Katharine Burr Blodgett was born on January 10, 1898 in Schenectady, New York. Her father had been head of the patent department at the General Electric Company (G.E.) when he died in 1897, shortly before Katharine was born. She was later to work at G.E. as a research scientist, the first woman to be hired there in such a position.

After her father's death, the family moved to New York City, France, and back to New York City about 1912. Katharine won an academic scholarship to attend Bryn Mawr College in 1913. Toward the end of her studies at Bryn Mawr, Katharine visited G.E. and met Irving Langmuir, who had worked with her father. Langmuir encouraged her to further her education before trying to obtain a position at G.E. In 1917, Blodgett entered the University of Chicago and began working with Harvey B. Lemon on the adsorption of gases on charcoal. This work was published after the war, and by that time Blodgett had been hired by G.E. as a research scientist, where she began her long collaboration with Irving Langmuir, only taking time out to obtain a Ph.D. After she had worked with Langmuir for about six years, he urged her to go to Cambridge University, where she worked for Nobelist Sir Ernest Rutherford. It is noteworthy that she is the sole author on the publication resulting from her doctoral thesis. Blodgett was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge University.

Blodgett returned to G.E., reestablished her collaboration with Langmuir, and worked with him on many different projects, including those involving thin films. She soon became an expert on thin films in her own right. In 1938, she invented nonreflecting glass by building up a 44-molecule thick film on the glass surface. Soon after this she developed a gauge to determine the thickness of these thin films. She obtained six U.S. patents for this work. Because of their many contributions to the science and technology of thin films, that general area is known as Langmuir-Blodgett technology.

Blodgett was honored for her work in many ways--she received honorary doctorates of science from Elmira College, Brown University, Western College, and Russell Sage College. In 1951 she was the first industrial scientist to be awarded the Garvan Medal. That same year, Schenectady honored her with Katharine Blodgett Day for her scientific and civic contributions. Unfortunately, she was not included in a history of G.E. that was published in 1953.

Katharine Burr Blodgett retired from G.E. in 1963. She died on October 12, 1979 in Schenectady.

1. Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics: Katharine Burr Blodgett
2. Cutting the Glare: Katharine Burr Blodgett's "invisible glass" helps us see," Technology Review May/June 1999

1. Finley, K. T.; Siegel, P. J. Katharine Burr Blodgett (1898-1979). In Women in Chemistry and Physics: A Biobibliographic Sourcebook; Grinstein, L. S.; Rose, R. K.; Rafailovich, M. H., Eds.; Greenwood Press: Westport, CT, 1993; pp 65-71.
2. Rayner-Canham, M. F.; Rayner-Canham, G. Katharine Burr Blodgett (1898-1979). In Women in Chemistry: Their Changing Roles from Alchemical Times to The Mid-Twentieth Century; American Chemical Society and the Chemical Heritage Foundation: Washington, DC, 1998; pp 172-175.
3. Katharine Burr Blodgett (1898-1979) Physicist. In Notable Women in The Physical Sciences: A Biographical Dictionary; Shearer, B. F.; Shearer, B. S., Eds.; Greenwood Press: Westport, CT, 1997; pp 20-27.