Charles McGruder III

Last updated

Charles H. McGruder III is an African-American astrophysicist, researcher and professor at Western Kentucky University, [1] where he holds the William McCormack Endowed Chair in Physics and Astronomy. [2] He is a former president of the National Society of Black Physicists. [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Charles H. McGruder III was born in Bristol Township, Pennsylvania. [2] In 1961, McGruder enrolled as a California Institute of Technology freshman, and was the second African American undergraduate at Cal Tech. [4] McGruder received his Bachelor of Science in Astronomy from the California Institute of Technology. Soon after completing his Bachelor's program, he received his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Heidelberg, Germany in 1972. [5] [1] For his Ph.D., he wrote his dissertation in German, "Photometry in Centaurus", which "spotlighted how and where stars are born." [6] After completing his doctoral studies in Germany, McGruder embarked on a journey across Africa. This adventure led him to a lectureship position at the University of Nigeria. He might have settled there for the long term, but a condition set by his future father-in-law altered his plans. McGruder had to return to the United States with his daughter if he wished to marry her. [7]

Career

McGruder has made it his priority to make the entry of young African Americans into astronomical research easier. He was the President of the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP) from 2000 to 2002. [3] During his time, he was very involved in improving the physical condition of the African continent as president of the NSBP International Committee. He was a very important figure in the development of the African Astronomical Society. [5]

McGruder was particularly active in the growth of astronomical research in South Africa. In South Africa, the National Astrophysics and Space Science Program (NASSP) was established to train South African students to develop advanced physics skills. The program specifically accepts bachelor's degrees in mathematics or physical science and prepares them for doctorates in astrophysics and related disciplines. However, there were no South African astronomers to mentor potential students. This resulted in McGruder working with other African American NSBP astrophysicists to serve as mentors and supervisors in this program. The following year after entering the NSBP program, the number of black students at NASSP jumped dramatically. [5]

McGruder holds the William McCormack Endowed Chair in Physics and Astronomy at Western Kentucky University. [2] He also leads a group of nine astronomers at Western Kentucky University, specializing in active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursts, and extrasolar planets. His department has been successful[ promotion? ] in procuring financing for undergraduates to participate in faculty-mentored research. He is also the Director of Team Experience in Astronomy for Minorities. [3]

Notable publications

In 1982, while working in the Department of Physics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria, West Africa, McGruder published a journal article called "Gravitational repulsion in the Schwarzschild Field." In this article, he explains that when using measuring instruments that are not affected by gravity, you can see gravitational compulsions can occur anywhere in the Schwarzschild Field. [8]

McGruder III and Wieb VanDerMeer, B. wrote "The 1916 PhD Thesis of Johannes Droste and the Discovery of Gravitational Repulsion" which provides the translation of the concept of gravitational repulsion that was first introduced by Johannes Droste in his Ph.D. thesis submitted to H.A. Lorentz in 1916. [9] [ clarification needed ]

Personal and social impact

In a reflective interview at the California Institute of Technology, Charles McGruder III discussed the impact of various factors, including integration, on his life and career. McGruder, raised in Bristol Township, shared insights into his upbringing influenced by his parents—a doctor and a sociology student—who met at Howard University. He recounted experiences navigating racial dynamics both in the North and South, citing his father's prominence as a physician. McGruder also highlighted his academic journey, mentioning early exposure to science through books and an astronomy club, which fueled his passion for exploration and discovery despite facing biases from some instructors. [7]

In another part of the interview, McGruder discussed the role of the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP) in his professional development. He described his initial encounter with a Black physicist while traveling through Africa, which led to his involvement with NSBP in 1990. McGruder emphasized the importance of NSBP in fostering a sense of community and support for Black physicists, comparing it to his involvement with the American Physical Society (APS) Committee of Minorities. He reflected on NSBP's evolution, highlighting its focus on mentorship and the development of the next generation of physicists. McGruder stressed the significance of inclusivity and representation, particularly through role modeling and mentoring, in empowering aspiring physicists of color. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov</span> Russian astrophysicist (born 1935)

Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov is a Russian theoretical astrophysicist and cosmologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kip Thorne</span> American physicist (born 1940)

Kip Stephen Thorne is an American theoretical physicist known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics. Along with Rainer Weiss and Barry C. Barish, he was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bohdan Paczyński</span> Polish astronomer (1940–2007)

Bohdan Paczyński or Bohdan Paczynski was a Polish astronomer notable for his theories and work in the fields of stellar evolution, accretion discs, and gamma ray bursts. He is the recipient of the Eddington Medal (1987), the Henry Draper Medal (1997), the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1999), and the Order of Polonia Restituta (2007).

Martin Schwarzschild was a German-American astrophysicist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cosmology</span> Scientific study of the origin, evolution, and eventual fate of the universe

Cosmology is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term cosmology was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's Glossographia, and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher Christian Wolff, in Cosmologia Generalis. Religious or mythological cosmology is a body of beliefs based on mythological, religious, and esoteric literature and traditions of creation myths and eschatology. In the science of astronomy, cosmology is concerned with the study of the chronology of the universe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leon Mestel</span> British astronomer

Leon Mestel was a British-Australian astronomer and astrophysicist and Emeritus Professor at the University of Sussex. His research interests were in the areas of star formation and structure, especially stellar magnetism and astrophysical magnetohydrodynamics. He was awarded both the Eddington Medal (1993) and the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. Following his retirement, he wrote several obituaries and biographical articles on physicists and astrophysicists.

General relativity is a theory of gravitation that was developed by Albert Einstein between 1907 and 1915, with contributions by many others after 1915. According to general relativity, the observed gravitational attraction between masses results from the warping of space and time by those masses.

The National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP), established in the United States in 1977, is a non-profit professional organization with the goal to promote the professional well-being of African Diaspora physicists and physics students within the international scientific community and the world community at large.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Merritt</span>

David Roy Merritt is an American astrophysicist.

Andrew E. Lange was an astrophysicist and Goldberger Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. Lange came to Caltech in 1993 and was most recently the chair of the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy. Caltech's president Jean-Lou Chameau called him "a truly great physicist and astronomer who had made seminal discoveries in observational cosmology".

C.V.Vishveshwara was an Indian scientist and black hole physicist. Specializing in Einstein's General Relativity, he worked extensively on the theory of black holes and made major contributions to this field of research since its very beginning. He is popularly known as the 'black hole man of India'.

Shashikumar Madhusudan Chitre FNA, FASc, FNASc, FRAS was an Indian mathematician and astrophysicist, known for his research in Astronomy and Astrophysics. The Government of India honored him, in 2012, with Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award, for his services to the sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beth A. Brown</span> NASA astrophysicist

Beth A. Brown was a NASA astrophysicist with a research focus on X-ray observations of elliptical galaxies and black holes. She earned a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Michigan in 1998, becoming the first African-American woman to do so.

Marica Branchesi is an Italian astrophysicist. Her leadership and scientific work was pivotal for Virgo/LIGO's discovery of gravitational waves. She is vice president of International Astronomical Union Gravitational Wave Astrophysics Commission and member of the Gravitational Wave International Committee.

Jarita Charmian Holbrook is an American astronomer and associate professor of physics at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) where they are principal investigator of the Astronomy & Society group. Holbrook's work examines the relationship between humans and the night sky, and they have produced scientific publications on cultural astronomy, starburst galaxies, and star formation regions.

Eric George Adelberger is an American experimental nuclear physicist and gravitational metrologist.

Vuk Mandić is a Serbian-American astrophysicist and professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Minnesota. In 2017 he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).

Deirdre Marie Shoemaker is an American astrophysicist whose research studies the mergers of binary black holes through both simulation and observation. She is a professor of physics at the University of Texas at Austin, where she directs the Center for Gravitational Physics and is affiliated with the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences.

Keith H. Jackson was an American physicist, a professor of physics, and former president of the National Society of Black Physicists.

Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz is a professor of astrophysics, astronomy, and earth sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

References

  1. 1 2 Fikes, Robert (2000). "Careers of African Americans in Academic Astronomy". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (29): 132–134. doi:10.2307/2678866. ISSN   1077-3711. JSTOR   2678866.
  2. 1 2 3 Zierler, D. (2021, December 3). Charles McGruder (BS ’65), astronomer, astrophysicist, and dark matter explorer. Caltech Heritage Project. https://heritageproject.caltech.edu/interviews-updates/charles-mcgruder
  3. 1 2 3 Williams, Scott. "Charles H. McGruder III - Physicist of the African Diaspora". Astronomers of the African Diaspora. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
  4. ↑ Goins, Edray Herber (2018). "Three Questions: The Journey of One Black Mathematician" (PDF). Notices of the American Mathematical Society. 65 (2). American Mathematical Society: 145. doi:10.1090/noti1637. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-02-08.
  5. 1 2 3 Roberson, S. (2020, December 12). February 13, 2020 - National Society of Black Physicists. National Society of Black Physicists. https://nsbp.org/blogpost/1904681/362811/February-13-2020
  6. ↑ Reynolds, Rhonda (February 1996). "In love with your work". Black Enterprise. Vol. 26, no. 7 – via EBSCOHost.
  7. 1 2 3 Zierler, D. (2021, December 3). Charles McGruder (BS ’65), astronomer, astrophysicist, and dark matter explorer. Caltech Heritage Project. https://heritageproject.caltech.edu/interviews-updates/charles-mcgruder
  8. ↑ McGruder, Charles H. (1982-06-15). "Gravitational repulsion in the Schwarzschild field". Physical Review D. 25 (12): 3191–3194. Bibcode:1982PhRvD..25.3191M. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.25.3191.
  9. ↑ McGruder III, C. H. (1982, June 15). Gravitational repulsion in the Schwarzschild field. Physical Review D. https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.25.3191
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.