Monifa Phillips

Monifa Louise Phillips is the first black woman to receive a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in physics from the University of Glasgow, which was founded in 1451.[1] Phillips did her PhD within the Materials and Condensed Matter Physics group and defended her thesis entitled "Spectroscopic investigation of resistive switching mechanisms in pulsed laser deposited metal-oxide thin films".[2] Her experimental research investigated the deposition and spectroscopic analysis of metal-oxide thin films for applications in Resistive random-access memory (RRAM), an emerging non-volatile memory storage technology. She was awarded her doctorate in 2019.

Phillips, originally from London,[3] graduated with a Master's degree (MPhys) in Physics from the University of Sheffield in 2014.[4] Phillips has been outspoken about the lack of diversity in her field:

"This week I was the very first black woman to graduate from the Uni of Glasgow with a PhD in Physics," Phillips wrote. "I'm a proud Black British woman from LDN. I made space for myself in a predominantly white, male field. It was hard, but with the support of my family & my community, I did it.[5]

A motion to congratulate Phillips for being the first black female PhD physics graduate from the University of Glasgow fell in the Scottish Parliament.[4]

Phillips is now training to be a patent attorney in electronics and engineering.[6]

References

  1. ^ "first-black-woman-physics-phd-university-of-glasgow". www.teenvogue.com. Archived from the original on 15 June 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  2. ^ "PhD thesis Phillips, Monifa Louise". theses.gla.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 15 June 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  3. ^ "first-black-woman-earns-phd-in-physics-from-university-of-glasgow/". thegrio.com. Archived from the original on 14 June 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  4. ^ a b "Motion S5M-18037". www.parliament.scot. Archived from the original on 14 June 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  5. ^ "Monifa Phillips, PhD". twitter.com. Archived from the original on 16 December 2022. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  6. ^ "monifa-phillips". www.vennershipley.co.uk. Archived from the original on 14 June 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2020.