Fanny Cook Gates

Fanny Cook Gates earned a PhD in Physics in 1909 from the University of Pennsylvania when the nation’s annual production of physics PhD’s was about 10. In her research, Fanny demonstrated that radioactivity is not destroyed by either heat or ionization from chemical reactions. In 1916, she came to the University of Illinois where she was an Associate Professor of Physics. Fanny was also appointed Dean of Women at the University of Illinois, where she planned and organized the beginning of the University’s residence hall program and the first cooperative houses for women students.