ERNEST COLEMAN

Coleman (1943-1990) was born in Detroit, Michigan, and received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Michigan in 1966, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He accepted a position as Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota, and was promoted to Associate Professor of Physics. While a visiting Professor at Stanford University, he served as director of the summer science program for gifted high school students from economic and socially challenging backgrounds. Upon returning to the University of Michigan he continued to head the summer program, which has encouraged highly motivated and able students into physics. Dr. Coleman received the Distinguished Service Award of the American Association of Physics Teachers.

JOHN WILLIAM COLEMAN

Coleman (1929- ) was born in New York City, earning a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1963. From 1951 to 1953, John Coleman served as a Physicist for the National Bureau of Standards. He was an Instructor in Physics at Howard University from 1957-58, later becoming an Engineer for RCA in 1958. His research involved the physics of electrons, and he assisted in the development of the American electron microscope developed at RCA.

STANLEY PETER DAVIS

Davis earned his Ph.D. in Physics from The Catholic University of America in 1995 and a Physicist and National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council Resident Research Associate at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics. His research areas are High-Energy Astrophysics, Astro-Particle Physics and Cosmology.

S. JAMES GATES

Gates earned his Ph.D. in Physics from MIT, and since 1998 has been the John S. Toll Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland. He serves as president of the National Society of Black Physicists, and the National Technical Association named him Physicist of the Year and co-recipient of the Technical Achiever of the Year Award in 1993. His research centers on superstring theory, which uses complex mathematical descriptions to explain how gravity and other natural forces are connected and may one day allow scientists to understand a unified theory of all forces. He was named a 2002-2003 Distinguished Scholar Teacher, an honor for the university's faculty who have demonstrated outstanding scholarly achievement along with equally outstanding accomplishments as teachers. Gates was also named a member of the University's Academy for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. He is the author of Superspace, or One thousand and one lessons in supersymmetry (1983) and well over one hundred research papers.

JOHN McNEILE HUNTER

Hunter (1901- ) was born in Woodville, Texas, and received a Ph.D. in Physics in 1937 from Cornell University. He was served as Professor and Head of the Physics Department at Virginia State College from 1925 to 1967, retiring the next year. It is said of him that did much to add physics to the curriculum of black students and to add black students to the professional rosters of physics. Of the more than 4000 students taught by Hunter, over 50 became physicists and engineers. Ten of these are now teachers and one is a university president.