Contact: Maya Matthews Minter
Maya@DiverseEducation.com
Phone: 703.385.2411
FAIRFAX, Va. — Diverse: Issues In Higher Education is pleased to announce the presentation of this year’s Dr. John Hope Franklin Award to Dr. Sylvester James (Jim) Gates, Jr.
Gates is a groundbreaking theoretical physicist who works at the boundary of physics and mathematics. He earned two bachelor of science degrees (in physics and mathematics) and a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His doctoral thesis was the first at MIT to investigate the subject of supersymmetry and he has continued with over two hundred publications in the field.
In 1984, he co-authored Superspace: One Thousand and One Lessons in Supersymmetry, the first comprehensive book on supersymmetry, and joined the University of Maryland (UMD) faculty as an associate professor. Four years later, he became the first African American to hold an endowed chair in physics at a major U.S. research university. He is renowned for his technical work on supersymmetry, supergravity, and superstring theory and he continues to actively research the domain.
At UMD he serves as University System Regents Professor, the John S. Toll Professor of Physics, and a College Park Professor. He holds the Clark Leadership Chair in Science, and he is a professor of Public Policy. His award-winning and distinguished career as a professor, spans over five decades and he has made an indelible mark on physics and math education in the U.S.
