Yvonne Madelaine Brill (née Claeys; December 30, 1924 â March 27, 2013) was a Canadian American rocket and jet propulsion engineer. She is responsible for inventing the Electrothermal Hydrazine Thruster (EHT/Resistojet), a fuel-efficient rocket thruster that keeps todayâÂÂs satellites in orbit, and holds a patent for its invention. During her career she was involved in a broad range of national space programs in the United States, including NASA and the International Maritime Satellite Organization.
Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to Belgium immigrant parents, Yvonne Brill, was a first-generation Canadian. She was inspired to go to school by Amelia Earhart, the first woman pilot to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. Despite her desire to attend school, she faced several hurdles, her father encouraged her to open a shop in their hometown instead of pursuing additional education, and her high school physics teacher told her that "a woman would never get anywhere". She applied to the University of Manitoba's engineering program at 18, but was denied by the school, as they claimed that their mandatory summer camp did not have the necessary facilities to host female students. Despite this, Yvonne was the first in her family to go to college, graduating from the University of Manitoba in 1945 at the top of her class with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. She went on to study at the University of Southern California, where she took night classes and graduated in 1951 with a Master of Science in Physical Chemistry. Her denial to ManitobaâÂÂs school of engineering forever inspired her to encourage women in the sciences, and in her, forged an unwavering confidence against gender-based discrimination.
Following her graduation from the University of Manitoba, Brill began working at Douglas Aircraft in the United States in 1945. She mentions the shortage of technical graduates due to the United States conscription as a reason she was offered multiple positions despite her lack of an engineering degree. Her main interest was in engineering, but she started as a mathematician in the Research Department and later transferred to Douglasâ Aerodynamics Department. There were very few women with which Brill worked. This was where she decided to pursue her Master's in Chemistry through late-night classes as she felt there was "no future" for her as a mathematician.
She was then assigned to start working on the Project RAND contract as a mathematician and as part of the chemistry group. Project RAND focused on a new field of rockets, including the first American satellite. Project RAND switched from satellites to focus on missiles and ramjet propellants around 1948 due to the Cold War; this prompted Brill to apply for other jobs. She started work at Marquardt where she was the only woman engineer. She then met her husband, and continued working, as a consultant, while raising their three children.
After raising their children and returning to full-time work, she took a position at RCAâÂÂs rocket subsidiary, Astro Electronics. Here, she developed the concept for a new rocket engine, inventing the Electrothermal Hydrazine Thruster (EHT/Resistojet) for which she holds US Patent No. 3,807,657. Her innovation resulted in higher engine performance and increased propulsion system reliability. She also proposed the use of a single propellant because of the value and simplicity that it would provide. The reduction in propellant weight requirements enabled either increased payload capability or extended mission life. The Resistojet proved to be more suitable for controlling satellitesâ orbit and their communication.
Her invention became a standard in the industry and has translated into millions of dollars of increased revenue for commercial communications satellite owners. Large aeronautics and aviation companies including, but not limited to, RCA, GE, Lockheed Martin, and Orbital Sciences have used the EHT in their communication satellites.
Brill contributed to the propulsion systems of TIROS, the first weather satellite; Nova, a series of rocket designs that were used in American Moon missions; Explorer 32, the first upper-atmosphere satellite; and the Mars Observer, which in 1992 almost entered a Mars orbit before losing communication with Earth.
Between the years of 1981 and 1983, Brill also contributed to development of the rocket engines of NASAâÂÂs space shuttles. She finished her career at NASA, overseeing the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Program and on the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel.
Brill was the recipient of many prestigious awards. She founded scholarships and a lectureship.
Brill was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (1987). She was also named fellow of The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) in 1985 and received its highest honor, the Achievement Award, the following year.
The Yvonne C. Brill Lectureship of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics is named in her honor and presented annually. She spent the last twenty years of her life promoting women in science and engineering.
While completing her Master's degree, she met her husband, William Brill, a post doctoral fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. The two were married within a year, and they soon moved East for WilliamâÂÂs job at FMC Corporation. The couple would move wherever work took him, and Yvonne later began working part-time and consulting jobs so that she could care for their two sons, Matthew and Joseph, and a daughter, Naomi.
At age 88, Yvonne Brill died of complications of breast cancer in Princeton, New Jersey.
An obituary of Brill published in the March 30, 2013, issue of the New York Times drew much news coverage not necessarily because of her remarkable accomplishments in the field of rocket science, but due to apparent sexism. It originally began: "She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job and took eight years off from work to raise three children". Only several paragraphs later would you be able to find out that she was actually working part-time while raising her children, and then returning to full-time employment that lead to her fame for her research and innovations. The obituary was heavily criticized for leading with and overemphasizing Brill's gender and family life, rather than her remarkable scientific and career achievements and was cited as an example of an article that failed the Finkbeiner test. The Times later dropped the reference to her cooking and changed the lead of the article.