U.S. Particle Accelerator School
Sekazi K. Mtingwa Scholarship
The Sekazi K. Mtingwa Scholarship supports the increased participation of identities (Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino/a, American Indians and Alaskan Natives) that are historically underrepresented in the study and workforce of Accelerator Science and Engineering (AS&E). This merit-based award is named in honor of Professor Sekazi Mtingwa. Prof. Mtingwa, a pioneering accelerator physicist, received the 2017 Robert R. Wilson Prize for Achievement in the Physics of Particle Accelerators for his innovative work on the theory of intrabeam scattering. Throughout his illustrious career he has actively sought to broaden participation in the physical sciences. A brief biography of Prof. Mtingwa is given below.
Multiple awards may be given in a session. Eligible scholarship recipients are actively-enrolled Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) students historically underrepresented in AS&E. To indicate interest, the Mtingwa Scholarship box should be checked on the application form. Students may receive more than one Sekazi K. Mtingwa Scholarship.
In addition to covering items included in our full financial aid package (registration fee, group breakfast & dinner, shared housing, textbooks & course materials, host university course fees) as with our regular scholarships, the Mtingwa scholarship will also cover per-diem lunch and most travel expenses to and from the USPAS session.
Prof. Mtingwa was born in 1949 in Atlanta, Georgia and took an active interest in science during primary school. Schools were being desegregated while Prof. Mtingwa was in high school in Georgia. During this period he won first place in the Georgia state science fair and received several STEM books as his prize, including books on special relativity that inspired him to pursue a career in physics. As an undergraduate, he studied physics and mathematics at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and went on to graduate school at Princeton University where in 1976 he was awarded a PhD in theoretical high-energy physics. Prof. Mtingwa had a long and distinguished career in academia and the US national laboratories. His theoretical work spanned high-energy physics and accelerator physics where he is best known for his theory of intrabeam scattering in particle accelerators that was developed with Prof. James Bjorken for which he was awarded jointly the 2017 Wilson Prize with Anton Piwinski and Bjorken. This work has had strong impact on a wide variety of accelerators including hardron colliders, damping rings, linear accelerators, and synchrotron light sources. Prof. Mtingwa also worked on antiproton sources, wakefield accelerators, and photon colliders. In addition to his active career as a researcher in accelerator physics, high energy and nuclear physics, he was a professor at North Carolina AT&T State University and an administrative judge with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Prof. Mtingwa has tirelessly worked to recruit and encourage activities of minorities in STEM topics. His outreach activities started from his student days and continued into the present while retired from his national lab and university careers. Among his many achievements promoting minorities are: founding efforts in 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. He also co-founded the Triangle Science, Education & Economic Development, a company supporting underrepresented groups in STEM. In 2023, the American Association for the Advancement of Science awarded him the Philip Hauge Abelson Prize which recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the scientific community - whether through research, policy or civil service - in the United States. Prof. Mtingwa is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the NSBP. More information on Prof. Mtingwa can be found in his Wilson Award biography and his Wikipedia page.
2024 Recipients:
Emmanuel Aneke, Northwestern University
Luis Garabito Ruiz, Michigan State University
Jacob Hanson-Flores, University of Central Florida
Jesus Edgardo Leyva Cervantes, Autonomous University of Sinaloa
Alfred Haavaan Mishi, Paris-Saclay University
2023 Recipients:
David Garcia, UCLA
Cristhian Gonzalez-Ortiz, Michigan State University
Victor Manuel Lizarraga Rubio, University of Guanajuato
Juan Martinez Wilkes, University of Oxford
Matilda Mwaniki, Illinois Institute of Technology
2022 Recipients:
Joseph Adegun, University of Victoria
Claudia Bird, San Jose State University
Daniel Garcia, University of New Mexico
Cristhian Gonzalez-Ortiz, Michigan State University
Matilda Mwaniki, Illinois Institute of Technology
Connor Mohs, Purdue University
Carlos Sarabia Cardenas, Arizona State University