Dr. Gloria Hoff
Professor, University of Illinios at Chicago

Dr. Gloria Hoff, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is a pioneer in the field of high energy physics. Her groundbreaking research has focused on understanding the structure of baryons, subatomic particles which compose the nuclei of atoms in all existing matter. Although her early work was very controversial, and even sometimes ridiculed, her models have now been almost universally accepted, earning her a strong international reputation.

Gloria Thelma Albuerne y Rodrigues was born in 1930 in the secluded coastal shrimping town of Cienfuegos, Cuba. Her mother was the oldest of 8 children and only had a fourth grade education; her father completed school through grade eight. Despite these setbacks, Hoff's parents deeply valued education and encouraged their daughter to learn all she could from an early age. Her mother tutored her at home before Hoff began her schooling, and even went so far as preventing young Hoff from learning to cook so that she would focus on her studies instead of domestic tasks.

After reading a biography of Marie Curie while in high school, Hoff decided she wanted to follow in Marie's footsteps and went on to major in physics at the University of Havana. After teaching high school and college in Cuba for several years, she went on to earn her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago.

In a field which is only 3% female, Hoff has managed to live and do research in a way different from her male colleagues. She has always focused on thoroughly analyzing experimental data and doing very complete, quality driven research rather than racing to publish as many papers as possible. Her 1972 paper involved handling and compiling all the available world data on pion nucleon scattering, and was published when her daughter was 11/2 years old and while one of her sons was battling cancer. She managed to devote attention to both her family and a demanding career at a time when there were few women role models doing this. Hoff even managed to blend her family life and love of physics by having her eleven-year-old son Eric plot data for her research and then including him as an author in her 1972 paper.

Hoff gives back to the community by working on behalf of minority and disadvantaged students. She has been involved for eleven years with the Early Outreach Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago, which targets high school minority students. The program introduces them to and deepens their knowledge of physics during a 6 to 8 week program which meets on consecutive Saturdays during the school year. As a mentor in the Intensive Science and Math Regional Program for minority high school students, Hoff also works on in-depth research projects with a few high school students for six weeks each summer.