Dr. Walter Massey, Physicist

Born in Mississippi in 1938, Walter Massey became fascinated by mathematics as a young man, and by the middle of high school, his academic achievements had earned him a Ford Foundation fellowship to Morehouse College, an historically black college where he studied theoretical physics. After attending Morehouse, he pursued advanced study in physics earning his PhD from Washington University in St. Louis. As a physicist, he studied theoretical condensed matter – how liquids and solids behave, and where his research added to a better understanding of neutron stars, new strategies for detecting dark matter, and the development of quantum technologies.

As a Black man born and raised in the Jim Crow South, Dr. Massey often felt torn between his love of physics and a pull to contribute to the struggle for racial equity in America. While an associate professor at Brown University, Dr. Masey established the Inner City Teachers of Science which connected local high schools with Brown’s science and engineering faculty to better prepare underserved students for the rigors of college. He also helped found the National Society of Black Physicists, which has grown to support thousands of students and professionals in the field.

During his career, Dr. Massey served as head of the National Science Foundation and as director of Argonne National Laboratory.

For more about Dr. Massey, visit NSF or the New York Times.