Dorothy Hoffman

Dorothy M. Hoffman (September 12, 1915 – December 13, 1996) was an American chemical engineer. In 1974 she became the first woman to be elected president of American Vacuum Society and the first woman to serve as president of any scientific society in the USA.

Early life She was born in New York City and attended City University of New York. Trained as a concert pianist, she performed at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. Dorothy Hoffman got her B.S. in chemical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1947 and an MS in chemical engineering from Bucknell University in 1948.

Career Hoffman's technical expertise was in thin-film technology. Her first technical job was at General Electric, tasked with discovering what was causing spots on dishes cleaned in Hotpoint dishwashers.

She and her husband Earl soon moved to Philadelphia, where she worked for International Resistance Co. as a research engineer before being promoted to head of process development. Hoffman played a significant role in the development of evaporated-metal-film resistors during this time.

Society of Women Engineers Dorothy Hoffman was an active member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at a local and national levels, serving on their board of trustees from 1980 to 1989. She was elected a SWE Fellow in 1984 and provided funding for several SWE scholarships and the development of new career guidance programs in her will. This resulted in publication of the popular "Handbook of Vacuum Science and Technology" by Academic Press, of which she is the lead co-editor.

In 2002, the American Vacuum Society established the Dorothy M. and Earl S. Hoffman student award "to recognize and encourage excellence in continuing graduate studies in the sciences and technologies of interest to AVS."