RONALD L. MALLETT

Mallett received his Ph.D. in general physics from the Pennsylvania State University in 1973 and currently is a full professor at the University of Connecticut. He has published in the areas of the classic and quantum theory of black holes, relativistic astrophysics, and quantum cosmology.

WALTER SAMUEL McAFFEE

McAffee (1914-1995) was born in Ore City, Texas, one of nine children. His mother taught all her children, and six of Susie Johnson’s children obtained math or math related degrees, while the two others got degrees in chemistry. Walter McAfee obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell University. During World War II, Walter McAfee was a member of the U.S. Army Signal Corp Engineering Laboratories. There he distinguished himself in electromagnetism and radar. He was a member of the Project Diana team that was responsible for the first lunar radar echo experiments in 1946. His area of specialty in physics was the meson production in nuclear collisions, and a fellowship enabled McAfee to study radio astronomy for two years at Harvard University. Just prior to retirement, McAfee contracted glaucoma and went blind. He died of cancer.

CHARLES H. McGRUDER III

He received his B.S. in Astronomy from CalTech and his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Heidelberg (Germany). He is now the Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Western Kentucky University, heading a group of nine astronomers who are interested in active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursts, and extrasolar planets.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PEERY, JR.

Peery (1922- ) received his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Michigan in 1962 and taught for many years at Indiana University. He is currently professor emeritus in astronomy at Howard University. Peery has the distinction of being the first Black astronomer to be seen and heard by a mass audience thanks to a televised documentary on PBS stations in 1991 called "The Astronomers." His areas of research include the physics of stellar structure, evolution and nucleo-synthesis, and the physics of interacting binary stars.

ARLIE O. PETTERS

Petters was born in Dangriga, Belize, emigrated to the U.S. in 1979 and has been a citizen now since 1990. He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1991. Petters is an Associate Professor and holder of the William & Sue Gross Chair in the Mathematics Department of Duke University, where he is the first African American tenured faculty in the sciences/mathematics. His area of research interest is mathematical physics, and his book on gravitational lensing is considered a tour de force in mathematical physics. In 2003, he became a Full Professor at Duke University.