SCIENCE Magazine, AAAS Editorial: Einstein v. Roberts, by S.J. Gates Jr.

EDITORIAL

Einstein v. Roberts

S. J. Gates Jr.

Summary

In the recent U.S. Supreme Court hearing on A. Fisher v. the University of Texas about university admission policies regarding minority students, Chief Justice John Roberts asked, “What unique perspective does a minority student bring to a physics class?” As an African-American physicist researching string theory, and a teacher of university students since 1972, I have a response.

Excerpt...

In the recent U.S. Supreme Court hearing on A. Fisher v. the University of Texas about university admission policies regarding minority students, Chief Justice John Roberts asked, “What unique perspective does a minority student bring to a physics class?” As an African-American physicist researching string theory, and a teacher of university students since 1972, I have a response.

Issues related to race in the United States have created barriers since the nation's founding, determining which citizens experience benefits, and which deprivations. This problem is not new for physicists. Albert Einstein's essay “The Negro Question” includes “What…can the man of good will do to combat this deeply rooted prejudice? He must have the courage to set an example by word and deed, and must watch lest his children become influenced by this racial bias.” Einstein described racism as a “disease,” and he recommended principles to end discrimination, aligning with the O. Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, decision by the Supreme Court in 1954 to desegregate public schools.

“…a different perspective is an asset in science…”

Read the full article here in SCIENCE  

Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science

Author Information:

S. J. Gates, Jr. is a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD, and a University System of Maryland Regents Professor.

A Legacy of Change

In the words of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.....

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.....

The legacy of Dr. King beats within all of us. It lives within the hearts, minds, and souls of those that truly embrace, reference, and follow in his wake. One cannot be a leader unless they are able to follow in the footsteps of those before them. Dr. King's words are remnants of his civil rights work in the global sphere.....

A modern legacy is born every moment... One such soul is Dr. Shirley A. Jackson... She will be honored by President Obama in January 2016 with the nation's highest honor in science and technology.

The Daily Gazette

December 22, 2015

Schenectady, NY

TROY, NY — Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, will receive the National Medal of Science, the highest scientific achievement given out by the U.S. government.

President Barack Obama will honor Jackson with the award at a ceremony in January 2016. The award recognizes scientists “deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to knowledge in the physical, biological, mathematical or engineering sciences.”

Jackson was the first black woman to earn a doctorate from the fabled Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She worked as a researcher in some of the most famous labs across the globe, including the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Bell Labs. She later became the first woman to head the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, under President Bill Clinton.

“I’m not done yet,” Jackson said at event in Troy earlier this month when asked about the biggest accomplishment in her career. “There are different phases in your career, and you try to leave something behind and do something meaningful in each phase.”

Jackson became the 18th president of RPI in 1999, again the first woman and African-American to hold the position. As president, she has led major fundraising initiatives and has expanded the campus’ physical footprint. She has also turned the school’s academic focus to merging disparate scientific fields.

During a talk with the Troy-area Chamber of Commerce this month, she discussed the school’s focus on bringing students and researchers across disciplines together to address large challenges. She also stressed the importance of a well-rounded education for budding doctors, engineers and scientists.

“With today’s problems there is no progress if one doesn’t bring people together from all disciplines ...” she said. “You can’t do anything if you don’t know anything, so we make sure our students have strong roots.”

The National Medal of Science was established by Congress in 1959 and has been awarded to 487 scientists and engineers since. Each year a panel of 12 scientists appointed by the president evaluate nominees for the award.

Jackson is no stranger to the White House. From 2009 to 2014, she served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. In 2014, Obama appointed her to co-chair his Intelligence Advisory Board, which assesses the nation’s intelligence activities.

But she still calls Troy home and seems intent on continuing the work of strengthening RPI’s reputation as one of the nation’s elite schools for science and engineering.

“If you can educate those who are going to erect our future and support those who through their discoveries and innovations will also create our future, then that’s a privilege,” she said at the chamber event.

Shared from

The Daily Gazette

Zachary Matson

Schenectady, NY

Monumental Moment

Michael Artin and Shirley Jackson

win nation’s highest honor in science and technology...

Michael Artin and Shirley Ann Jackson

Photos: Donna Coveney (Artin) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Jackson)

Excerpt as reported by the MIT News Office

MIT Professor Emeritus Michael Artin and MIT Corporation Life Member Shirley Ann Jackson ’68 PhD ’73 are among 17 world-class researchers in the country who have been awarded the nation’s highest honors for scientists and innovators, the White House announced December 22, 2015.

President Barack Obama will present the National Medal of Science to Artin, professor emeritus in the Department of Mathematics, and Jackson, the president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at a ceremony early next year. With these awards, Artin and Jackson bring to 58 the number of MIT scientists who have won the National Medal of Science.

This year, the White House has awarded the National Medal of Science to nine recipients and named eight awardees of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

“Science and technology are fundamental to solving some of our nation’s biggest challenges,” Obama said in an announcement yesterday. “The knowledge produced by these Americans today will carry our country’s legacy of innovation forward and continue to help countless others around the world. Their work is a testament to American ingenuity.”

An Esteemed and Exceptional Friend

Dr. Ronald E. McNair

PERSONAL DATA: Born October 21, 1950, in Lake City, South Carolina. Homegoing January 28, 1986. He is survived by his wife Cheryl, and two children.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Carver High School, Lake City, South Carolina, in 1967; received a bachelor of science degree in Physics from North Carolina A&T State University in 1971 and a doctor of philosophy in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976; presented an honorary doctorate of Laws from North Carolina A&T State University in 1978, an honorary doctorate of Science from Morris College in 1980, and an honorary doctorate of science from the University of South Carolina in 1984.

ORGANIZATIONS: Member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Optical Society, the American Physical Society (APS), the APS Committee on Minorities in Physics, the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Board of Trustees, the MIT Corporation Visiting Committee, Omega Psi Phi, and a visiting lecturer in Physics at Texas Southern University.

AWARDS: Posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

SPECIAL HONORS: Graduated Magna Cum Laude from North Carolina A&T (1971); named a Presidential Scholar (1967-1971), a Ford Foundation Fellow (1971-1974), a National Fellowship Fund Fellow (1974-1975), a NATO Fellow (1975); winner of Omega Psi Phi Scholar of the Year Award (1975), Los Angeles Public School Systems Service Commendation (1979), Distinguished Alumni Award (1979), National Society of Black Professional Engineers Distinguished National Scientist Award (1979), Friend of Freedom Award (1981), Who's Who Among Black Americans (1980), an AAU Karate Gold Medal (1976), five Regional Blackbelt Karate Championships, and numerous proclamations and achievement awards.

EXPERIENCE: While at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. McNair performed some of the earliest development of chemical HF/DF and high-pressure CO lasers. His later experiments and theoretical analysis on the interaction of intense CO2 laser radiation with molecular gases provided new understandings and applications for highly excited polyatomic molecules.

In 1975, he studied laser physics with many authorities in the field at Ecole Dete Theorique de Physique, Les Houches, France. He published several papers in the areas of lasers and molecular spectroscopy and gave many presentations in the United States and abroad.

Following graduation from MIT in 1976, he became a staff physicist with Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California. His assignments included the development of lasers for isotope separation and photochemistry utilizing non-linear interactions in low-temperature liquids and optical pumping techniques. He also conducted research on electro-optic laser modulation for satellite-to-satellite space communications, the construction of ultra-fast infrared detectors, ultraviolet atmospheric remote sensing, and the scientific foundations of the martial arts.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in January 1978, he completed a 1-year training and evaluation period in August 1979, qualifying him for assignment as a mission specialist astronaut on Space Shuttle flight crews.

He first flew as a mission specialist on STS 41-B which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on February 3, 1984. The crew included spacecraft commander, Mr. Vance Brand, the pilot, Commander Robert L. Gibson, and fellow mission specialists, Captain Bruce McCandless II, and Lt. Col. Robert L. Stewart. The flight accomplished the proper shuttle deployment of two Hughes 376 communications satellites, as well as the flight testing of rendezvous sensors and computer programs. This mission marked the first flight of the Manned Maneuvering Unit and the first use of the Canadian arm (operated by McNair) to position EVA crewman around Challengers payload bay. Included were the German SPAS-01 Satellite, acoustic levitation and chemical separation experiments, the Cinema 360 motion picture filming, five Getaway Specials, and numerous mid-deck experiments -- all of which Dr. McNair assumed primary responsibility. Challenger culminated in the first landing on the runway at Kennedy Space Center on February 11, 1984. With the completion of this flight, he logged a total of 191 hours in space.

Dr. McNair was assigned as a mission specialist on STS 51-L. Dr. McNair died on January 28, 1986 when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded after launch from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, also taking the lives of the spacecraft commander, Mr. F.R. Scobee, the pilot, Commander M.J. Smith (USN), mission specialists, Lieutenant Colonel E.S. Onizuka (USAF), and Dr. J.A. Resnik, and two civilian payload specialists, Mr. G.B. Jarvis and Mrs. S. C. McAuliffe.

Notable Hobbies... He was a 5th degree black belt Karate instructor and a performing jazz saxophonist. He also enjoyed running, boxing, football, playing cards, and cooking.

Video of Ronald E. McNair Building Dedication, Center for Space Research, December 6, 1986.

As shared from NASA, Lyndon B. JohnsonSpace Center; Houston, TX - December 2003

A Profound Legacy of Excellence

Dr. Phyllis A. Wallace

Dr. Phyllis A. Wallace earned the faculty status of professor emerita of management within the Sloan School of Management. She is a labor economist who pioneered the study of sexual and racial discrimination in the workplace. Professor Wallace spearheaded, through her scholarship, a precedent-setting legal decision in a federal case that reversed sex and race discrimination in American industry. She directed studies for a federal lawsuit against American Telephone and Telegraph Co., then the largest private employer in the United States. The suit led to a 1973 decision that the company had discriminated against women and minority men. The company agreed to pay millions in back wages and to make other pay adjustments. The verdict also brought about changes in transfer and promotion policies and recruitment criteria.

The case, which Professor Wallace wrote about in her book, Equal Employment Opportunity and the AT&T Case (MIT Press, 1976), was an extension of her own life, background and interests. She continued to work in these areas after her retirement and only recently had agreed to spend the next six months helping Sloan School Dean Lester C. Thurow improve the school's response to sexual harassment problems. She also had begun work on encouraging minorities in the participation of activities at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

In a letter to the Sloan faculty on her passing in January 1993, Dean Thurow said that, as a labor economist, Professor Wallace "widened all our knowledge." Her study of Sloan School women graduates "made everyone wiser about the issues of women attempting to advance in the business world," he said. Professor Wallace was born in Baltimore, MD. She received a BA degree in 1943 from New York University, an MA from Yale in 1944 and her PhD from Yale in 1948.

After receiving her PhD, she joined the National Bureau of Economic Research as an economist/statistician, while also teaching part-time at the College of the City of New York.

She served on the faculty of Atlanta University from 1953 to 1957, when she became a senior economist for the US government specializing in Soviet economic studies. She was chief of technical studies at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Office of Research from 1966 to 1969 and vice president of research for the Metropolitan Applied Research Center from 1969 to 1972. After serving as a visiting professor at the Sloan School, in 1975 she became the first woman to hold the rank of professor at the school. When Mount Holyoke College conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws degree on Professor Wallace in 1983, the citation said that as an educator, public servant and scholar "your career has taken you from the university to government to the corporate boardroom." It continued: "Beginning your career at a time when neither blacks nor women had a fair chance, you have seen great progress toward equal employment opportunity-progress due in no small measure to your scholarship on the economics of discrimination in the labor market."

When she retired in 1986, scholars in industrial and labor relations and economics from around the world gathered at MIT for a conference in her honor. In addition, the Sloan School endowed the Phyllis A. Wallace Doctoral Fellows Fund, which provides support for blacks admitted to the school's doctoral program, and the Phyllis A. Wallace Visiting Scholars Fund to provide support for black visiting scholars at the school.

In addition to her many awards and honors, she served on numerous national advisory committees and corporate boards. Her books included Women, Minorities and Employment Discrimination (1977), Pathways to Work: Employment Among Black Teenage Females (1974), and Black Women in the Labor Force (1980).

As shared from MIT News, January 13, 1993

MTL's Akintunde Ibitayo Akinwande

Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL), Akintunde Ibitayo (Tayo) Akinwande, is a Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Professor Akinwande received a B.Sc. (1978) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Ife, Nigeria, a MS (1981) and Ph.D. (1986) in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, Stanford, California.

MTL is an interdepartmental laboratory that supports Microsystems research encompassing work in circuits and systems, MEMS, electronic and photonic devices, and molecular and nanotechnology. The research is enabled by a set of shared experimental facilities, as well as a vibrant industrial consortium. Annually, MTL supports the research of 745 students and staff.

MTL was established in the mid-1980s inside the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. Over the years, MTL has evolved and grown into an Interdepartmental laboratory reaching across the entire Institute.

Dr. Akinwande is also the director of the MISTI Africa Empowering the Teachers Fellowship Programme. Empowering the Teachers is a teaching fellowship that enables outstanding young Nigerian faculty in science and engineering to collaborate with faculty at MIT in developing new curriculum and teaching methods.

Excerpts from: MTL's faculty profile of Dr. Akinwande, and Opportunities for Africans

MIT Physicist - James Edward Young

Dr. James Edward Young is an outstanding scientist and pioneer who became MIT's first tenured African American Physics Professor. He also advised Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson and Dr. Sylvester James Gates (MIT Physics Ph.D. graduates). These two alumni are among MIT's cadre of physicists that received among their numerous national and international honors, prestigious appointments by two United States Presidents.

James E. Young was born in Wheeling, West Virginia on January 18, 1926. He was graduated from Lincoln High School in 1941. In 1942 he entered Howard University (Washington, DC) and was graduated with the B.S. Degree in Physics in 1946. From 1946 to 1949 he was employed as an Instructor in Physics at Hampton Institute, Hampton, VA. During this time he took, in absentia, the M.S. Degree in Physics at Howard University. In 1949 he joined the staff of the Acoustics Laboratory at MIT as Research Assistant in Physics. In 1951 he received the M.S. Degree, without specification, from MIT. He is a member of Sigma Pi Sigma, Beta Kappa Chi and Sigma Xi.

James Edward Young received his Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1953.  The dissertation's title is "Propagation of Sound In Attenuating Ducts Containing Absorptive Strips".  Acknowledgements cited in his original thesis submission on May 18, 1953 is as follows:

He was married to E. Elaine Hunter in 1948 and they have one child, James E. Young III

Excerpt of biographical note taken from his successful physics dissertation defense in 1953:

Propagation of Sound in Attenuating Ducts Containing Absorptive Strips.  Dr. Young's archived thesis is courtesy of DSpace@MIT - a service of MIT Libraries.  All items in DSpace@MIT are protected by original copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.