Melba Newell Phillips (February 1, 1907 – November 8, 2004) was an American physicist and pioneer science educator. One of the first doctoral students of J. Robert Oppenheimer at the University of California, Berkeley, Phillips completed her Ph.D. in 1933, a time when few women pursued careers in science. In 1935 Oppenheimer and Phillips published their description of the Oppenheimer–Phillips process, an early contribution to nuclear physics that explained the behavior of accelerated nuclei of radioactive hydrogen atoms. Phillips was also known for refusing to cooperate with a U.S. Senate judiciary subcommittee's investigation on internal security during the McCarthy era that led to her dismissal from her professorship at Brooklyn College, where she was a professor of science from 1938 until 1952. (The college publicly and personally apologized to Phillips for the dismissal in 1987.) Phillips also taught at the University of Minnesota (1941–44) and served as associate director of a teacher-training institute at Washington University (1957–62) in St. Louis, Missouri, before joining the faculty at the University of Chicago (1962–72) as a professor of physics. During her retirement years, Phillips was a visiting professor at Stony Brook University (1972–75) and taught at the University of Science and Technology of China, Chinese Academy of Science (1980), in Beijing. Phillips was a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition to teaching, Phillips co-authored science textbooks and was active in the American Association of Physics Teachers. The AAPT established the Melba Newell Phillips Medal in her honor in 1981 to recognize outstanding service to the organization. Early life and education Melba Phillips was born on February 1, 1907, near Hazleton, Gibson County, Indiana. She was the only daughter and oldest of Eilda Elizabeth (Meehan) and Virgil B. Phillips' four children. Phillips graduated from Union High school in 1922, at the age of fifteen. Intending to become an educator, Phillips studied mathematics at Oakland City College in Indiana, where she earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1926. Afterwards, Phillips taught at her former high school for two years before entering graduate school. Phillips earned a master's degree in physics from Battle Creek College in Michigan in 1928 and a doctorate degree in physics at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1933. She was one of the first doctoral students of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who later became scientific head of the Manhattan Project,