Although it sits in the heart of the jungle, Wakanda is the most technologically advanced nation in the world thanks to its sole proprietorship of an extraterrestrial metal known as vibranium. To the fortune of the people of Wakanda, the immense and only reserve of vibranium in a meteorite landed within their borders. This out of worldly element possess energy transforming properties that causes kinetic energy to be stored as potential energy that can be released by demand. This gives vibranium a variety of weaponized capabilities in particular being micro-weaved into a personal battle suit for T’Challa the sworn protector of his royal subjects.

With the publication of her Ph.D. thesis, Dr. Williams became the first person to work out the Penrose process of black holes in four-dimensions (three-space momenta and energy). Dr. Roger Penrose, professor at the University of Oxford, won half of the Nobel Prize in physics in 2020 for his proof that black holes are a direct consequence of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Her calculations that work out his theory explained that black hole jets are emitted as escaping tornado-like coils of photons and electrons, and when black holes drag spacetime into rotation near their cores, they may also produce uneven jets. It’s reasonable to believe the work of Dr. Williams working out his theory is in some part responsible for him receiving his portion of the Nobel Prize.

Unfortunately, this ground breaking achievement by Dr. Williams did not catapult her to the forefront of the theoretical astrophysics community as one would expect. In April of 2004, Williams published a letter titled A Word from a Black Female Relativistic Astrophysicist: Setting the Record Straight on Black Holes addressing her experience with the breakthrough and her inability to receive appropriate citation and credit for her work. She states:

Before working out a solution to the Penrose mechanism: to extract energy from a rotating black hole, the Penrose mechanism (since first proposed by Roger Penrose in 1969) had been attempted by scientists over the world for nearly two decades, with little success, although making some progress.

The letter further details “how analytic derivations of the conserved energy and azimuthal angular momentum of particle orbits not confined to the equatorial plane allowed me to succeed” where others before her did not.

Dr. Reva K. Williams is the first Black American woman to receive a Ph.D. in theoretical astrophysics. She is also the first person to successfully work out the Penrose process, the Nobel Prize winning theory which addresses the extraction of energy from black holes to power the energetic jets of quasars and active galactic nuclei. Since 2009, Williams has been a research assistant professor at the University of Toledo. Her continuing research interests are relativistic astrophysics, general relativity, cosmology, and extragalactic astronomy. You can learn more about Dr. Williams at revakaywilliams.com.

Ms. Tseegaye, a teenager from Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, won an award for her three minute video explaining quantum tunneling. As explained in her video, quantum tunneling is the phenomenon that describes subatomic particles moving through a barrier. Tsegaye won a $250,000 college scholarship, $50,000 for her science teacher that inspired her love for physics, and a $100,000 laboratory for her high school. The National Society of Black Physicists would like to congratulate Ms. Tsegaye on her impressive win and her informative video.

While at Penn he had a number of administrative leadership roles including serving as Chair of the Faculty Senate, Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy and as the Associate Dean for Natural Sciences in the School of Arts and Sciences.  For the American Physical Society (APS), he has served as chair of the APS Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public, Chair of the APS Nominating Committee that chooses candidates for election to leadership of the APS, and a member of the APS Executive Board.  Dr. Gladney was also the Director and Principal Investigator of the Penn Science Teacher Institute so he has had strong interests in community outreach, undergraduate teaching and improving diversity and inclusion in physical sciences for more than 3 decades.  His research interests have been mostly directed toward mission planning, particularly around use of Type Ia supernovae as standard candles for cosmological parameter measurements.  Hence, he has been a member of the Dark Energy Science Collaboration and its Supernova Analysis Working Group since its inauguration at Penn in 2012.  Dr. Gladney has also held multiple leadership roles in the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Corporation, a non-profit that supports the scientific mission of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory LSST mission.

It was clear Dr. Bowen was committed to the success of students and their growth as scientists. He taught the first physics classes and oversaw the construction of UWI Physics labs, lecture halls and offices; as well as the largest purchase of undergraduate physics lab equipment on record for the department.

After serving two years in the British West Indies Regiment as a Warrant Officer, he obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics in 1925 and a Master of Arts in Physics in 1926. Dr. Bowen also worked as a Lecturer at a Nigerrian University from 1931-1945. After attending the Imperial College of Science at London University as a research student in Spectroscopy, he was awarded a Physics PhD in 1949. In 1958, he was a representative at the 8th Quinquennial Congress of the Universities of the British Commonwealth in Canada. In 1959 and 1960 respectively, Dr. Bowen was appointed for the Jamaica Agricultural Scholarship Regulations as a Selection Committee member. He was also appointed Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) in 1960 by Queen Elizabeth II.

Dr. Francis Bowen continues to make an impact to this day, even posthumously, by supporting students. Named in his honor, the Francis Haddon Bowen scholarship offers tuition assistance and book grants to Jamican nationals pursuing physics and/or computer science. Dr. Bowen’s life and legacy displays how leadership and perseverance in our community supports sustainability and impacts generations to come. Like many of the amazing physicists we learned of this month, Dr. Bowen pioneered the way for future generations. And through his example of innovation and unity we can move forward as a vibrant, global community of black physicists. Like the Jamaican national motto says: “Out of Many, One people”.

Learn more about Dr. Bowen and his legacy on physics in Jamaica here.

While working on his M.S. degree at Stanford, Lyons served as a research fellow at Bell Telephone Laboratories in the Solar Physics Group, and as a researcher at Argonne National Laboratory in the Solid State Physics Department until 1976. In 1982, Dr. Lyons joined Corning Inc., and was appointed as a senior scientist in the Applied Physics Department. From 1985-1990, he worked as a physicist in the Applied Technology Section at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). In 1990, he served as a scientist at Grumman Aerospace Corporation and directed the Sensor Sciences and Material Structures Groups before moving on to become a part of the faculty at Hampton University in 1993 and served as the director of the Research Center for Optical Physics and is currently named the University Endowed Professor of Physics.

Dr. Lyons’ present focus of research is in the area of nonlinear effects in optical fibers where he studies UV induced photorefractive effects in optical fibers with emphasis on the use of the resulting Bragg reflection filters for distributed sensing, telecommunications, and medical applications. His current research is a result of the outgrowth of the research he conducted while at LLNL. As a scientist and physicists, Lyons has several U.S. patents and been awarded over fifteen research grants throughout his career. He has been awarded contracts related to the use of distributed Bragg reflection sensors for commercial applications and he has created several projects for the Department of Defense, the National Aeronautic and Space Administration, and the National Institute of Health. He has been recognized by the Upward Bound program for directing successful programs that center on mentoring college students in STEM and he has been recognized by the American Physical Society (APS) and the Virginia Business Observer for his contributions to science and technology.

After completing her Ph.D., Dr. Jackson held several positions, including: a research associate at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois; visiting scientist at CERN in Switzerland; scientists at AT&T Bell Lab; lecturing professor at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center; and a faculty member of Rutgers University in New Jersey. During her career, Dr. Jackson became a leading developer for many inventions, such as caller ID, call waiting, fiber-optic cables, thee portable fax machine, solar cells, and the touch tone telephone. In 1995, President Bill Clinton appointed Dr. Jackson to serve as Chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), becoming the first woman and African American to hold this position. Then in July of 1999, she became the 18th president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which is the oldest technological research university in the United States. She was also the first woman and African American to hold this position.

Among her many accomplishments, she was the first woman to serve as president of the National Society of Black Physicists in 1983. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2014, President Barack Obama appointed Dr. Jackson as Co-Chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory. In addition to the doctorate degree she holds at MIT, she has been award over 50 honorary doctoral degrees. In 2005, Time Magazine called Dr. Jackson “perhaps the ultimate role model for women in science”. Dr. Jackson is married to Dr. Morris A. Washington, a professor in physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and they have one son.

The Story of the Connection of the First Five Physics PhD Recipients to HBCUs
Written by Claudia M. Rankins, PhD, alumna Hampton University

Recent political events have shined the spotlight on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) as “Shelter in a Time of Storm”, a phrase coined by Dr. Jelani Favors in his book entitled as such [1].  HBCUs have been founded to educate Black students at a time when most white institutions refused to do so. To this day, they graduate a significant number of Black scientists and engineers, in the physical sciences that number is around 30% at the undergraduate level [2]. However undeservedly, to this day, HBCUs have to fight the stereotype that they are second rate institutions, as the late Supreme Court justice Antony Scalia referred to them. Yet, from these institutions emerge Black scholars of excellence and brilliance.

This essay details the connection of the first five Black physics PhD recipients to HBCUs. It is not meant as a complete biography of all these five men have achieved, but to highlight their contributions to physics at HBCUs. These men had impressive research contributions, as well as are responsible for educating generations of Black physicists.

The first physics PhDs to Black women were not awarded until the 1970s, when Willie Hobbs Moore in 1972 received the degree from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Shirley Ann Jackson from MIT in 1973, and Arlene Maclin from Howard University in 1974.

This story begins with Edward Alexander Bouchet who received his PhD from Yale University in 1876 on the subject of geometrical optics. He was the first Black physicist and among the first 20 Americans to earn a PhD in that discipline. Like many Black PhDs after him who received their degree from white institutions, he was not offered a faculty position by these institutions. He taught chemistry and physics for 26 years at the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia. This school was established in 1837 and was the forerunner of what we now know as Cheyney University. Dr. Bouchet resigned in 1902 when the Institute's college preparatory program was discontinued. Among other positions that followed, Dr. Bouchet held a teaching and administrative position at St. Paul’s Normal and Industrial School (later renamed St. Paul's College) from 1906 to 1908. St. Paul’s College sadly closed its doors in 2013. After teaching high school for a few years, Bouchet joined the faculty at Bishop College in 1913. Illness forced him to retire in 1916. Bishop College also sadly closed its doors in 1988.

Dr. Bouchet died in 1918, the year the second PhD was an awarded to a Black physicist, Elmer Samuel Imes. Dr. Imes had received a bachelor’s degree in science from Fisk University in 1903, a place he returned to in 1910 to teach mathematics and science. He received his PhD in 1918 from the University of Michigan, researching high resolution infrared spectrometers.  After working in industry, Imes returned to Fisk University in 1929 to start the AB program in physics. Imes' interest in infrared spectroscopy set the direction of the department's early research, which resulted in the beginning of the graduate program and laid the groundwork of the establishment of the Fisk Molecular Spectroscopy Research Laboratory in the late 1940's. Dr. Imes remained at Fisk until his death in 1941. His research was widely published and cited and he advanced the physics department at Fisk University as a leading one in the education of Black physicists and as a leader in research in the area of infrared spectroscopy.

John McNeile Hunter was the third Black physics PhD recipient in 1937.  He received his BS degree in electrical engineering from MIT and an MS and PhD in physics from Cornell University. In 1925 he obtained a position at Virginia State College (now University) as teacher of electrical wiring and operator of the power plant. Later he became professor and chair of the physics department. From 1925 to his retirement in 1967, be contributed to the education of many students, over 50 of whom became physicists and engineers. At least 10 of his students earned PhDs in physics, notably Herman Branson who also plays a role in this story. Dr. Hunter established a thriving physics department at a time when few HBCUs had such a department. He was instrumental in educating a generation of Black physicists in whom his legacy continues.

Two PhDs were awarded in 1939 to Black physicists. Hubert Mack Thaxton, a recipient of BS and MS degrees in mathematics and physics from Howard University, received his PhD in 1939 from the University of Wisconsin. Thaxton’s connection to HBCUs came at the beginning of his illustrious career as a researcher in the area of proton scattering and as a professor. From 1939 to 1944 he was professor and chair of physics at North Carolina A&T State University. He held these positions at Delaware State College (now University) from 1944-1946. He then moved to Walter Hervey College in New York and later held a number of industry jobs, before returning to academia in 1971 at the City College of New York where he was ultimately denied tenure.

Herman Russell Branson received a BS degree from Virginia State College in 1936, where he was a student of John Hunter. In 1939 he received his PhD in physics from the University of Cincinnati. Yes, three years later! In 1941, Branson became an assistant professor of physics and chemistry at Howard University, where in 1944 he was promoted to full professor and served as chairman of the physics department until 1968. During his time at Howard, he held several prestigious external appointments and had a distinguished research career. Branson was the dissertation advisor of the first two physics PhDs awarded at Howard University, Titus Pankey in 1962 and Arthur Thorpe in 1964.  The story of Dr. Thorpe is a noteworthy one and I wrote about his amazing contribution to the education of Black physicists [3]. From 1968 to 1970, Dr. Branson served as president of Central State University. In 1970, he became the president of Lincoln University and served until his retirement in 1985. Dr. Branson’s research accomplishments were enormous, most notably he was co-inventor of the alpha helix and he deserved a share of the Nobel prize with Linus Pauling. That story deserves to be written as well, as it is part of the history of Black scientists and engineers who did not receive full credit for their work.

Generation of Black physicists were taught and influenced by these five men and their legacies live on in future generations. Their contributions to science and education need to be highlighted and serve as inspiration to all.

Able graduated from Frostburg State University where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and Mathematics, minoring in Computer Science. While at Frostburg State University, Able pledged in the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. and he completed his membership of the Kappa Beta Chapter in the Fall of 1978. After graduating in 1982, Able moved to Houston, Texas, where he began his career working at the University of Texas (UT) Radiological Physics Center, performing retrospective analysis of radiation therapy charts for the Radiological Physics Center. In 1987, Able graduated from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences specializing in Radiological Therapeutic Physics.

Able is among the distinguished scientist and clinical research professionals in the field of radiology, to receive the Fellow of the American College of Radiology, one of the highest honors awarded to diagnostic radiologists, radiation oncologist, interventional radiologists, medical physicists, and nuclear medicine physicians. Able, who is the current Director of Medical Physics at the Tampa, Florida Cancer Specialists and Research Institute, has a career that spans over 30 years working as a Medical Physicist in cancer research and radiation therapy. Through his leadership, the radiation therapy program has grown from six to nine centers in 2020. The nine centers include eleven accelerators and two mobile HDR systems that are treating on average 300 patients a day.

Able’s career in Medical Physics has afforded him the opportunity to work for the nation’s top radiation therapy corporations, University of Texas MD Anderson Hospital, University of Texas Radiological Physics Center; University in New Mexico Cancer Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico; RadAmerica, Inc. Baltimore, Maryland; Lancaster General Hospital, Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Washoe Medical Center in Reno, Nevada and Wake Forest University Medical Center. Able has also worked as an Assistant Instructor of Radiological Physics at Howard University Washington, DC and an Assistant Professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine Winston-Salem, NC.

Able’s goal is to use his medical physics platform to do motivational speaking, to publish literature to uplift the African American community and to encourage minority youth to follow their dreams and aspirations. He understands the importance of giving back as he spearheaded the Wake Forest University STEM internship programs for college students allowing them to perform clinical research projects. “Mr. Able took me under his wings and taught me how to deal with politics in the workplace, gave me tips to obtaining certifications, and demonstrated professionalism as a medical physicist,” said Dr. Carnell Hampton, mentee and colleague. “He is my mentor and friend as he was my primary gateway to establishing my own network with African American Physicist and connections in the industry. He sets the standard by which a physicist should do business,” Hampton says.

Able faced adversity, racism and various challenges as he aspired to advance his career and education in Medical Physics. Nevertheless, Able has learned that there is no substitute for excellence. He believes everyone should commit to producing excellence in all his or her endeavors. In addition, nothing is a waste of time, every misstep, bone headed mistake, and failure is a learning opportunity and prepares you to be successful in the next endeavor. “You must maintain your focus and be persistent in the face of uncertainty and forecasted failure to reach your goals. Never, ever quit, I don’t know how to give up,” says Able.

Beyond his career as a medical physicist, Able is the founder and owner of Boom Publishing and Broadcasting, Inc., publishing fiction and nonfiction African American literature. His debut as an author will be an autobiography, highlighting his childhood, family and career, in June 2021.

Born in Hampton, Virginia, she graduated from George P. Phenix Training School with the highest honors. Upon graduation she enrolled into the HBCU Hampton University. There, Jackson earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physical science in 1942. After graduation, she relocated to Calvert County in Maryland to teach in segregated schools. From 1943 – 1951, she returned to the Hampton area to start and family, while holding several jobs in administration roles before being recruited by NACA as research mathematician, or computer at the Langley Research Center under the direction of Dorothy Vaughan in the segregated West Area Computing Section.

In 1953, an engineer named Kazimierz Czarnecki offered Jackson work in the Supersonic Pressure Tunnel, a wind tunnel used to study forces on a model by generating winds at almost twice the speed of sound. In order to be promoted to engineer, she took graduate courses at the University of Virginia. Upon completion of the program, she was promoted in 1958 to an aerospace engineer, becoming NASA’s first Black female engineer. Over the years, she continued to work as an engineer in several divisions at NASA and in 1979 was the most senior engineer.

Mary Jackson is noted for her work in helping women and other minorities in her field. While at NASA she served as the Federal Women’s Program Manager in the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs and as the Affirmative Action Program Manager. Throughout her career she received numerous awards and recognitions, including: The Apollo Group Achievement Award (1969), the Langley Research Center Volunteer of the Year (1976), the Iota Lambda Sorority Award for the Peninsula Outstanding Woman Scientist (1976) and the Congressional Gold Medal, just to name a few. She retired from NASA in 1985.

Posthumously, an elementary school was renamed in her honor to replace one that was named after President Andrew Jackson.  In June of 2020, NASA announced the headquarters’ building in Washington D.C. will be referred to as the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters.  Later that year, the satellite named ÑuSat 17 or “Mary” was launched into space in her honor.

Both his master's degree and doctorate in astrophysics came from the University of Illinois, in 1958 and 1962 respectively. His dissertation for his doctorate titled, “Photomeson Production from Neutrons Bound in Helium and Deuterium,” focused on the atomic binding of protons and neutrons, as well as the radiation and force carriers involved in this process.

He is most noted for having developed normal incidence multilayer XUV telescopes to photograph the solar corona. Two of his sounding rocket payloads, the Stanford/MSFC Rocket Spectroheliograph Experiment and the Multi-Spectral Solar Telescope Array, recorded the first full-disk, high-resolution images of the Sun in XUV with conventional geometries of normal incidence optics; this technology is now used in solar telescopes such as SOHO/EIT and TRACE, and in the fabrication of microchips via ultraviolet photolithography.

Walker is well remembered for advising minority race and female scientists. Momentously, his first doctoral student was future astronaut Sally K. Ride, the first female to orbit the Earth. Over a period of three decades, Walker mentored close to 40 African American who got their doctorates in physics at Stanford, a figure twice as large as the number of black doctorates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) over the same period and significantly more than any other university in the nation.

After graduating, he began working at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow. Two years later he became a full-time research physicist at the NRL's E. O. Hurlburt Center for Space Research. Five years later, he was awarded a patent for his “Image Converter for Detecting Electromagnetic Radiation Especially in Short Wave Lengths.” Dr. Carruthers’ UV telescope was used during a 1970 rocket flight, which helped to provide proof of the existence of molecular hydrogen in interstellar space. In 1972, the telescope was used during the first lunar walk of the Apollo 16 mission and for the first time, scientists could examine the Earth’s atmosphere for concentrations of pollutants, and see UV images of more than 550 stars, nebulae and galaxies. In the 1980’s one of his inventions captured a UV image of Halley’s Comet. In 1991, he invented a camera that was used in the Space Shuttle Mission. In 2002, Dr. Carruthers made the move to education and began teaching at the Howard University in Washington, D.C.

In 1972, he was awarded NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for his inventions that helped further NASA's mission. In 2003, he was inducted into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame for his work in science and engineering. In 2009, Carruthers was honored as a Distinguished Lecturer at the Office of Naval Research for his achievements in the field of space and science. In 2013, he was awarded the 2012 National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Barack Obama at the White House. Dr. Carruthers passed away on December 26, 2020 in a Washington hospital at the age of 81.

Ms. Parker continued to work as a research physicist at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio until 1947. From 1947-1951, she taught as an assistant professor at Fisk. In 1952, she was employed as a physicist in the geophysics research division at the Air Force Cambridge Research Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a leading research laboratory that emerged from the closure of the M.I.T. Radiation Laboratory and the Harvard Radio Research Laboratory after World War II. In 1951, Ms. Parker entered the physics graduate program at M.I.T., where she earned a second master’s degree in physics in 1953 and completed coursework for a Ph.D. However, she was unable to complete the process of defending her doctoral dissertation and graduating because she contracted leukemia, likely from her work with thee Dayton Project.

A true “hidden figure,” Carolyn Parker died in 1966, at age 48, and is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Gainesville. A school in Gainesville, formerly J.J. Finley Elementary, was renamed in her honor, the first school in Alachua County Florida to be named in honor of an African American woman.

In 1948, Branson took a leave and spent time at the California Institute of Technology, in the laboratory of the chemist Linus Pauling. There he was assigned work on the structure of proteins, specifically to use his mathematical abilities to determine possible helical structures that would fit both the available X-ray crystallography data and a set of chemical restrictions outlined by Pauling. After some months of work, Branson handed in a report narrowing the possible structures to two helices: a tighter coil Pauling termed "alpha," and a looser helix called "gamma." Branson then returned to Howard to work on other projects. Some months later he received a letter from Pauling along with a draft manuscript of a paper detailing the two helixes, with Branson listed as third author (after Pauling and his assistant Robert Corey, the laboratory's expert in transforming X-ray data into precise models). Pauling asked for suggestions. Branson replied in a letter that it was fine as written, approved submission to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and asked for 25 preprints when published.

Branson went on to a significant career, eventually serving as president of Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, from 1968–1970, and then president of Lincoln University until his retirement in 1985. He was active in increasing federal funding for higher education, and helped found the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education in 1990 .

In 1984 Branson wrote Pauling biographers Victor and Mildred Goertzel implying that his contribution to the alpha helix had been greater than the final paper indicated. "I took my work to Pauling who told me that he thought they [the proposed alpha and gamma helixes] were too tight, that he thought that a protein molecule should have a much larger radius so that water molecules could fit down inside and cause the protein to swell," he wrote. "I went back and worked unsuccessfully to find such a structure." When he received Pauling's note with the draft manuscript, Branson wrote, "I interpreted this letter as establishing that the alpha and gamma in my paper were correct and that the subsequent work done was cleaning up or verifying. The differences were nil." He added in his letter to the Goertzels that he "resented" the later attention lavished on Pauling and Corey. The conservative watchdog group Accuracy in Media referred to the incident in an attack on Pauling in 1994. The available records, historical context, knowledge of the personalities involved, and studies of Pauling's laboratory and methods at the time have led most historians to accord greater credit to Pauling and Corey.

Upon completion of his doctoral studies, McAfee rejoined the United States Army Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories at Fort Monmouth. His contributions included nuclear weapons systems testing and satellite instrumentation. He was honored with the Secretary of the Army Research and Study Fellowship in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, which gave him an opportunity to accept a post-doctoral appointment at Harvard University. It is during this time (1959-1960), that McAfee and his colleagues discovered that high altitude nuclear explosions could cause communications blackouts. From 1978 until his retirement in 1985, Dr. McAfee served as a scientific advisor at the Signal Laboratories at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey. Dr. Walter McAfee was posthumously honored when U.S. government officials created the McAfee Center at Fort Monmouth, a facility containing the Information and Intelligence Warfare Electronic Directorate.

After graduating from the University of Michigan, Imes spent the next eleven years working in industry while living in New York City. While working in industry, he gained four patents for instruments to be used for measuring magnetic and electric properties. In 1930, he was hired as the chairman of the department of physics at Fisk University, his undergraduate alma mater, and given the opportunity to develop a formal program of physics education and research there. Imes is credited with the academic development of the physics programs at Fisk and was the chair of the department until his death in 1941.

Learn more about Dr. Imes' career by clicking here.

Unfortunately, after completing his dissertation, Bouchet was unable to find a university teaching position after college, probably because of racial discrimination. Bouchet moved to Philadelphia in 1876 and took a position at the Philadelphia's Institute for Colored Youth (now Cheyney University of Pennsylvania), where he taught physics and chemistry for the next 26 years. Bouchet spent the next several years in several different teaching positions around the country.  In 1916, Bouchet returned home to New Haven in poor health, and died in 1918 at age 66.

Dr. Bouchet's impact on physics still resonates today around the world. The American Physical Society (APS Physics) confers the Edward A. Bouchet Award on some of the nation's outstanding physicists for their contribution to physics. The Edward Bouchet Abdus Salam Institute was founded in 1988 by the late Nobel Laureate, Professor Abdus Salam under the direction of the founding Chairman Charles S. Brown. In 2005, Yale and Howard University founded the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society in his name.