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She invented touch tone phones, the portable fax machine and fiber optic cables used to make overseas calls clearer. Jackson also used her skills in science to make call waiting and caller ID possible.

 

Today, Jackson is the president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She's the first female and African American to hold the position. She also became the first African American female to receive a doctorate in Theoretical Solid State physics from MIT.

 

Dr. Jackson became a Research Associate in Theoretical Physics at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory from 1973-1974 and served as a Visiting Science Associate at the European Organization for Nuclear Research from 1974 to 1975.

 

Dr. Jackson then returned to Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory as a Research Associate in Theoretical Physics.

 

She spent 1976-77 at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and Aspen Center for Physics. Dr. Jackson also served on the Technical Staff of Bell Telephone Laboratories in theoretical physics from 1976 until 1978. In 1978 Shirley Jackson began working with the Technical Staff of the Scattering and Low Energy Physics Research Laboratory of Bell Telephone Laboratories.