Academic administrator, physicist, and physics professor Carl Spight was born on September 8, 1944 in Indianapolis, Indiana to Erma Mae White and William Herman Spight. He was inspired to be a nuclear physicist from watching television shows like Watch Mr. Wizard, Flash Gordon, and Captain Video and His Video Rangers. His childhood nickname, Mr. Radio, was earned by fixing...

Physicist and education administrator Allen Lee Sessoms was born in 1946. He attended Union College in New York where he graduated with his B.S. degree in physics in 1968. He then attended the University of Washington, where he obtained his M.S. degree in physics the following year. Sessoms went on to Yale University where he earned his Master of...

Environmental engineer Jacqueline White Sales was born on May 8, 1946. She graduated from Howard University with her B.S. degree in microbiology in 1968, and her M.E. degree in environmental engineering in 1975. Upon graduation in 1968, Sales served as Chief Technician of the Georgetown University Rheumatology Laboratory at the District of Columbia General Hospital. Link: http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/jacqueline-sales

Inventor, electrical engineer, and business executive Jesse E. Russell, Sr. was born on April 26, 1948 in Nolensville, Tennessee to Mary Louise Russell and Charles Albert Russell. He was raised in inner-city Nashville along with his ten siblings. In 1972, Russell received his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Tennessee State University. As a top honor student, Russell became...

Physicist and engineering professor Steven L. Richardson was born on July 22, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Edward Alfred Richardson, was a subway conductor and his mother, Juanita Pearl Richardson, was a nurse. Richardson excelled in academics and pursued his interests in literature, science and mathematics at Brooklyn Preparatory High School. He attended Columbia University where he...

Physicist Philip W. Phillips was born in Scarborough, Tobago in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Phillips’ family migrated to the United States when he was ten years old. After graduating with his B.A. degree in chemistry and mathematics from Walla Walla College in 1979, Phillips enrolled in the University of Washington where he served as a graduate research...

Research physicist and physics professor Sekazi K. Mtingwa was born on October 20, 1949 in Atlanta, Georgia. After receiving his B.S. degrees in physics and pure mathematics (Phi Beta Kappa) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1971, Mtingwa enrolled at Princeton University and graduated from there with his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in theoretical high energy physics...

Research physicist Alfred Z. Msezane was born on December 31, 1938 in South Africa. His father, Albert, was a businessman and his mother, Esther, a housewife. Msezane enrolled in the University of South Africa in 1960, where he studied the shape and behavior of one of the most fundamental particles _ the electron. Msezane graduated from the University of...

College president and physicist Walter E. Massey was born on April 5, 1938 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He was raised by his step-father, Almar Cleveland Massey, and mother, Essie Nelson Massey. Segregated society made life difficult for him and his family but his parents raised him with the mentality to stay safe, be proud, and deal with discrimination. During the...

Physicist and education administrator Arlene P. Maclin was born in Brunswick County, Virginia on June 7, 1945 to parents Otis Armstead and Alice Matthews Maclin. Maclin attended Hickory Run Elementary School and Rawlings Elementary School, and graduated from James Solomon High School in 1963. Upon graduation, Maclin enrolled at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University, where she graduated with...