Herman Brenner White Explained

Herman Brenner White
Birth Date:28 September 1948
Workplaces:Fermilab
North Central College
Alma Mater:Michigan State University
Florida State University
Earlham College

Herman Brenner White (born 28 September 1948) is an American physicist who works at Fermilab. He won the 2010 American Physical Society Edward A Bouchet Award.

Early life and education

White was born in Tuskegee, Alabama.[1] His mother, Susie Mae Fort White, worked at John Andrew Hospital and his father, Herman Brenner White Senior, served in the military. He studied at the Tuskegee Institute High School, where he became interested in nuclear engineering. He was raised in a segregated community.[2] He saw his role in the civil rights movement as being an exceptional student who could prove that black people deserved equal access to education. He studied nuclear physics at Earlham College, before joining Michigan State University, earning a bachelor's degree in physics in 1970.[3] White was awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship to study at CERN, and also worked as a research associate at Argonne National Laboratory. He completed his master's degree in 1974. He joined Fermilab in 1974, where he was the first African-American physicist to be appointed.[4]

Research and career

White held various roles at Fermilab since joining in 1974. Working with his supervisor, Ray Stefanski, he developed a simple formula to calculate neutrino flux.[5] In 1976 he joined Yale University as a research fellow. He joined Florida State University for his doctoral studies, earning a PhD in 1991. He joined the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí to work on kaons. In 1994, White was appointed the Illinois Research Corridor Fellow and adjunct professor at North Central College.[6] He also worked on the neutrino oscillation experiment (E701) and SciBooNE.[7] He studies neutrino cross-sections and muon conversion.[8] In 2006 his life story was recorded by the HistoryMakers of Chicago as part of the oral history archives.

White supports students from diverse backgrounds in their careers in physics.[9] In 2010 White was awarded the American Physical Society Edward A. Bouchet Award for his work on the Tevatron experiment and outstanding public service.[10] He serves on the advisory board for QuarkNet, National Society of Black Physicists and the Illinois Institute of Technology. He is a member of the Teachers Academy for Mathematics and Science in Chicago.[11] He served on the advisory panel for the United States Department of Energy and National Science Foundation. He ran for congress in the 11th congressional district of Illinois in 2016.[12] In 2017 he appeared in a series of online videos for Science the Day!. He took part in The Story Collider in Batavia, Illinois in 2018.[13] [14]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Biography Page for Herman White. www.idvl.org. 2018-09-30.
  2. Web site: Herman White, Jr.. Roberson. Stephen. www.nsbp.org. en-gb. 2018-09-30.
  3. Web site: Herman Brenner White, Jr. The HistoryMakers. www.thehistorymakers.org. en. 2018-09-30.
  4. Web site: Fermilab's First Black Particle Physicist - Dr. Herman B. White The Chicago Council on Science and Technology. www.c2st.org. 3 February 2017 . en-US. 2018-09-30.
  5. Web site: Ray Stefanski retires after 41 years News. news.fnal.gov. 5 January 2011 . en-US. 2018-09-30.
  6. Web site: Fermilab's 2007 Nature of Science Symposium. ed.fnal.gov. 2018-09-30.
  7. Web site: Fermilab Today. www.fnal.gov. 2018-09-30.
  8. News: The $100 muon detector. symmetry magazine. 2018-09-30. en.
  9. Web site: 6th International Conference on Women in Physics: U.S. Delegation. uswip.org. 2018-09-30.
  10. Web site: 2018 Norman F. Ramsey Prize in Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, and in Precision Tests of Fundamental Laws and Symmetries Recipient. www.aps.org. en. 2018-09-30.
  11. Web site: Herman White Fermilab Community Advisory Board. www.fermilabcommunity.org. en-US. 2018-09-30.
  12. Web site: Herman White for Congress 11th Congressional District. www.hermanwhiteforcongress.com. en-US. 2018-09-30. 2018-09-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20180930231431/http://www.hermanwhiteforcongress.com/. dead.
  13. Web site: Batavia, IL - Physics. The Story Collider. en-US. 2018-09-30.
  14. News: The Story Collider – Leaving Home: Stories about the places we're from – 33:08. 2018-09-30.