Page 23 - CEMS News Winter 2021
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                             ALUMNI NEWS
       In Memoriam: Phyllis (Brown) Branin
One of the earliest alumnae of the program, Phyllis Branin (ChE ’47) was also committed to CEMS through her philanthropy.
A devoted volunteer and philanthropist throughout her life, Phyllis (Brown) Branin (ChE ’47) dedicated countless hours of service to organizations including Learning Ally, Watershed, the Grounds for Sculpture, and Recording for the Blind, where she focused
on reading technical and science-related texts for visually impaired students. Phyllis was a passionate naturalist, adventurous traveler who sailed around the world, and dog lover. In CEMS, she established the Phyllis B. Branin Fellowship and Phyllis B. Branin Excellence in Service Award to recognize outstanding members of the staff. She passed away on December 9, 2020 at the age of 93.
The Spring 2003 edition of CEMS News included
a feature, “Women Trailblazers of the 1940s,” and Phyllis was a prominent figure alongside her female peers: Josephine (Daubney) Boyd (ChE ’48), Roberta “Bobbie” Huston Cronquist (ChE ’47), and Rosalie (Sperling) Dinkey (ChE ’48).
A portion of Phyllis’ content is being reprinted now (below), in honor of her pioneering chemical engineering education and accomplishments.
CEMS alumna Phyllis (Brown) Branin (pictured, front row, far right) in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) student group yearbook photo in The Gopher, 1946. Photo courtesy of the University of Minnesota Archives.
 Phyllis Brown Branin was one of the trailblazers for women chemical engineers of the 1940s. She was 16 years old when she started at the University of Minnesota and 19 when she graduated. She was
to development of shop size equipment for plutonium chemistry. While in Richland, she got married, and they soon moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where they both obtained jobs at RCA. She worked in process engineering
 on a fast track schedule, taking
heavy credit loads every quarter“Go ahead as if unaware that any
on phosphor screen application for color kinescopes. These tubes became part of the earliest color television sets. When that plant closed, she was out of work for a year, but then received an offer to set up a lab at RCA in Princeton, New Jersey on a research and development scale.
Phyllis did run into barriers because of her gender, but she also had some successes. Her greatest success was being awarded the David Sarnoff Medal from RCA for her
  and attending school every summer as well. The system was set up to favor the GI-Bill veterans who were anxious to get out on the job as quickly as possible.
barriers exist. Persist.”
— PHYLLIS BRANIN (QUOTED IN 2003)
     In junior high, Phyllis made
up her tentative high school
schedule. Her math teacher said, “This looks like an engineering program.” She agreed with him and never changed her aim.
Phyllis’ first job was at the Y-12 Plant at Oak Ridge. She
ran huge ion exchange columns for separation of rare earths. Her next job was in Richland, Washington, where she worked for GE, the AEC contractor at the time, for four years. It was a lab job, working all the way from micro-scale
work in developing a process to adapt certain materials to make their use commercially feasible.
Attending the University of Minnesota was a great experience for her and gave her good preparation for her future career, and she therefore feels strongly about supporting the University of Minnesota.
Phyllis’ advice is, “Go ahead as if unaware that any barriers exist. Persist.”
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