LOUIS W. ROBERTS

Roberts (1913-1995) was born in Jamestown, New York, and received a Master of Science degree from the University of Michigan in 1937. He was Professor of Mathematics and Physics at St. Augustine's College from 1941 to 1943 and Associate Professor of Physics at Howard University, 1943-44. Roberts held eleven patents for electronic devices and was the author of papers on electromagnetism, optics, and microwaves. He was instrumental in the founding and developing of three microwave companies in the 1950s and 1960s. Roberts became chief of the microwave lab of NASA's electronics research center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the 1960s and was a pivotal member of the Apollo program as head of optics, photography and microwave electronics. From 1970 to his retirement in 1989, he held various senior positions with the Department of Transportation System Center in Cambridge, becoming its director in 1985.

EARL SHAW

Shaw (1937- ) was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and attended a three-room school. When he was 12, he and his mother moved to Chicago, and he attended Crane Technical High School, where he was first introduced to physics. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from University of California, Berkeley in 1969. Dr. Shaw worked as a Research Scientist for Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, where he was the co-inventor of the spin-flip tunable laser. Unlike other lasers which emit a single beam frequency, Spin-flip tuning allows a short range of variable beam frequencies-as though a dimmer switch were on the laser-to turn the beam frequencies higher or lower. Tunable lasers allow a range of sensitivity for exploring the physical world, such as biological systems and materials science. Dr. Shaw is currently Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey.

LAWNIE TAYLOR

Taylor (1920- ) received degrees in physics from Columbia University before earning his Doctorate of Science in Physics at the University of South California, Los Angeles. He became the chief of market Development and training in the Department of Energy's solar offices, directing programs to commercialize government research on solar technologies. Taylor worked at Columbia University's Nuclear Laboratory, at Aerojet-General Corporation's nuclear rocket project, and in the Xerox Corporation's space program. He received a NASA award for his development of an Apollo experiment. He joined the Energy Research and Development Administration in 1975.

HERMAN THOMAS

Thomas received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1973 after holding several positions as chemist during the 1960s. From 1966 to 1977 he was an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center until becoming a Geophysicist, Geodynamics Branch, Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics at the same institution. His specialties are tectonics, geomagnetism, and isotope and trace element geochemistry. In 1972 he collaborated with others to publish a book on the chemical composition of lunar samples, and he has published many articles on geochemistry of North America.

J. ERNEST WILKINS, JR.

Wilkins (1923- ) was born in Chicago, Illinois, and first attracted nationwide attention when he received his college degree at age 17 and his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Chicago at 19 in 1942. Wilkins then earned a Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering in 1942 from New York University, followed by a Masters of Mechanical Engineering in 1960. He was Associate Physicist on the Manhattan Project from 1944 to 1946, and taught mathematics and did research at the University of Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory, where work was being conducted by Enrico Fermi's research group on the atomic bomb project. Wilkins served as Assistant Chairman of the Theoretical Physics Department, General Atomic Division of General Dynamics Corporation from 1960 to 1965 and Assistant Director of the laboratory from 1965 to 1970. In 1970, Dr. Wilkins was appointed as Distinguished Professor of Applied Mathematical Physics at Howard University. Dr. Wilkins was a joint owner of a company which designed and developed nuclear reactors for electrical power generation. His primary achievement was the development of radiation shielding against gamma radiation, which is emitted during electron decay of the Sun and other nuclear sources.