Samantha O'Sullivan is a native of Washington DC. She graduated from Schools Without Walls Senior High School in Washington DC as a Presidential Scholar, Girl Scout Gold Award Recipient, Class President, and Valedictorian. After graduating high school, she was accepted to all eight Ivy League schools. Ms. O'Sullivan is currently a Senior at Harvard College where she concentrates in Physics and African-American Studies and will graduate this spring. Ms. O'Sullivan is the co-founder and President of the Harvard Generational African-American Students Association, which works to raise awareness of issues pertaining to the legacy of slavery.

In 2021, Ms. Rhodes was one of 32 American to be awarded the Rhodes Scholarship. First awarded in 1902, the Rhodes Scholarship is the oldest and perhaps most prestigious international scholarship program, enabling outstanding young people from around the world to study at the University of Oxford. The Rhodes Scholarship was named after British mining magnate and colonial leader Cecil Rhodes, allows students from across the world to pursue postgraduate studies at the University of Oxford in the field of their choice. At Oxford, Ms. O’Sullivan plans to study condensed matter physics and attempt to figure out how to channel efficient energy sources. She also expressed enthusiasm about building relationships within Oxford’s global Black community. 

During her time at Harvard, Ms. O'Sullivan has been an active member of the National Society of Black Physics as a member of the Student Council. She has designed t-shirts for our annual conference for the last three years and assisted the organization in many ways with her creativity and intellectual curiosity. Click the video to watch our interview we did with Ms. O'Sullivan after she was awarded her Rhodes Scholarship.

Dr. William Ratcliff is a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland, since 2003.  Dr. Ratcliff received his BSE in Engineering Physics from the University of Michigan in 1997 and his Ph.D. in Physics from Rutgers University in 2003.  He is a two-time recipient of a Department of Commerce Bronze medal (the highest recognition awarded by NIST).  On September 19, 2019 he was awarded as a Fellow of the American Physical Society(APS), which recognizes members who have made exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise in physics research, important applications of physics, leadership in or service to physics, or significant contributions to physics education. Dr. William Ratcliff also currently serves as an adjunct associate professor in the Materials Science and Engineering department at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD).  Dr. Ratcliff is also serves on APS IDEA Steering Committee, Vice Chair of APS Topical Group on Data Science, Associated Editor, Science Advances for AAAS, and Chapter Leader of DataKind.  He is a long-time active member of the National Society of Black Physicsts (NSBP) and has served as the chair of the Condensed Matter and Material Physics section for many years.  His research interests include topological materials, multiferroics, and the application of AI to neutron scattering. Visit https://www.nist.gov/people/william-d-ratcliff to see Dr. Ratcliff’s list of publications.

Dr. Belinda Cheeseboro is a computational astrophysicist studying gravitational waves; she worked on the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, better known as LIGO, that first discovered gravitational waves in 2016. She also became the first Black woman to ever earn her Ph.D. from West Virginia University in December 2021 (Cheeseboro, n.d.). Her thesis was on discovering highly eccentric binaries in the calculations used to look for black holes via gravitational waves and pulsar timing arrays (Cheeseboro & Baker, 2021). 

But it’s also important to recognize the many nonscientific contributions Belinda has made to the world as well. Her blog, “Tall One and Little One,” with May 2021 Syracuse graduate Amber Lenon has inspired many other minority physicists to join and persist in the field (Cheeseboro & Lenon, n.d.). Her work with the National Air and Space Museum as a paid astronomy education intern helped preserve the program’s mission even as the museum is undergoing major renovations. She stayed late into the night educating the public on the National Mall during the Apollo Moon Landing’s 50th anniversary. She takes personal time out of her day to be a science communicator and activist, as well as a great astrophysicist (Cheeseboro, 2020). The National Society of Black Physicists shares this vision of inspiring and supporting physicists, young and old, and we really appreciate the contributions of great scientists like Dr. Cheeseboro. 

Special thanks to Pi Nuessle for the contribution to today's profile. Pi Nuessle is a Ph.D. astrophysics candidate completing their thesis with NASA Goddard and George Washington University. They attended Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology for their dual B.Sc. in Physics and Mathematics, George Washington for their Master’s Certificate in High-Performance Computing, and Purdue University Global for their M.S. in Higher Education Teaching. They are currently studying to become a research professor. They are a member of NSBP and a few other organizations to promote diversity, equity, and justice in STEM and STEM education. 

Thomas A. Searles was born in from Albany, GA. He graduated from Morehouse College with a B.S. in Mathematics and Physics and Rice University with a PhD in Applied Physics. Searles recently joined the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at University of Illinois Chicago as an Associate Professor, under the University System’s Distinguished Faculty Recruitment Program.  Prior to UIC, he was a Martin Luther King Visiting Professor at MIT and served as the Director of the IBM-HBCU Quantum Center at Howard University.  

Upon his appointment at Howard University in the Fall of 2015,  Thomas has established a new research program in applied and materials physics, which now focuses on quantum materials, metamaterials and quantum information science and engineering at UIC. Current active materials research projects in the Searles lab include NSF CAREER-supported work on the optical properties of Weyl and Dirac semimetals. Furthermore, new projects in quantum engineering include activities in quantum information, quantum communications and applications of classical machine learning methods to quantum systems/devices. Some of his recent papers can be seen by clicking the links below:

• https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.09134
• https://journals.aps.org/prresearch/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.043145
• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41578-021-00383-z
• https://opg.optica.org/optica/fulltext.cfm?uri=optica-7-5-537&id=431693

In recognition for his research in light-matter interactions and his capability to mentor Black students in Physics and Engineering, Thomas was awarded the inaugural AIP-NSBP Joseph A. Johnson Award for Excellence and an NSF CAREER Award.  Along with performing research in QIS, Thomas has taken a national role in shaping quantum education for diverse populations from K-12 to graduate students. 

Nia Imara was born in Oakland, California and grew up in the Bay Area. She got her bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics from Kenyon College, where she was also a member of the varsity swim team. She then earned her PhD in astrophysics at UC Berkeley, becoming the first African-American woman to do so. Her thesis work was on giant molecular clouds, which are the sites of star formation.

In 2014 Dr. Imara became the first appointment in the Future Faculty Leaders program at Harvard University, where she continued her work on giant molecular clouds, star formation, and interstellar and intergalactic dust. She also worked with the Banneker Institute to mentor younger scientists of color. She was next appointed as a John Harvard Distinguished Science Fellow and Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Her research produced a steady stream of publications and widening areas of interest. Dr. Imara was hired as an Assistant Professor in the Astronomy Department at UC Santa Cruz in 2020.

Nia is also an accomplished artist, and next spent some time using art in science outreach as well as showing her works. She worked at the Center for Science Education at the Space Sciences Laboratory, and visited South Africa for outreach. She organized “Generation of Oakland: The People’s Portrait” in 2015, and opened a gallery featuring black artists. Her media include painting, quilting, and posters; some works can be found on the web. She recently founded the ONAKETA project to provide free tutoring for local middle and high school students in STEM.

Lynnae Quick was raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in physics from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, graduating summa cum laude. Quick then attended The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where she received her Master of Science degree in physics with a concentration in astrophysics. There, she pursued research at both the Applied Physics Laboratory, with mentorship from Louise Prockter, and at Goddard Space Flight Center. Quick received her Doctor of Philosophy degree from Johns Hopkins University in 2013.

She has made significant contributions to the study of cryovolcanism as a process on dwarf planets Ceres, including the formation of the enigmatic faculae or “bright spots,” in which she was the first to model the movement of material from a deep brine reservoir in Ceres’ interior to its emplacement via eruptions at the surface. Dr. Quick has revisited modeling of (cryo)lava domes on Venus and Europa and has repeatedly provided new insights into detection requirements for plumes and their associated eruption products on Jupiter’s moon Europa. Dr. Quick is a member of the Dawn, Europa Clipper, and Dragonfly Mission science teams as well as the SSERVI TREX science team. She is also a member of NASA's Roadmaps to Ocean Worlds (ROW) team and the OPAG steering committee. She has placed constraints on the propensity for volcanism on extrasolar planets, and found that a significant number of extrasolar planets may indeed be ocean worlds. Asteroid 37349 was recently named Lynnaequick in her honor.

In addition to her scientific pursuits, Dr. Quick is exceptionally engaged in the broader research community through her proactive leadership in space missions. This includes her work as a co-investigator on missions such as Europa Clipper and Dragonfly; as a member of the Outer Planets Assessment Group steering committee; a member of the Planetary Science Decadal Survey 2023-2032 panel on ocean worlds and dwarf planets; and as co-chair of the Earth and Planetary Systems Sciences section of the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP).

Dr. Donnell Walton is the director of the Corning Technology Center Silicon Valley. In this role, he leads research and business development efforts to match Corning's existing and emerging capabilities and opportunities in the western United States, in particular, the Silicon Valley region of California.

Walton joined Corning in 1999 as a senior research scientist in Science & Technology, where he performed and led research in optical fiber amplifiers and lasers. In 2004, Walton led Corning’s research and development efforts to a world leadership position in high-power (kW) fiber lasers. Then in 2006, he managed the Silicon on Glass (SiOG) platform expansion project, which demonstrated non-display applications of SiOG including imagers and photovoltaics. In 2008, Walton joined the Corning® Gorilla® Glass team as a senior applications engineer, where he extended the Gorilla Glass value proposition to form factors larger than handheld devices. In 2010, Walton was appointed manager of worldwide applications engineering for Gorilla Glass.

Prior to joining Corning, Walton was a physics professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he won the National Science Foundation’s Young Investigator (CAREER) Award.

Walton earned a Ph.D. in applied physics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor after graduating summa cum laude with bachelor’s degrees in physics and electrical engineering from North Carolina State University. He completed the Stanford Executive Program at the Graduate School of Business in 2019. He serves on the board of the National Society of Black Physicists, the research advisory board of the IBM-HBCU Quantum Center and the corporate affiliate boards at the Universities of California in Santa Barbara and San Diego. Walton has authored or co-authored 22 U.S. patents and more than 60 technical reports.

In recognition of his distinguished career, Dr. Donnell Walton has been awarded the 2021 ECE Willie Hobbs Moore Distinguished Lectureship from the University of Michigan.

Deborah J. Jackson was born in Topeka, Kansas to a military family. She graduated with a Bachelor's in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1974. She earned her PhD at Stanford University in 1980, working on high resolution spectroscopy using lasers. She was the first African American woman to receive a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University.

After finishing at Stanford, she held research appointments at the IBM Watson Research Laboratory, the Hughes Research Laboratory, the RAND Corporation and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. During part of her tenure at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, she was the Cognizant Engineer for the Ultra Stable Oscillator and the Radio Frequency Instrument Subsystem, both on the Cassini Spacecraft, and the Ultra Stable Oscillator for the Mars Observer spacecraft. For all three subsystems, she delivered, integrated, and tested the flight hardware in preparation for their respective launches in 1997 and 1996. Dr. Jackson is a hands-on professional with more than 20 years of broad based experience in research and development, project management, strategic planning, and product delivery. Over her career, she has become expert on "electromagnetic phenomena" with a research and development career that spans the full range of the electromagnetic spectrum from materials studies using hard x-ray wavelengths, to nonlinear optics and spectroscopy in the near-infrared, to the fielding of radio frequency instrumentation on deep space missions such as Cassini and Mars Observer. She joined the National Science Foundation in 2006. As a Program Director in the Engineering Research Center (ERC) Program Office, she leads the Microelectronics, Sensors, and Information Technologies Cluster. She is an Engineering Research Center Program Director and manages the Engineering Research Center's industrial liaison officer's group. 

Over her career, Dr. Jackson has earned numerous awards. She is a Bell Laboratories Cooperative Research Fellow, a Ford Fellow, a Fellow of the National Society of Black Physicists, and a Senior Member of IEEE. Dr. Jackson has been an Invited Speaker representing NSF at the Korean Science and Engineering Foundation Centers of Excellence Forum (Seoul, Korea: 2008), an invited Lecturer at the African Laser Center's Summer School (Durban, South Africa: 2005), and was the Shell Lecturer at the 2005 National Science Teacher's Association Annual Meeting (Dallas, TX 2005). Dr. Jackson is an active member of the National Society of Black Physicists. Dr. Jackson is the Chair of the Awards and Fellows committee for the National Society of Black Physicist and a frequent and respected contributor on all types of NSBP programming.

William M. Jackson was born on September 24, 1936 in Birmingham, Alabama. He received his BS degree from Morehouse College in 1956 and  his Ph.D. degree in 1961 in Physical Chemistry with minors in Physics and Mathematics. He has been an academician at the University of Pittsburgh (1969-1970), and Howard University (1974-1985). He joined the faculty at UC Davis as a chemistry professor in 1985. He then became a distinguished professor in 1998, and chair of the chemistry department from 2000 to 2005.

Professor Jackson has studied the chemistry of comets, and in particular, how the free radicals observed in comets are formed. He developed cutting edge laboratory techniques that use lasers to study the small molecules that occur in comets, planetary atmospheres and the interstellar medium. His accomplishments include leading the team that used the International Ultraviolet Explorer to make the first satellite telescope comet observation, developing special lasers to detect and determine the properties of radicals formed when molecules are broken apart by light, and using lasers to map the excited states of small molecules as they decompose into radicals important in the chemistry of comets, planetary atmospheres, and the interstellar medium. Jackson published over 176 scientific papers, has a United States patent, and has edited two books.

Throughout his career Prof. Jackson has paid attention to the diversification of STEM fields and the academy. After being appointed to the Howard University chemistry faculty, Jackson created an internationally recognized research group in laser chemistry where he mentored a cadre of outstanding minority students and postdoctoral associates who went on to premier institutions including AT&T Bell Laboratories, NIST, and NASA, as well as academia. While at Howard University, Prof. Jackson co-founded the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE).

At UC Davis in the 1980s, Jackson developed a landmark program to increase the numbers of minorities majoring in STEM: the Minority Undergraduate Research Participation in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MURPPS). This program paired underrepresented students in the sciences with faculty in their chosen fields and had an outreach component to local high schools and community colleges. While Chair of the Chemistry department from 2000-2005 he doubled the percentage of underrepresented minority students with help from a grant from the Sloan Foundation. 

Recognition for his work includes an APS Fellowship in 1995, a AAAS Lifetime Mentor Award in 1997, a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lectureship in 2003, AAAS Fellowship in 2004, and the 2019 Arthur B.C. Walker II Award from the American Society of the Pacific. The Planetary Society named asteroid 1081 EE37 as Billjackson in his honor.

Special thanks to Dr. Gibor Basri for providing the content for today's post. Dr. Basri is an astrophysicist and a Professor of the Graduate School at UC Berkeley

William Lester, Jr., was born on April 24, 1937, in Chicago, Illinois. He went on to receive his B.S. degree in 1958, and his master’s degree in chemistry in 1959 from the University of Chicago. Lester obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., in 1964. While at Catholic University, Lester worked at the National Bureau of Standards as a member of the scientific staff; his work at the Bureau helped him to meet the requirements for his doctoral dissertation on the calculation of molecular properties. 

After earning his doctorate, Lester obtained a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Wisconsin in Madison where he worked on the molecular collision theory. The IBM Corporation then hired Lester to work at its research laboratory in San Jose, California. Later, as the director of the National Resource for Computation in Chemistry, Lester organized and led the first unified effort in computational chemistry in the United States. Lester later joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley as a professor of chemistry, where his research focused on the theoretical studies of the electronic structure of molecules. Lester's efforts at Berkeley extended the powerful quantum Monte Carlo method to a wider range of chemical problems that form the traditional domain of quantum chemistry, and beyond.

Throughout his career, Lester published over 200 papers in his field, and was awarded numerous honors for his research and teaching. Lester held memberships in several professional organizations including the American Physical and Chemical Societies, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was also elected a fellow of the APS, ACS, and AAAS. In addition to his professional activities, Lester remained committed to science education and sparking an interest in pursuing science careers in minority students. 

Henry Thomas Sampson Jr. was born on April 12, 1934 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Henry T. Sampson Sr. and Esther B. (Ellis) Sampson. He graduated from Jackson's Lanier High School in 1951. He then attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, before transferring to Purdue University in New York , where he became a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. He received a Bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Purdue University in 1956. 

From 1956-61, Sampson worked as a research chemical engineer at the U.S. Naval Weapons Center, China Lake, Calif., in high-energy solid propellants and case-bonding materials for solid-rocket motors. He graduated with an MS degree in engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1961. Sampson also received an MS in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1965, and his PhD in 1967. He was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering in the United States. Following graduate studies, Sampson joined the Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo, Calif., as project engineer (1967-81), then director of planning and operations, Directorate of Space Test Program (1981-87). He led senior engineering staff in every phase from planning to launching and space operation of several satellites. He was a vanguard engineer examining how to power satellites.

Dr. Sampson has a number of patents. His patents included a binder system for propellants and explosives and a case bonding system for cast composite propellants. Both inventions are related to solid rocket motors. On July 6, 1971, he was awarded a patent, with George H. Miley, for a variation of the gamma-electrical cell, a device that produces a high voltage from radiation sources, primarily gamma radiation, with proposed goals of generating auxiliary power from the shielding of a nuclear reactor. Additionally, the patent cites the cell's function as a detector with self-power and construction cost advantages over previous detectors.

Sampson is a frequently cited authority on the contributions of African-Americans in cinema and performing arts in the U.S. His seven books include a two-volume set, “Blacks in Black Face: A Source Book on Early Black Musical Shows”, and several reference books examining the frequently overlooked contributions of African-Americans in American stage and cinema from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of the radio and TV age.

Birthplace:
Frederick W. Oliver was born and grew up in Sparrows Point, Maryland which was a small steel mill town approximately fourteen miles southeast of Baltimore City. His mother told him that she named him after Frederick Douglass. 

Education:
Dr. Frederick W. Oliver attended Bragg Elementary School in Sparrows Point for grades one through seven. He then attended grades eight through twelve at Sollers Point High School in Turner Station. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Morgan State University in 1962.  He was awarded a Master of Science degree in Nuclear Physics in 1965 and a Ph.D. in Physics in 1972, both from Howard University. 
 
Employment:
Dr. Oliver joined the faculty at Morgan State University in 1969 as an associate professor.  He became Chair of the Physics Department in 1979, taking over the position from his mentor, Dr. Julius Taylor. He served as Chair until 1995 and then again from 1999 to 2006.  During his tenure as Chair, Morgan’s Physics Department consistently ranked high in the State of Maryland for graduating the largest number of physics majors in the state.  He established a record of grooming and mentoring more than a generation of physics graduates and helped position Morgan to be among the top producers of African American Baccalaureate degree recipients in physics in the country.  

Research:
While attending graduate school at Howard, he did experimental research in nuclear physics for his Master and Doctorate dissertations.  For his master’s degree, he studied the properties of nuclear photons (later called gamma rays) from a cobalt radioactive source.  For his Ph.D. degree, he used gamma rays to study the magnetic properties of hydrated iron-palladium alloys. Palladium can store hydrogen and was being considered as a possible storage material for hydrogen. The hydrogen can then be used as a possible energy fuel for various applications. While at Morgan State University, Dr. Oliver held research appointments with the Naval Research Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, University of Maryland, NASA, Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, Bell Laboratories, and the Army Research Laboratory.  As Principal Investigator on 24 different grants from various corporations, foundations and federal agencies, he brought in over two million dollars to the University.  He authored or co-authored over 70 scientific papers and abstracts, primarily in nuclear science applications and has given scientific lectures at many conferences and universities throughout the country.  For 15 years, he served as Radiation Safety Officer for the University.  

Awards/Honors:
In 2001, Dr. Oliver received the coveted Dr. Iva G. Jones Medallion Mantle Award. This honor is bestowed upon a Morgan State University faculty member who demonstrates exceptional achievement in teaching, research, scholarship, leadership, and service to the University.
After retiring from Morgan in 2006, he was appointed to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel as a part-time Administrative Judge, a position he held between 2007 - 2018.  The panel hears cases that deal with issues arising out of the operation of the Nation’s more than 100 nuclear power plants and out of programs related to approximately 5,000 nuclear materials licenses.

Other:
In 2010, Dr. Oliver was selected to appear in The HistoryMakers® for the field of science.  The HistoryMakers® is a national, non-profit institution committed to preserving, developing and providing easy access to an internationally recognized archival collection of thousands of African American recorded histories.
Dr. Oliver is an inducted member of Beta Kappa Chi, a science honor society, and Sigma Pi Sigma, the physics honor society. He served one term on the Board of the Maryland MESA program. In addition, he has been a long time member of the National Technical Association (NTA), a non-profit organization whose purpose is to encourage minority students to enter technical fields. He currently serves as NTA’s Baltimore Chapter Secretary. For the past thirty-five years he has held some local office in the Baltimore NTA Chapter, including serving as President. 

Dr. Oliver is a Life Member of the Morgan State University National Alumni Association and an active member of MSUNAA’s Howard County Chapter.  He is also a member of the NAACP and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.  He is married to Dianne Polson Oliver, also a Morgan State University graduate, and has two adult children.  Dr. Oliver and his wife have a deep love for Morgan and support many programs and activities of the University.  

Special thanks to Dr. Willie Rockward for the content of today's post. Dr. Willie Rockward is a physics professor and the current chair of the Morgan State University physics department. He is also a former president of the National Society of Black Physicists.

Warren Washington was born on August 28, 1936 in Portland, Oregon. He graduated from Oregon State University (OSU) with a B.S. in physics and an M.S. in meteorology, and obtained a doctoral degree in meteorology from Pennsylvania State University (PSU) in 1964. Warren Washington became one the first developers of atmospheric computer models in the early 1960s at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. These computer models use the fundamental laws of physics such as the conversion of mass, momentum and energy. Because these equations are so complex, it is nearly impossible to solve them without a large computer system. In later years, Dr. Washington worked with others to incorporate ocean and sea ice physics as part ofa climate model. Such models now involve atmospheric, ocean, sea ice, surface hydrology, and vegetation components.

Washington is an internationally recognized expert in atmospheric sciences and climate research specializing in computer modeling of the Earth's climate. In recent years he has served his science in a broad range of capacities. He was appointed to the National Science Board (NSB) in 1994, reappointed in 2000, and became chair from 2002–2006.[3] In 1998 he was appointed to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Science Advisory Board; in 1999 he was elected by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Board of Trustees as a member of the corporation for a three-year term; in 2000 he was appointed a member of the Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee by the U.S. Secretary of Energy; and in February 2009 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) "for pioneering the development of coupled climate models, their use on parallel supercomputing architectures, and their interpretation."[4] His scientific and policy papers are archived as the Warren M. Washington Collection at the library of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

He has also garnered numerous awards. Among these, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded Washington the Biological and Environmental Research Program Exceptional Service Award for Atmospheric Science in 1997, for the development and application of advanced coupled atmospheric-ocean general circulation models (GCMs) to study the impacts of human activities on future climate. Also in 1997 he was inducted into the Portrait Collection of African Americans in Science, Engineering, and Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). In 2009 he was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). On October 15, 2010 President Barack Obama named Washington one of 10 eminent researchers to be awarded the National Medal of Science. In February 2019 Washington was awarded the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, alongside Michael E. Mann. Washington gave the 2019 Ambrose Jearld Jr. sponsored by the Woods Hole Diversity Initiative.

Dr. Claudia Alexander was a Canadian-born American geophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA. She performed significant research on the physics of comets, Jupiter and its moons, Venus, planetary magnetospheres, planetary atmospheres, plate tectonics, space plasma, and the solar wind. She is best known for serving as a project manager of NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter and as a NASA-affiliated project manager to the ESA-led Rosetta mission to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. 

Dr. Alexander received her doctorate in Atmospheric, Space, and Oceanic Sciences, specializing in Space Plasma, from the University of Michigan in 1993.  After receiving her doctorate, she briefly held a position at the U.S. Geological Survey before obtaining a position at NASA's Ames Research Center and eventually the Jet Propulsion laboratory. Dr. Alexander worked as a science coordinator on the Plasma Wave instrument of the Galileo spacecraft - constructed to study Jupiter, its moons, and its magnetosphere - after first arriving at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  Evenetually, she was named the project manager for the Galileo mission overseeing a team of scientists responsible for the satellite and its instruments during the near end of its life in 2003.  The Galileo mission produced invaluable information about Jupiter, discovering 21 undiscovered moons and revealing the nature of Jupiter's atmosphere. 

In 2000, she was named a project scientist on ESA's Rosetta mission, which aimed to study the characteristics of comics and their role in the development of our solar system. Additionally, she was a notable celebrant for amateur astronomers and vocal advocate for minorities and women in the sciences. She worked on this project until her death on July 11, 2015 after a 10-year battle with breast cancer.

Bryant was born on March 13, 1927 in Kinston, North Carolina to Benjamin Cleveland Bryant and Georgia S. Taylor Bryant. She earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Johnson C. Smith University in 1946, at age 19. She completed a master's degree at the University of Northern Colorado later in life. Ola Mae Bryant married economist Alven Wardell Watford in 1947.

She began her government career in 1951 as a statistical clerk in the National Oceanographic Office, then transferred to the Coast and Geodetic Survey which later became a part of the NOAA. She eventually worked her way up to becoming a geophysicist in the Environmental Data Service’s National Geophysical and Solar Terrestrial Data Center in Boulder, CO. There she was responsible for analysis, compilation, charting and distribution of US and International magnetic field data, information and charts including creating novel methods and computer programs for the automated processing of this data. A native of Kinston NC, she graduated from Johnson C Smith Univ at age 19.  She went on to pursue graduate studies at Howard University. Mrs Watford enjoyed a busy life as a wife, mother of six, executive community leader and life long student. 

Dr. Kennedy J. Reed was born on May 24, 1944, in Memphis, Tennessee. He is an African American theoretical atomic physicist. Reed earned his B.S. in physics from Monmouth College in 1967. He then earned his M.S.T. in physics from the University of Wisconsin-Superior in 1971. He completed his Ph.D. in theoretical atomic physics from the University of Nebraska in 1976. Prior to his current employment position, Dr. Reed was a professor of physics at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. He has also been a visiting scientist at the Hahn-Meitner Institute in Germany and at the University College in London in the U.K., and has served on the review panels for the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the National Research Council. In 1997 and 1999 Reed was a visiting scientist at University Cheikh Anta Diop in Senegal, and at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana – under the auspices of the Visiting Scholars Program of the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste. He has presented scientific lectures at universities in a number of other African countries, and has organized international conferences and workshops connected with physics in Africa. He has been Vice Chair of the APS Committee on International Scientific Affairs; a member of the APS Task Force on Research Collaborations with Africa; and is the U.S. representative on the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Commission on Physics for Development. He has also organized U.S. visits for African physicists including formal meetings and presentations at universities and high-level meetings in Washington, DC with government agencies such as the National Science Foundation , USAID , American Astronomical Society , and United States National Research Council and is on the international advisory panel for the African School on Electronic Structure Methods and Applications.

In 2003, Dr. Kennedy Reed received the American Physical Society’s John Wheatley Award. He was the recipient of the 2009 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring from President Barack Obama and named a fellow of the American Physical Society. In 2011, he was awarded the distinction of being elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), in recognition of his important studies in atomic theory and successful efforts to increase minority participation in the physical sciences in the United States and Africa. He chairs the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Commission on Physics for Development, has served on the APS Committee on Minorities in Physic, chairs the APS Bouchet Prize Committee, and currently serves on the National Academy of Sciences Board on International Scientific Organizations and is a charter fellow. He has also served as President of the National Society of Black Physicists. Dr. Kennedy Reed currently serves as a theoretical atomic physicist in the Theory Group in the Physics & Advanced Technologies Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

Dr. Reed has been a leader in developing and directing national programs to encourage U.S. students to pursue advanced degrees and careers in the physical sciences. He is the founding director of the LLNL Research Collaborations Program for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Institutions - an innovative program that links Laboratory scientists with professors and students in forefront research that benefits the Laboratory and strengthens the research and training capabilities of the universities. He is a co-founder of the National Physical Science Consortium (NPSC) - a national coalition of corporations, national laboratories and universities organized to provide fellowships to support graduate studies in the physical sciences. To-date, Dr. Reed has helped more than 100 such students to earn their doctorates and awarded over 300 graduate fellowships through NPSC. He is an Associate Director for Education and Outreach at the NSF Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis. In 2005 the California section of the American Physical Society created an award in honor of Dr. Reed, and annually presents the Kennedy Reed Award to recognize Excellence in Theoretical Research performed by graduate students.

Dr. Augustus Prince was born on January 11, 1924 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. His mother stressed discipline in education and encouraged him to read the Bible after finishing his homework assignments. He attended public schools in Philadelphia and graduated from Central High School for Boys in 1942 where he developed a strong interest in math and science. During high school he also discovered running skills and was a member of the track team. Central High, now coed, is one of the highest magnum schools for education and, despite receiving good grades he was not able to attend college due to the lack of funds. He started working as an electrician at the Sun Shipyard and Dry Dock in Chester Pennsylvania to secure funds for his education. 

As the Navy, during WW II, was finally opening up to African Americans he signed up and attended radar school and passed at the top of his class. After several rejections he was finally given the opportunity to serve as the first black radar man on the USS Santee (a product of Sun Shipyard). His duty station was in the ships Combat Information Center where he monitored radar screens for activity. During his tour on board The Santee he taught algebra to other radar men and spent his spare time training as a middleweight boxer. Prince experienced a lot of prejudice which left a lifetime scar but was persistent to pursue the field he was qualified in. He survived the war and returned to Philadelphia to continue his education. Thanks to the G.I. Bill he was able to obtain a bachelor’s degree in science from the University of Pennsylvania and later went on to Drexel Institute of Technology earning his master’s degree in physics and eventually specialized in nuclear physics. 

In college he was an active member of Kappa Alpha Psi and mentored and encouraged young men from his local neighborhood to attend college. After a short marriage he relocated to Cincinnati Ohio in the early 1960s where he continued to advance in his education experiences as a teacher and professor. It was there that he met and married the late Dr. Willa L Prince. He received his doctorate degree from the University of Cincinnati. He was a laboratory instructor in general physics at the University from 1962 to 1964 and was faculty advisor to Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. In 1964 he was appointed to teach evening courses in atomic and nuclear physics at the University of Cincinnati while working as a senior physicist in for the nuclear material and propulsion operation at General Electric. 

In 1966 he was offered a position as a nuclear scientist with the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) located in Upton New York. In his own words he stated “my big break came when I was offered the opportunity of a lifetime”. This was a leading government research and scientific facility which gave him the privilege to work and interact with many world-renowned scientists. He worked with the Data Evaluation Management Group which worked on projects to create data evaluation models for nuclear reactors. This team would help nuclear power plants develop the discipline to react to various sequences of events concerning nuclear reactors should an emergency occur. During his tenure at BNL he traveled to several different countries in Europe for nuclear conferences and delivered several papers on his thoughts. One highlight of his career was his paper on “Analysis of High-Energy Neutron Cross Sections for Fissil and Fertile Isotopes” which he delivered in Helsinki in 1970. It has since become the accepted method for analyzing deformed nuclei. He served four months in France as a consultant on the nuclear physics program which carried out theoretical nuclear investigations for France’s Atomic Energy Commission. During that time, he directed the research of a French student whose paper on “The Numerical Treatment of Nuclear Reactions”, was considered one of the best presented at the school Ecole Technique Feminine.

While in Europe he managed to compete in four marathons held outside of Paris France and placed second and third respectively in his class. The race that gave him the greatest satisfaction was crossing the finish line at the original Greek Olympic Stadium. He recalled he had tears in his eyes after this event. 
He remained at BNL for 27 years then retired to Palm Coast Florida in 1993 but continued as a consultant to recruit minority students in the science field from historically black colleges. He continued his love for running and became a very dedicated jogger which rendered him many first-place trophies. Besides jogging he enjoyed tennis, swimming, and riding his bike for daily exercise. He made several return visits to Philadelphia to participate in the Broad Street Run which was one of the highlights of his jogging career. He competed in several races throughout the United States and Europe including the Boston and New York marathons and several marathons in Florida. His love for jazz music is evident by his collection of music. His favorite artist being Miles Davis. 
Retirement did not stop his skills as a mentor and teacher. He became an Adjunct Instructor in mathematics at Daytona Beach Community College and tutored/mentor at the Deland and Flagler Palm Coast high schools. He was very active in his community serving on several Boards of Directors one being on the executive board of the Friends of the Library of Flagler County. 

In 2005 he was inducted into the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. Authorized by legislation in 2000 the Veterans History Project of America Folklife Center is a nationwide volunteer effort to collect and preserve oral histories of America’s war veterans which are housed at the Library of Congress. Dr. Prince has a chapter in the second book titled “Forever a Soldier” and a video interview covering his experience in the Navy from 1944 to 1946. 
His legacy continued in 2011 when he went to an international conference to submit his paper on Ruggiero Boscovich’s law of continuity of forces, “An Analytical Form of the Boscovich Curve with Applications” at the Pavia University and Pavia Italy. He continued to develop generalized unified field theories based on Boscovich’s initial idea. 

He devoted several years taking care of his wife of 53 years (Dr. Willa L Prince) during her extended illness until her death. Dr. Augustus Prince passed away quietly on January 5, 2018. In honor of his legacy BNL annually offers an award in his name to African American master’s or Ph.D. students.

Special thanks to Dr. Hubertus Van Dam for supplying this edited version of Dr. Prince's obituary. The original obituary can be found here. Dr. Van Dam is an HPC Application Architect at Brookhaven National Laboratory and a computational chemist experienced in writing and supporting large parallel quantum chemistry packages. 

Annie Easley was an early pioneer of the rocket age and another Hidden Figure of NACA’s (later to become NASA’s) early years. While she was not directly involved in the National Society of Black Physicists, she leveraged her position to lift other minority voices into the sciences as an equal employment opportunity (EEO) officer with NASA. She also tutored young STEM students. 

Mrs. Easley began her career as a human computer in 1958 at the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio, after hearing of twin sisters who worked there. She became one of only four Black scientists because she had been valedictorian of her high school class—she would not finish her bachelor’s degree in math until 1977. As the lab transitioned away from human computing, Mrs. Easley was one of many who became an expert in programming languages like FORTRAN and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). She moved the newly formed NASA towards alternative power such as batteries and solar, and it was she who lead the development of the Centaur rocket.

More than anything, Annie Easley was a believer in the value of employee morale. She encouraged her coworkers to work hard and bring their authentic selves to the workplace. As one put it, “She loves life and encourages others to do the same” (Heidman, 2017, para. 6). The National Society of Black Physicists strives to continue her work of inclusion and visibility, and we appreciate your support.

Special thanks to Pi Nuessle for the content of today's Black History Month post. Pi Nuessle is a Ph.D. astrophysics candidate completing their thesis with NASA Goddard and George Washington University. They attended Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology for their dual B.Sc. in Physics and Mathematics, George Washington for their Master’s Certificate in High-Performance Computing, and Purdue University Global for their M.S. in Higher Education Teaching. They are currently studying to become a research professor. They are a member of NSBP and a few other organizations to promote diversity, equity, and justice in STEM and STEM education.

Rutherford H. "Lubby" Adkins was born on  November 21, 1924 in Alexandria Virginia to Reverend Andrew Warren Adkins (a former pastor of the Historic Albert Street Baptist Church in Alexandria Virginia) and Mattie Hamlet Adkins. 

Adkins first attended college at Virginia Union University, Richmond, VA and later transferred to Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. He was drafted before completing his degree in 1941. He received flight training at Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University, in Alabama. becoming a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American aviator unit in the US armed forces. Adkins was a fighter pilot as a part of the Tuskegee Airmen who flew the P-51D Mustang and completed 14 combat missions.

After his military service, Adkins returned to earn a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Virginia State University in 1947. He went on to earn a master's degree in physics from Howard University in 1949 and was the first African American to receive a PhD from The Catholic University In Washington D.C. in 1955 when he earned his doctorate in physics.

Adkins had a long distinguished career in education that touched many lives. He had appointments at Virginia State College (now university) Petersburg, VA; Tennessee State University (Nashville, TN); Fisk University (Nashville, TN); The United States Naval Academy (Annapolis, MD); Morehouse College (Atlanta, GA) and The Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA). At Fisk University he served as interim president from 1995 to 1996. He then served as the president of Knoxville College from 1976 through 1981. In 1993 Adkins returned to Fisk University as a physic professor and later the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. He was appointed Interim President of Fisk University on July 1, 1996 and on February 14, 1997, was named President.

Dr. Adkins died February 6, 1998 of lung cancer at the age of 71.

Willie Hobbs Moore was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey on May 23, 1934 to Bessie and William Hobbs. She was the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in Physics from an American university. In 1954, she boarded a train for Ann Arbor, where she began studying electrical engineering at the University of Michigan. She earned the BSEE and MSEE degrees in 1958 and 1961, respectively. After working as an engineer in Ann Arbor, Willie returned to the University of Michigan to pursue her PhD studies in physics under the guidance of Dr. Samuel Krimm. After completing the PhD degree in 1972, Dr. Hobbs Moore worked as a lecturer and research scientist at the University of Michigan for five years. During this time, she published over 30 papers on protein spectroscopy in journals such as the Journal of Applied Physics, the Journal of Chemical Physics, and the Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy.

Dr. Hobbs Moore joined Ford Motor Company as an assembly engineer in 1977. Later, she helped Ford expand its use of Japanese quality methods in engineering and manufacturing. On the social side, Dr. Hobbs Moore worked on science and math programs for the community and was a member of Links, Inc. and Delta Sigma Theta. She and her husband, Sidney Moore, who taught at the University of Michigan Neuropsychiatric Institute, had two children, Dorian Moore, MD (also a Delta) and Christopher Moore, RN. and three grandchildren, Sydney Padgett (also a Delta), William Hobbs Moore and C. Jackson Moore. Dr. Hobbs Moore was an executive at Ford when she died in her Ann Arbor home in 1994. The following year, Dr. Hobbs Moore was awarded the inaugural Edward Bouchet Pioneer award by the National Conference of Black Physics Students. APS will hold a symposium on 15 March in honor of Dr. Hobbs Moore's 50th anniversary of conferring her PhD.

Special thanks to Dr. Donnell Walton for writing today's post. Dr. Donnell Walton is the director of the Corning Technology Center in Silicon Valley, CA. He received his PhD from UMich in 1996, the first African American to do so since Dr. Hobbs Moore in 1972. He was fortunate to befriend Dr. Hobbs Moore during his time in Ann Arbor and is organizing a symposium and panel on representation in physics recognizing the 50th anniversary of Dr. Hobbs Moore’s PhD at the 2022 APS March meeting.

Carolyn Beatrice Parker was born in Gainesville, Florida on November 18, 1917. Over the course of her career, Carolyn graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in physics, taught at several public high schools and two colleges, was a scientist with the Manhattan Project (Dayton, Ohio site), earned two master’s degrees, one in mathematics, the other in physics, and worked as a technical analyst at a large military research laboratory. Carolyn Parker died in 1966, at age 48, and is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Gainesville.

Today's post is an bio-essay provided to NSBP by Dr. Ronald Mickens concerning the life of Carolyn Beatrice Parker. Dr. Ronald E. Mickens is a mathematical physicist, researcher, and university professor at Clark Atlanta University. He is an NSBP fellow and one of the earliest members of NSBP. Dr. Mickens also writes about the influence of early African American scientists, including several biographies of African American women scientists and a historical paper titled The African American Presence in Physics.

Please click the button below to read the essay and learn more about Carolyn Beatrice Parker.

Learn More about Carolyn Beatrice Parker 

Elmer Imes was born on October 12, 1883 in Memphis, TN. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in science from Fisk University and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1918. While at the University of Michigan, Imes' research and doctoral thesis opened up an entirely new field of research, the study of molecular structure though use of a high resolution infrared spectrometer. This work on measuring the IR spectrum of three diatomic molecules, hydrogen chloride (HCl), hydrogen bromide (HBr), and hydrogen fluoride (HF), was an important verification of the emerging quantum theory. Imes not only produced the first high-resolution spectrometers, he also provided key evidence of the importance and widespread usefulness of quantum mechanics.

In 1930, he was hired as the chairman of the department of physics at Fisk University, his undergraduate alma mater. 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 of throat cancer. When Fisk started offering graduate courses in 1949, Dr. Imes's field of molecular spectroscopy became one of the most fruitful of these specialties. Since the founding of the Fisk University Molecular Spectroscopy Research Laboratory in 1949, thousands of scientists have been trained in the various one-week long intensive short courses in infrared and Raman spectroscopy and several other related scientific disciplines.

Please read this article to learn more about Dr. Imes and his invaluable contribution to molecular spectroscopy and physics. You can also read this article written by our own Dr. Ronald Mickens that discusses the life and contribution of Dr. Imes.

Edward Alexander Bouchet (September 15, 1852 – October 28, 1918) was an African American physicist and educator and was the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. from any American university, completing his dissertation in physics at Yale in 1876.

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. He resigned in 1902 at the height of the W. E. B. Du Bois-Booker T. Washington controversy over the need for an industrial vs. collegiate education for blacks.

Bouchet spent the next 14 years holding a variety of jobs around the country. Between 1905 and 1908, Bouchet was director of academics at St. Paul's Normal and Industrial School in Lawrenceville, Virginia (presently, St. Paul's College). He was then principal and teacher at Lincoln High School in Gallipolis, Ohio from 1908 to 1913. He joined the faculty of Bishop College in Marshall, Texas in 1913. Illness finally forced him to retire in 1916 and he moved back to New Haven. He died there, in his childhood home, in 1918, at age of 66. He had never married and had no children.

Dr. Bouchet is an inspiration to generations of African American physicists. Many awards and scholarships are given in his name in recognition of his achievements. The American Physical Society gives out an award every year to "a distinguished minority physicist who has made significant contributions to physics research and the advancement of underrepresented minority scientists." The Edward Bouchet Abdus Salam Institute was founded in 1988 by Nobel Laureate Professor Abdus Salam and NSBP to facilitate interaction between African and African American physicists. 

Learn more about Dr. Edward Bouchet by clicking here.