Heather Lechtman

Career

Lechtman graduated from Vassar College with an AB in Physics, and went on to work at the Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research (1956-1960), the American Institute of Physics (1960-1962), and Brookhaven National Laboratory (1963-1964). In 1966 she received an MA in Fine Arts and Archaeology at New York University. She then became a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1967, and a professor in Materials Science and Engineering there in 1974. Her research has demonstrated the development and spread of metallurgical technologies in the Andean region, and in particular the use of bronze alloys such as arsenic bronze.