Willetta Greene-Johnson

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Willetta Greene-Johnson
Born (1957-03-01) March 1, 1957 (age 67)
Delaware, United States[1]
Alma materUniversity of Chicago
Stanford University
Scientific career
FieldsPhase interactions
InstitutionsLoyola University Chicago
ThesisThe effects of the exchange mode dynamics on vibrational phase relaxation at surfaces

Willetta Greene-Johnson (born 1957) is a senior lecturer in the physics and chemistry departments at

Grammy award
winning musician for her song "Saved" (2004).

Early life and education

Willetta Greene-Johnson was born in Delaware in 1957 and raised in Michigan, surrounded by music and science.[3][4] Greene's parents were both scientists—her mother, Bettye Washington Greene, was one of the first African-American women to receive a PhD in chemistry and her father, William Miller Greene, was an engineer and former captain in the U.S. Airforce who was trained just a decade after the Tuskegee Airmen.[4][5] Greene-Johnson's parents exposed her to a wide range of music, including Ella Fitzgerald, Barbra Streisand and The Beatles.[5] One of her earliest memories about her attraction toward orchestral and gospel music started with a performance of Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven).[5]

Greene-Johnson's parents encouraged her to pursue a career in science.[4][5] She began her undergraduate career as a pre-med major but later studied physics at Stanford University, graduating in 1979 with distinction.[1][6] In 1979 she joined the AT&T Cooperative Research Fellowship Program (CRFP).[7] As part of the program, she spent a summer working at AT&T's labs.[8] She then pursued her doctoral degree and was one of the first African-American women to complete a PhD in theoretical physics, which she earned in 1988 at the University of Chicago.[2] Her doctoral research focused on the dynamics of vibrational phase relaxation at surfaces.[9]

Career

Research

After her PhD, Greene-Johnson became a

Ford Fellow in the department of physics at Loyola University Chicago, where she worked on surface optico-physical interactions.[10][11] She joined the faculty of Loyola University Chicago in 1992.[12] She has been Master Teacher of chemistry and physics since 2005.[13] She teaches courses in general chemistry, college physics, quantum mechanics and biophysics.[12] She was a keynote speaker at the 2014 Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics.[14][15]

Music

Her 2004 song, "Saved", is featured on a

Grammy Award winning Brooklyn Tabernacle CD project.[1] The song reflects on the meaning of life.[4] It was translated into four languages and distributed worldwide.[16] In 2010, she was named as a Woman of Excellence for her achievements in music.[5] She plays with the Chicago Sinfonietta and has conducted in their annual Martin Luther King concert.[17] As a professor at Loyola University Chicago, Greene-Johnson uses the summer to balance researching physics topics as well as composing and recording music.[5] She has performed with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.[18] Throughout her career, she has preached and written about biblical topics and founded StrategicMusic, Inc. in 2003.[19][20]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Local science professor is national musician extraordinaire". The Chicago Defender. 2011-03-29. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  2. ^ a b "Willetta Greene-Johnson, Ph.D.: Physics, Department of: Loyola University Chicago". www.luc.edu. Retrieved 2018-05-12.
  3. ^ a b "NIU Today - NIU conference encourages graduate students of color to pursue the professoriate". NIU Today. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
  4. ^
    ISBN 9780841298385
    – via ACS Publications.
  5. ^ a b c d e f "archive: Dr. Willetta Greene-Johnson: Where Science and Award-Winning Music Meet: Chemistry & Biochemistry, Department of : Loyola University Chicago". luc.edu. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  6. ^ "Connection to Loyola". asprandel.weebly.com. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  7. ^ "Mentoring For Success: Nurturing Minorities and Women for Engineering/Scientific Leadership" (PDF). Centre for Advanced Computation and Telecommunications. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  8. ^ "National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowships". Science Magazine. 1993. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  9. ^ Greene-Johnson, Willetta (1987). Holdings: The effects of the exchange mode dynamics on vibrational phase relaxation at surfaces /. catalog.lib.uchicago.edu (Thesis). Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  10. ISSN 0301-0104
    .
  11. ^ "Excellence through Diversity: Profile of Forty-Two Ford Foundation Fellows" (PDF). National Research Council. 1996. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  12. ^ a b "Willetta Greene-Johnson, Ph.D.: Physics, Department of: Loyola University Chicago". www.luc.edu. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  13. ^ Desk, TV News. "Chicago Sinfonietta Presents Praise + Punk in a Smashing Battle of the Bands May 12 & 14". Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  14. ^ "A "One-Stop Shop" for Aspiring Female Physicists". Society of Physics Students. 2014-02-16. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  15. ^ "2014 Midwest Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics". cuwip.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  16. ^ "SongCast | Artist Bio". www.songcastmusic.com. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  17. ^ "The Journey, The Dream-Chicago Sinfonietta". Issuu. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  18. ^ Bios, StrategicMusic, Inc. "StrategicMusic, Inc. - Bios". strategicmusic.biz. Retrieved 2018-05-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  19. ISBN 9780983131762
    .
  20. ISBN 9781517184308
    .
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