About the author
Sekazi K. Mtingwa graduated Phi Beta Kappa with B.S. degrees in physics and mathematics from MIT in 1971 and a Ph.D. in theoretical high energy physics from Princeton University in 1976. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and held postdoctoral positions at the University of Rochester, University of Maryland - College Park, and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, where he served one year as a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow. Subsequently, he served in staff physicist positions at both Fermilab and Argonne National Laboratory. At Fermilab, Mtingwa and James Bjorken developed a theory of particle beam dynamics called intrabeam scattering, which has become a classic in the field of accelerator physics and is used widely by physicists to understand the behavior of intense particle beams, such as those in CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, which discovered the long-sought Higgs particle. During 1991-2004, Mtingwa was Professor of Physics at North Carolina A&T State University, where he served as Department Chair during 1991-1994. During 1997-1999, he served as the J. Ernest Wilkins, Jr. Visiting Professor of Physics at Morgan State University. During 2001-2005, he served two years as Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professor of Physics at MIT and two years as Visiting Professor of Physics at Harvard University. During 2006-2012, Mtingwa was a senior lecturer at MIT. He retired from MIT in 2012 and served as a consultant to Brookhaven National Laboratory and Principal Partner at Triangle Science, Education & Economic Development, LLC.
In addition to his research activities, Mtingwa has been involved in a number of other initiatives. During 1998-2008, he served on the Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee (NEAC) to the U.S. Department of Energy. He served on NEAC’s Subcommittee for Isotope Research & Production Planning and led the 1999 site visit to Brookhaven National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory to assess the state of their isotope production facilities. Mtingwa served many years on NEAC's Subcommittee for Nuclear Fuel Cycle R&D, which advises DOE on its nuclear reactor spent fuel research program. He chaired a 2008 study for the American Physical Society that examined the readiness of the U.S. nuclear workforce. That report played an important role in dramatically increasing Federal funding to university nuclear education programs.
Over several decades, Mtingwa has been involved in promoting science and technology in Africa. He is a Board Member and one of the founders of the African Laser Centre (ALC), which is based in South Africa and is a network of laboratories that has transformed the laser science community in Africa. Mtingwa chaired the writing of the Strategy and Business Plan that defined the ALC’s programs. He served on the Steering Committee of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Ghana, which admitted its first 27 students from 12 African countries in August 2012. In 2011-2012, he chaired the writing of the Strategic Plan for submission to the government of South Africa on behalf of its synchrotron light source user community. In 2007, Mtingwa received the Science Education Award from the National Council of Ghanaian Associations for his contributions to science education among African peoples.
Mtingwa has played a role for many years in assisting African-, Latino- and Native-American science communities. He is a co-founder, and served 1992-1994 as President, of the National Society of Black Physicists. He is a co-founder and proposed the adopted management structure of the National Society of Hispanic Physicists. In addition, he has served as President of INCREASE, which is a consortium of Minority-Serving Institutions with the goal of increasing the involvement of their faculty and students at the U.S. national laboratory user facilities.