Allen Sessoms

Allen Lee Sessoms (born November 17, 1946) is an American physicist, diplomat, and academic administrator. His scientific research focused on quarks and related subatomic particles at CERN and Harvard University. Sessoms worked in the United States Department of State for 12 years, rising to the position of deputy ambassador at the Embassy of the United States, Mexico City. He later served as president of Queens College, City University of New York, Delaware State University, and the University of the District of Columbia.

Education Sessoms was born on November 17, 1946. He completed a B.S. in physics at Union College in 1968. He earned a M.S. in physics at University of Washington in 1969, and a D.Sc. in physics at Yale University in 1972. Sessoms was a postdoctoral researcher at the Brookhaven National Laboratory working on computer programs, and the production of quarks at the Fermilab.

Awards and honors Sessoms was a Ford Foundation Fellow and a Sloan Research Fellow. The Union College and Sōka University presented him with honorary doctorates. He won the Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal in 1999. Sessoms is an Officier of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques.

Personal life Sessoms speaks English, Spanish, French, and German.