Willie Hobbs Moore

Willie Hobbs Moore (May 23, 1934 – March 14, 1994) was an African American physicist and engineer. She is the first African American woman to earn a PhD in physics.

Early life Willie Hobbs was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on May 23, 1934, to parents Bestie and Will Hobbs.

Education In 1952, Hobbs moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan where she attended the University of Michigan as a first-generation college student. At the University of Michigan, she earned a bachelor of science in electrical engineering in 1958 and a master of science in electrical engineering in 1961. Moore was the first black woman to earn a bachelor of science and master of science in electrical engineering at the University of Michigan. Her doctoral thesis, A Vibrational Analysis of Chlorides, was completed under the supervision of spectroscopist Dr. Samuel Krimm. Moores thesis focused on the vibrations of secondary chlorides for polyvinyl-chloride polymers. In her work, Moore calculated the vibrational modes of many nonlinear organic molecules that contain secondary chloride atoms. Her goal was to complete a potential field that could be used in normal coordinate analyses to predict the vibrational modes of all secondary chlorides. Next, Moore used vibrational spectroscopy to determine the structure of PVCs. With her data Moore obtained a force field for secondary chlorides and used it to calculate the vibrational frequencies of crystalline PVC. In the five years following her dissertation, she published more than thirty papers with Krimm and collaborators, in a variety of journals, including the Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy, The Journal of Chemical Physics, and the Journal of Applied Physics.

Career From 1961 to 1962 Moore worked at a Junior engineer at Bendix Aerospace Systems, where she calculated the radiation from various types of plasmas and also wrote proposals. From 1962-1963 Moore took a job at Barnes Engineering Company where she worked on approximating the IR radiation from wakes of space reentry vehicles. By the end of 1963, Moore was working at Senor Dynamics as a theoretical analyst of stress-optical devices. Moore expanded Ford's use of Japanese engineering and manufacturing methods in the 1980s. Moore went on to become an executive at Ford; in this position she oversaw the warranty department of the automobile assembly.

The University of Michigan department of Electrical & Computer Engineering invites alumni from underrepresented groups to give their ECE Willie Hobbs Moore Alumni Lecture, a lecture series aimed at bringing together professional leaders with the university community.

Selected Publications

Moore, W.H.; Ching, J.H.C.; Warrier, A.V.R.; Krimm, S. (October 1973). "Assignment of torsion and low frequency bending vibrations of secondary chlorides". Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular Spectroscopy. 29 (10): 1847–1858. doi: 10.1016/0584-8539(73)80169-2 Moore, W. H.; Krimm, S. (November 1973). "Calculated intermolecular interactions in secondary chlorides". The Journal of Chemical Physics. 59 (9): 5195–5196. doi: 10.1063/1.1680738. Moore, W.H.; Krimm, S. (December 1973). "A complete general valence force field for secondary chlorides". Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular Spectroscopy. 29 (12): 2025–2042.doi:10.1016/0584-8539(73)80061-3. Moore, W.H. and Krimm S. (June 1975). "The Vibrational Spectrum of Crystalline Syndiotactic Poly(vinyl chloride)", Die Makromoleculare Chemie, Suppl. 1 (S19751): 491-506. doi:10.1002/macp.1975.020011975134 Hsu, S. L.; Moore, W. H.; Krimm, S. (October 1975). "A vibrational analysis of crystalline trans‐1,4‐polybutadiene". Journal of Applied Physics. 46 (10): 4185–4193. doi:10.1063/1.321430 Moore, W. H.; Krimm, S. (December 1, 1975). "Transition dipole coupling in Amide I modes of βpolypeptides". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 72 (12): 4933–4935. doi:10.1073/pnas.72.12.4933. Hsu, S.L., Moore, W.H. and Krimm, S. (August 1976). "Vibrational spectrum of the unordered polypeptide chain: A Raman study of feather keratin". Biopolymers. 15 (8): 1512-1528. doi: 10.1002/bip.1976.360150807 Moore, W.H. and Krimm, S. (December 1976). "Vibrational analysis of peptides, polypeptides, and proteins. I. Polyglycine I." Biopolymers 15 (12): 2439-2462. doi: 10.1002/bip.1976.360151210 Rabolt, J. F.; Moore, W. H.; Krimm, S. (September 1977). "Vibrational Analysis of Peptides, Polypeptides, and Proteins. 3. α-Poly(L-alanine)". Macromolecules. 10 (5): 1065–1074. doi:10.1021/ma60059a034 Wu, Yuin and Wille Hobbs Moore. Quality Engineering Products and Process Design Optimization. American Supplier Institute, 1986.