Biography: Giovonnae Anderson, Ph.D. '79

Giovonnae (Vonnie) Anderson

Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, ‘79

Giovonnae (Vonnie) Anderson is the first African-American woman with a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at a major institution. She obtained her Ph.D. at UC Davis in 1979 for her dissertation on “The Effect of Non-Uniform Channel Doping on Microwave Logic Devices“. Dr. Anderson obtained her BS in Physics from Hampton University and her MS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University for her thesis “Varactor Tuning of Gunn Diodes in Microstrip Design”. She has over 40 years of engineering experience beginning with IBM (1972-1979), Hewlett Packard and Agilent Technologies (1979-2002). She has done work in solid state device modelling, design and measurement of circuits and systems operating in the RF, microwave and optical regimes. She was the campus recruitment manager for Hewlett Packard/Agilent Technologies from 1991 until 2001, and moved UC Davis from #20 to #1 in schools with the most hires into HP and Agilent. She was an RF and microwave consultant with her company, Clear Stream Technologies from 2005-2010. In 2016, she created Software Tailoring (www.software-tailoring.com) that uses 3D body scans to provide custom patterns for tailoring and custom clothing design. Dr. Anderson has always been a strong advocate for women and people of color in science and engineering. She received a Distinguished Alumni Award, College of Engineering, UC Davis in 1997, Citation for Excellence UC Davis Alumni Award in 1997, the Outstanding Internship Sponsor Award, UC Davis in 1999 and the Outstanding Minority Women, “Women Who Make A Difference” Award from the National Women of Color Conference in Atlanta, Georgia in 2001.