Today in Wheeling History: January 18--James Edward Young, an African American physicist, was born in Wheeling and became a pioneering scientist (1926).
James Edward Young was born on January 18, 1926, in Wheeling, West Virginia. He attended Lincoln High School in Wheeling, graduating in 1941. Young pursued higher education at Howard University, where he studied physics. He was appointed as a physics instructor at the Hampton Institute while simultaneously completing a master's degree in acoustical engineering at Howard University. In 1949, Young moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a research assistant and earned a Doctorate in Science in 1953. His early research focused on the propagation of noise in pipes. Young became the first black tenured faculty member in the Department of Physics at MIT in 1969. He was a founding member of the National Society of Black Physicists and served as a mentor to notable physicists such as Shirley Ann Jackson and Sylvester James Gates. Young's research and teaching at MIT centered on theoretical particle physics, critical phenomena, and nuclear physics. He contributed to several textbooks and was involved in significant research on intermediate structures in nuclear reactions. Young married E. Elaine Hunter, and they had one child, James E. Young III. James Edward Young's contributions to physics and his role as a mentor have left a lasting impact on the scientific community.
To learn more: Wikipedia (https://shorturl.at/vOGTH), MIT Black History (https://shorturl.at/wTV9H)
Photo caption and credit: James Edward Young, 1983 (MIT)
James Edward Young was born on January 18, 1926, in Wheeling, West Virginia. He attended Lincoln High School in Wheeling, graduating in 1941. Young pursued higher education at Howard University, where he studied physics. He was appointed as a physics instructor at the Hampton Institute while simultaneously completing a master's degree in acoustical engineering at Howard University. In 1949, Young moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a research assistant and earned a Doctorate in Science in 1953. His early research focused on the propagation of noise in pipes. Young became the first black tenured faculty member in the Department of Physics at MIT in 1969. He was a founding member of the National Society of Black Physicists and served as a mentor to notable physicists such as Shirley Ann Jackson and Sylvester James Gates. Young's research and teaching at MIT centered on theoretical particle physics, critical phenomena, and nuclear physics. He contributed to several textbooks and was involved in significant research on intermediate structures in nuclear reactions. Young married E. Elaine Hunter, and they had one child, James E. Young III. James Edward Young's contributions to physics and his role as a mentor have left a lasting impact on the scientific community.
To learn more: Wikipedia (https://shorturl.at/vOGTH), MIT Black History (https://shorturl.at/wTV9H)
Photo caption and credit: James Edward Young, 1983 (MIT)
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