Nadya Mason joined the faculty of the Department of Physics at the University of Illinois in 2005. She became the first African American woman to receive tenure in the College of Engineering. Nadya is a winner of the Maria GoeppertMayer Award of the American Physical Society (2012) and the Denice Denton Emerging Leader Award (2009.) Nadya was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows from 2002 to 2005.

Women featured in our weekly series are part of the 150 for 150 website Celebrating the Accomplishments of Women at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The website was created by the Gender Equity Council and the University Library to highlight women who have made significant achievements during their time at the University either as students, staff, faculty, or alumni.