Dr. Sheila E. Widnall blazed a trail for women from the time she became a freshman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the fall of 1956 until she retired as Institute Professor Emerita in 2020. Her most visible accomplishment was being appointed Secretary of the Air Force by President Bill Clinton in 1993 (the first woman to lead a branch of the service). At MIT, Widnall had a lasting impact on the percentage of undergraduate and graduate women students. Widnall and Dr. Mildred Dresselhaus co-taught a “What is Engineering” class which targeted women and minority students understanding career paths in engineering. Hoping for 15 students, they had 100 students each semester. Widnall had a successful research program that initially focused on the life of wingtip vortices. As a result of her research, there was improved safety and increased airport capacity for aircraft operating near each other while landing and taking off. She discovered the Widnall instability, one of the factors that helped determine how the wingtip vortices broke down. Later research included helicopter noise, unsteady flow, and turbulent flow. Widnall was honored by the Society of Women Engineers as the 1975 Achievement Award recipient.