| The John S. Toll Professorship
in Physics |
|
Sylvester James Gates, a physics professor
at Maryland, was inaugurated as the first
John S. Toll Professor in Physics at a 1998
Rossborough Inn reception. During formal
remarks, both Gates and Toll delighted family,
friends and faculty with their enthusiasm
for education, their appreciation of the
excellent research in physics at Maryland,
and their warm admiration for each other.
Gates also said, "The endowment will
allow me to increase my support of the efforts
of young people who are interested in pursuing
studies in theoretical physics and to concentrate
on original research not anticipated by collective
wisdom in the field. The Toll Professorship
is the dream-come-true that a researcher can
not imagine happening." |
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A Maryland Leader
John Toll is a physicist, scholar, educator
and entrepreneurial leader. Among his many
achievements was building the Maryland physics
department from a small one to one of the largest
and finest in the nation.
After earning a B.S. degree with highest honors
in physics from Yale in 1944, Toll served in
the Navy during WWII. In 1952 he completed
his Ph.D. in physics at Princeton where he
helped establish what is now the Princeton
Plasma Physics Laboratory. In 1953 he became
chair of Maryland's physics department, which
was broadened to create the astronomy program.
Thirteen years later he left to take over the
presidency of the State University of New York
at Stony Brook. In 1978 he returned, first
as President and later as Chancellor of the
expanded University of Maryland system.
Toll was a Guggenheim Fellow, has held leadership
roles in dozens of organizations, and has received
national and international honors and honorary
degrees. He pioneered the establishment of
relations between the Sate of Maryland and
China as one of the first university presidents
to visit China in the 1970's.
In physics he is recognized as a leader in
developing the modern approach to dispersion
theory and its application to problems on elementary
particle physics.
The Board of Regents conferred upon Toll the
status of Chancellor Emeritus. He currently
serves as President of Washington College in
Chestertown, Maryland, and as a part-time physics
faculty member in CMPS. |
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The First John S. Toll Professor
Jim Gates is well-known for his important
work exploring the concept of string or superstring
theory which may one day allow scientists to
understand a unified theory of all forces.
Gates earned BS degrees in mathematics and
physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His Ph.D., also from MIT, was in elementary
particle physics and quantum field theory.
His thesis was the first at MIT devoted to
supersymmetry. Following two years on the MIT
faculty, he came to Maryland in 1984. A 1991
to 1993 leave took him to Howard University
where he was a professor and chair of the physics
department.
He has been president of the National Society
of Black Physicists and is the recipient of
many awards. Gates has advised the National
Science Foundation, U. S. Departments of Energy
and Defense, the Educational Testing Service,
and Time Life Books. Last year he was the scientific
commentator for a White House/C-SPAN/BBC Internet
broadcast with British physicist Stephen Hawking.
He has been featured in two PBS series and
is currently consulting on a PBS documentary. |
