Beatrice Hicks

Beatrice Alice Hicks (January 2, 1919 – October 21, 1979) was an American engineer and the owner of Newark Controls Company. Hicks developed a gas density switch that has been used in the U.S. space program, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, in aircraft including the Boeing 707, in communications, to monitor nuclear weapons, and in equipment for the electric utility industry. Hicks was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Hicks was the co-founder and first president of the Society of Women Engineers.

Early life and education Beatrice Alice Hicks was born in 1919 in Orange, New Jersey, to Florence Benedict and William Lux Hicks, a chemical engineer. Hicks decided at an early age that she wanted to be an engineer. While her parents neither supported nor opposed Hicks' desired career path, some of her teachers and classmates tried to discourage her from becoming an engineer, viewing it as a socially unacceptable role for a woman.

She graduated from Orange High School in 1935 and received a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Newark College of Engineering (now New Jersey Institute of Technology) in 1939, During college, Hicks worked in the treasury office of an Abercrombie & Fitch store as a telephone operator, and in the university's library.

Career In 1942 Hicks took a job at the Western Electric Company, first working in the test set design department where she set up tests for telephone equipment that was used in toll circuits and then designing and testing quartz crystal oscillators in Kearny, New Jersey. Others of her sensors monitored pressure, fuel levels, and flow rates for both liquids and gases.

While at Newark Controls Hicks pursued a master's degree in physics, which she received in 1949 from the Stevens Institute of Technology.

In 1966, Hicks sold off Newark Controls Company and took over her late husband's consulting business.

In 1978 Hicks was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the highest professional honor in engineering, and became the sixth woman elected. In 2013, she received the Advancement of Invention Award from the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame. In 2017, Hicks was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Hicks received honorary doctorates from Hobart and William Smith College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Stevens Institute of Technology, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She was the first female recipient of an honorary doctorate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Legacy In 1950 Hicks and other women based on the East coast of the United States began meeting to form an organization, the goal of which was to advance female engineers and increase female participation in engineering. The organization was incorporated as the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) two years later. Hicks served as the president of SWE for two consecutive terms, from 1950 to 1952. She believed that while female engineers would initially be closely watched, they would also be quickly accepted.

Hicks was the first woman engineer to be hired by Western Electric, and both co-founder and first president of the Society of Women Engineers. When her husband died in 1966, Hicks sold off Newark Controls Company and took over her late husband's consulting business.