Prize Recipient

Sekazi Mtingwa
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"For the detailed, theoretical description of intrabeam scattering, which has empowered major discoveries in a broad range of disciplines by a wide variety of accelerators, including hadron colliders, damping rings/linear colliders, and low emittance synchrotron light sources."

Sekazi Kauze Mtingwa, Ph.D., is a principal consultant at Triangle Science, Education & Economic Development, LLC in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Dr. Mtingwa also serves as president of INCREASE, which organizes workshops for institutions serving minorities at national laboratory facilities. Dr. Mtingwa chaired the writing of the Strategic Plan for South Africa’s synchrotron light source users, which helped South Africa to become a member in 2013 of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Dr. Mtingwa co-founded the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP), the National Society of Hispanic Physicists, the African Laser Centre, the African Physical Society, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (Ghana), the African Light Source Steering Committee, and the The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Medal for Outstanding Contributions to the Enhancement of Physics in Developing Countries. Dr. Mtingwa served 10 years on the Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee at the Department of Energy (DOE), and 16 years as a member of its Subcommittee on Fuel Cycle Research & Development. The American Nuclear Society awarded Dr. Mtingwa its 2015 Distinguished Service Award for leading a 2008 study for the American Physical Society that helped persuade the DOE to allocate 20% of its nuclear fuel cycle R&D budget to university programs. Starting in 1981 at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois, Dr. Mtingwa played an important role in the design and construction of accelerator systems used in the discovery of the top quark. With James Bjorken, Ph.D., Dr. Mtingwa developed a theoretical description of intrabeam scattering for strong-focusing accelerators. At Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Ill. in 1988 through 1991, Dr. Mtingwa provided the theoretical proof for plasma wakefield acceleration. He and Mark Strikman, Ph.D. were the first to elucidate high precision fixed-target physics phenomena at the next electron-positron collider. Dr. Mtingwa received his B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge) in 1971, and his Ph.D. from Princeton University (N.J.) in 1976. Dr. Mtingwa is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the NSBP. Dr. Mtingwa is now retired from North Carolina A&T and from MIT.

2017 Selection Committee Member: Mark Palmer (Chair), Tor Raubenheimer, Vasily Parkhomchuk, David Robin, Mike Syphers