Dudney graduated from the College of William & Mary in 1975, with a bachelor's degree in chemistry. She earned a Ph.D. in ceramics in 1979 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,[2] supervised by Robert L. Coble.[3]
She joined the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1979 for postdoctoral research as a Wigner Fellow, and obtained a permanent staff researcher position there in 1981. She became a group leader in thin film ceramics in 1999, a senior research staff member in 2006, and a distinguished senior research staff member in 2010.[2] She retired in 2021.[1][4]
