Dr. Sekazi K. Mtingwa

Senior Lecturer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Sekazi K. Mtingwa is an MIT (B.S) and Princeton (Ph.D.) educated particle accelerator and nuclear physicist and a Fellow of the American Physical Society. While a researcher at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, he played an important role in the design and construction of the accelerator systems that were used in the discovery of the top quark. With James Bjorken, he developed the theory of intrabeam scattering, which sets performance limitations on most modern particle accelerators. As a researcher at Argonne National Laboratory, Mtingwa provided an important theoretical proof for a promising new accelerator concept called wakefield acceleration. While a visiting scientist at Russia's St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, he and Mark Strikman were the first to elucidate high precision fixed target physics phenomena that can be performed at the next generation electron-positron collider.

Mtingwa served ten years from its inception in 1998 on the Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee (NERAC). During that time, he served on two NERAC subcommittees: Isotope Research and Production Planning, which evaluated the adequacy of the U.S. nuclear isotope production program; and Advanced Nuclear Transformation Technologies, which advised DOE on its R&D program on the back-end of the nuclear reactor fuel cycle. Currently, Mtingwa serves on NEAC's Subcommittee for Fuel Cycle Research and Development, which deals with the whole fuel cycle. For the American Physical Society, Mtingwa chaired an exhaustive 2008 study of the U.S. nuclear workforce readiness and co-chaired another study with Ruth Howes of Marquette University on electricity storage technologies, which are critical enabling technologies for renewable electric energy production. Most recently, he chaired the Policy Review Panel on Spent Nuclear Reactor Fuel Reprocessing and Recycling for Johns Hopkins University's Global Energy and Environment Initiative in its Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.

During 1991-2004, Mtingwa was Professor of Physics at North Carolina A&T State University, where as Department Chair, he laid the foundation for the current graduate program in physics. Subsequently, he served as Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professor of Physics at MIT and Visiting Professor of Physics at Harvard University. Currently, he is Senior Lecturer at MIT, where he teaches physics in a freshman learning community called Concourse and serves as Faculty Director of Academic Programs in the Office of Minority Education.

Mtingwa is involved in a number of initiatives in Africa. He was the principal author of the "Strategy and Business Plan" and is a founding Board Member of the African Laser Centre, which is a network of laser laboratories throughout Africa. In 2007, Mtingwa received the Science Education Award from the National Council of Ghanaian Associations for outstanding contributions to science education among African peoples. Currently, he is assisting the Mara Region of Tanzania in establishing the Julius K. Nyerere University of Science, Technology and Innovation.