Sekazi Mtingwa

Sekazi Kauze Mtingwa: (born Michael Von Sawyer; October 20, 1949) is an American theoretical high-energy physicist. He is a co-recipient of the 2017 Robert R. Wilson Prize for Achievement in the Physics of Particle Accelerators. He is the first African-American to be awarded the prize. in 2008 for "his definitive treatment of Intrabeam scattering, his contributions to the wakefield acceleration, and his early recognition of the fixed target physics potential of the next generation electron-positron collider." He also co-founded the National Society of Black Physicists in 1977

He attended segregated schools until 10th grade. In that year, the Georgia State Science Fair was integrated, and Mtingwa won first place in biology. He was the first African-American to win.

He studied physics and pure mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he received B.S. degrees in both subjects in 1971. While an undergraduate, he helped found the Interphase EDGE (then Project Interphase) program to prepare incoming students in subjects such as physics and math. He was also involved in the student protests of the late 1960s. Afterwards, he joined graduate school at Princeton University, where he earned a Ph. D. degree in theoretical high energy physics in 1976. The title of his PhD thesis is "Asymptotic chiral invariance and its consequences," which he completed under the supervision of Curtis Callan. For this work, he was awarded the 2017 Robert R. Wilson Prize for Achievement in the Physics of Particle Accelerators, which were instrumental in particle discoveries, including that of the top quark.

In 1988–1991, Mtingwa worked at Argonne National Laboratory, where he developed theory of advanced wakefield and plasma acceleration and of the photon colliders. Starting in 1991, he joined the faculty at North Carolina A&T State University as Chair and Professors of Physics (with a brief stint at Morgan State University in 1997–1999). From 2001 to 2003, he was a visiting professor of physics at MIT, followed by two years as a visiting professor of physics at Harvard University. He returned to MIT in 2006. ).