Melba Phillips was born February 1, 1907, in Hazleton, Indiana. She graduated from high school at the age of 15, and by 1926 had already earned her bachelor's degree in mathematics from Oakland City College of Indiana. She received her master's degree in physics in 1928 from Battle Creek College of Michigan, and she became one of the first doctoral students of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who led the effort to build the first atomic bomb. She received her doctoral degree in physics under Oppenheimer's supervision in 1933 at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 1935, Phillips and Oppenheimer offered an explanation for what was at the time unexpected behavior of accelerated deuterons (nuclei of deuterium, or "heavy hydrogen" atoms) in reactions with other nuclei. This explanation became known as the Oppenheimer-Phillips effect. "It's considered one of the classics of early nuclear physics," said Stuart Rice, Professor in Chemistry, University of Chicago.

After leaving Berkeley in 1935, Phillips held a series of temporary positions at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., and the Connecticut College for Women. In 1938, Phillips obtained a long-term faculty position at Brooklyn College. She also began working part-time in 1944 at the Columbia University Radiation Laboratory. She lost both jobs in 1952 for refusing to testify before the U.S. Senate's Internal Security subcommittee formed to investigate alleged communist activities.

After losing her jobs, Phillips remained unemployed for several years. During that time she wrote two textbooks, Principles of Physical Science, with Bonner, and Classical Electricity and Magnetism, with W.K.H. Panofsky, which became widely used for undergraduate and graduate physics training.

In 1957, Edward Condon at Washington University appointed Phillips associate director of the university's Academic Year Institute, a teacher-training institute. Phillips left Washington University to join the University of Chicago faculty in 1962, and retired as a Professor Emerita in 1972. Under her influence the University began teaching physical science courses for non-science majors, a tradition that continues today. She continued to work after leaving Chicago, serving as a visiting professor at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, until 1975, and as a visiting professor at the Graduate School of the University of Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, in 1980.

Honors include: the American Physical Society Joseph Burton Forum Award, 2003; the Guy and Rebecca Forman Award for Outstanding Teaching in Undergraduate Physics from Vanderbilt University, 1988; the Karl Taylor Compton Award of the American Institute of Physics for distinguished statesmanship in science, 1981; the Oersted Medal of the American Association of Physics Teachers, for notable contributions to the teaching of physics, 1974; an honorary degree from Oakland City College, 1964; and a Distinguished Service Citation, American Association of Physics Teachers, 1963. She also was a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

(Condensed from the University of Chicago News Office press release, 11/16/2004)