2003 SWE interview

On September 19, 2003, Graham was inducted to the RPI Hall of Fame.

Graham died on November 4, 2013, at the age of 88.

In 2010–2011, Graham was an American Association of University Women Named Scholarship Honoree. The St. Lawrence, New York Chapter of the National Women's History Project nominated Graham to be a National Women's History Month Honoree in 2013. In 2015, she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by IIT.

Impact and legacy

A 2007 article published in the International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education entitled Outstanding Women in Mechanical Engineering described Graham as, "Recognised for her contributions as an educator to thermodynamics and cryogenics." Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has written that Graham's "academic and professional career paved the way for women and minority engineers." The Illinois Institute of Technology has described her as a "pioneer in the field of mechanical engineering."

...our original thing that we were working for was to let women know that engineering existed as a career, and to get young women to consider it and get enrolled, and then to provide some support for these young women.

— Lois Graham, 2003 SWE interview

A student of Graham's, Sherita Caesar, was awarded the 2014 Women in Technology Award by the Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT), the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE), and Cablefax. An IIT publication announcing the award stated that Caesar was "inspired" by Graham, who "encouraged Caesar to teach others ad give to others in order to help her overcome her fear of presenting her master's thesis."

Graham has also been credited for her work at the Society of Women Engineers and ASHRAE to improve career counseling available to young women, and for her recruitment of young women into science and engineering fields.

Degrees awarded

• Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering (B.S.ME), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1946
• Master of Science, Mechanical Engineering (M.S.ME), Illinois Institute of Technology, 1949
• Doctor of Philosophy, Mechanical Engineering (Ph.D.ME), Illinois Institute of Technology, 1959

Awards, honors, and memberships

• Fellow and 4th National President (1955–1956), Society of Women Engineers (SWE)
• National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow (1979)
• Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) Professional Achievement Award (1980)
• IIT Julie Beveridge Award (1991)
• IIT Person of the Millenium (1999)
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Hall of Fame (2003)
• American Association of University Women Named Scholarship Honoree (2010–2011)
• Nominee, National Women's History Project National Women's History Month Honoree (2013)
• IIT Lifetime Achievement Award (2015)
• First female Fellow, American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)
• Member, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
• Member, American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).

Support for arts, education and nature conservation

Graham's obituary stated that she was a "supporter of the arts, education and nature conservation," and that in the late 1990s, Graham and her husband became charter members of The Wild Center in New York (a 2015 finalist for the National Medal for Museum and Library Service).

Selected works

• McDowell, Lois G. (September 1953). "Professional Guidance and Education". Journal of the Society of Women Engineers: 2-5.
• Graham, Lois (1959). Effect of adding a combustible to atmosphere surrounding diffusion flame (Thesis).
• Fejér, Andrew; Graham, Lois (1965). Undergraduate Research Participation in Engineering: Report. Allyn and Bacon. Archived from the original on 2018-11-21. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• Graham, L.; Stice, J. (1978-12-15). "Solar collector storage panel". American Society of Mechanical Engineers: 9. Archived from the original on 2018-11-21 – via SAO/NASA ADS. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• Graham, Lois (June 1985). "A Woman Engineer's Recollection of College" (PDF). Perspectives on the Professions. Vol. 5, no. 1. Chicago, IL, USA: Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions (CSEP), Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-11-21. Retrieved 2018-11-21 – via Ethics Education Library, CSEP, IIT. {{cite magazine}}: External link in |via= (help); Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)