Walter Massey Biography

Morehouse Institution's ninth president is Dr. Walter E. Massey, the nation's biggest private four-year liberal arts college for men. Prior to joining Morehouse, Massey worked in a variety of administrative and academic roles. Former President George H.W. Bush named him to the position of director of the National Science Foundation. The Foundation is the government's primary funding source for mathematics, science, and engineering research and education. Massey has also held the positions of vice president for research and professor of physics at the University of Chicago, director of the Argonne National Laboratory, dean of the College and professor of physics at Brown University, and assistant professor of physics at the University of Illinois. Massey was provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of California before joining Morehouse. He was responsible for academic and research planning and policy, budget planning and allocations, and programmatic oversight of the three national laboratories managed by the University for the Department of Energy: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Massey got his bachelor of science in physics and mathematics from Morehouse in 1958, and his master's and PhD in physics from Washington University in St. Louis, MO, in 1966. Massey's research has included the investigation of quantum liquids and solids. His written work has also addressed scientific and math education, science's role in a democratic society, university-industry connections, and technology transfer in national and international settings. Massey is a past chair of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB) and is presently serving his second term as a member of the Presidents Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), having previously served on PCAST under President George W. Bush. Massey has received more than 30 honorary degrees from institutions such as Yale University, Northwestern University, Amherst, and the Ohio State University, and he has served on the Gates Millennium Scholars Advisory Council, the National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the Twenty-First Century, and the Atlanta Committee for Public Education. Massey also serves on the boards of various corporations and foundations, including the Mellon Foundation, Motorola Inc., Bank of America Corporation, McDonalds Corporation, and BP plc. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a Fellow and past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow and past vice president of the American Physical Society, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He and his wife Shirley Anne were born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and have two sons and three grandkids. Morehouse College, located in Atlanta, GA, provides a comprehensive variety of programs in three academic divisions: humanities and social sciences, science and mathematics, and business and economics. The College is home to the Journal of Negro History and the Morehouse Research Institute, as well as a Phi Beta Kappa chapter and a variety of honors and study abroad programs. Morehouse, which enrolls around 2,800 students each year from more than 40 states and a dozen other countries, has a long history of creating remarkable leaders.

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