Saito, Mitsutaka Fujita, Gene Dresselhaus, and Mildred Dresselhaus) first predicted the band structures of carbon nanotubes. The Dresselhaus effect refers, however, to the spin–orbit interaction effect modeled by Gene Dresselhaus, Mildred Dresselhaus's husband. Dresselhaus devoted a great deal of time to supporting efforts to promote increased participation of women in physics. In 1971, Dresselhaus and a colleague organized the first Women's Forum at MIT as a seminar exploring the roles of women in science and engineering. In honor of her legacy, the APS created the Millie Dresselhaus Fund to support women in physics. Dresselhaus was the face of a 2017 General Electric television advertisement which asked the question "What if female scientists were celebrities?" aimed to increase the number of women in STEM roles in its ranks. In 2019, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Board of Directors created the IEEE Mildred Dresselhaus Medal, awarded annually "for outstanding technical contributions in science and engineering, of great impact to IEEE fields of interest." Contributions to scientific knowledge Dresselhaus was particularly noted for her work on graphite, graphite intercalation compounds, fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and low-dimensional thermoelectrics. Her group made frequent use of electronic band structure, Raman scattering and the photophysics of carbon nanostructures. Her research helped develop technology based on thin graphite which allow electronics to be "everywhere", including clothing and smartphones. With the appearance of lasers in the 1960s, Dresselhaus started to use lasers for magneto-optics experiments, which later led to the creation of a new model for the electronic structure of graphite. A great part of her research dedicates to the study of 'buckyballs' and graphene focusing a great deal in the electrical properties of carbon nanotubes and enhancing thermoelectric properties of nanowires. Personal life Her first husband was physicist Frederick Reif. She was then married to Gene Dresselhaus, a well known theoretician and discoverer of the Dresselhaus effect. They had four children – Marianne, Carl, Paul, and Eliot – and five grandchildren. Honors and awards Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science from the ETH Zurich, 2015 IEEE Medal of Honor, 2015 (first female recipient) National Inventors Hall of Fame induction 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom, 2014 Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, 2013 Von Hippel Award, Materials Research Society, 2013 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience, 2012 Enrico Fermi Award (second female recipient), 2012 Vannevar Bush Award (second female recipient), 2009 ACS