National Society of Black Physicists...

President Obama, Bill Nye, Myth Busters and members of NSBP (from homepage)

Topics: Diversity, Diversity in Science, NSBP, Women in Science

By the late 1960s and early 1970s the roster of senior African American physicists included James Young, who was at LANL and later MIT, Joseph Johnson (Southern University), Harry Morrison (Berkeley), Pete Bragg (Berkeley), Charlie Harper (Cal State Haywood), James Davenport (Virginia State), Rutherford Adkins (Fisk), James Lawson (Fisk), Warren Henry (Howard), Herman Branson (Howard), and Howard Foster (Alabama A&M), who kept a roster of Blacks in physics. These senior physicists served as role models and mentors to generations of African American physics students, giving emotional and at times financial support.

Events in the spring of 1972 led African American physicists to start convening for an awards banquet that included a Day of Scientific Lectures and Seminars (DOSLAS). These events not only included the scientific sessions, there would also be a social event and banquet to recognize the accomplishments of a specific member of the African American physics community. Out of these DOSLAS meetings NSBP was founded in 1977.

Founded in 1977 at Morgan State University, the mission of the National Society of Black Physicists is to promote the professional well-being of African American physicists and physics students within the international scientific community and within society at large.

The organization seeks to develop and support efforts to increase opportunities for African Americans in physics and to increase their numbers and visibility of their scientific work. It also seeks to develop activities and programs that highlight and enhance the benefits of the scientific contributions that African American physicists provide for the international community. The society seeks to raise the general knowledge and appreciation of physics in the African American community.

The National Society of Black Physicists is a not-for-profit 501c3 organization in accordance with the Internal Revenue Service.

Site: National Society of Black Physicists