Milton Dean Slaughter

Milton Dean Slaughter
Born	New Orleans, Louisiana
Citizenship	USA
Alma mater	University of New Orleans (UNO) (Ph.D. 1974) Louisiana State University in New Orleans [1] (B.S. 1971) (Now known as UNO)
Known for	Elementary Particles and Quantum Field Theory Non-Perturbative Elementary Particle and Nuclear Physics, STEM Education for Underrepresented Minorities and Women Detonation Theory and Applications Shock Wave and Dimensional Analysis Physics
Awards	Nomination for the LANL Distinguished Performance Award Fellow, American Physical Society Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Scientific career
Fields	Science, Technology,Engineering, Mathematics Education (STEM); Quantum Field Theory and Elementary Particles; Nuclear Physics; and Detonation Theory and Applications
Institutions	University of Maryland, College Park Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) of the University of California University of New Orleans Florida International University
Doctoral advisors	(PostDoctoral) Prof. Sadao Oneda (University of Maryland, College Park) Dr. Richard Slansky Los Alamos National Laboratory

Milton Dean Slaughter, known as M. D. Slaughter, M. Slaughter, or Milt Slaughter, is an American theoretical and phenomenological physicist and Visiting Professor of Physics at Florida International University. Slaughter was a Visiting Associate Professor of Physics in the Center for Theoretical Physics, University of Maryland, College Park while on Sabbatical from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) of the University of California from 1984-1985. He is also Chair Emeritus and University Research Professor of Physics Emeritus at the University of New Orleans (formerly known as Louisiana State University in New Orleans). Prior to joining UNO as Chair of the Physics Department, He was a Staff Physicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory of the University of California Nuclear and Particle Physics Group of the Medium Energy Physics Division and Advanced Hadron Facility Beam Energy Group Member; The first (and only) African-American LANL Assistant Theoretical Division Leader for Administration; Affirmative Action Representative for the LANL Theoretical Division; LANL-Wide Historically Black Colleges and Universities Project Manager; Staff Physicist in the Detonation Theory and Applications Group of the Theoretical Division at LANL; and the first African-American postdoc in the LANL Elementary Particles and Field Theory Group. Before coming to LANL, Slaughter was the first African- American postdoc at the Center for Theoretical Physics, University of Maryland, College Park.

In 1988, Slaughter was appointed by Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam as a member of the First Council of the Bouchet Institute/ICTP and also a member of its Executive Committee [Joint proposal by Professor Joseph Johnson and Dr.Jean-Pierre Ezin and Prof. Abdus Salam, organizers of the First E. Bouchet International Conference on Physics and Technology, held at the ICTP from 9–11 June 1988]. The Members of the First Council of the Bouchet Institute/ICTP were: USA: 1. Dr. Charles Brown (AT&T Labs, Georgia); 2. Dr. Anthony Johnson (AT&T Labs, Nev Jersey); 3. Professor Joseph Johnson (The City College, CUNY); 4. Professor Ronald Mickens (Atlanta University); 5. Dr. Milton Slaughter (Los Alamos National Laboratory). From Africa: 1. Professor Francis Allotey (U.S.T. Kumasy, Ghana); 2. Professor James Ezeilo (University of NIqerla, Nsukka); 3. Professor Jean-PIerre Ezln (UnIverslte Nationale du Benln,Cotonou); 4. Professor Mohamed H. A. Hassan (TWAS. Trieste, Italy); 5. Dr. Leonard Shayo (UnlversIty of Dar-es-Salaam, TanzanIa); and ICTP RepresentatIve Professor Gailleno Denardo. Executive Committee Members were: F. Allotey, G. Denardo, J.P. Ezin, A. Johnson, J. Johnson, L. Shayo, and M. Slaughter. The International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) is now known as the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics and the Bouchet Institute (EABI) is now known as EBASI. Later, Profs. Ronald Mickens, Sekazi Mtingwa, Kennedy J. Reed, and James C. Turner, Jr. were appointed as American Council Members while Prof. Aba Andam (first EBASI female Council Member) and Prof. Ahmadou Wagué were appointed as African Council Members.

Early life and education

Slaughter was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the oldest son and later two much younger sisters of low-income mother and stepfather (truck-driver) parents. That environment was not a good one for as the family moved from place to place after his mother became ill while he was in 4th grade and essentially remained hospitalized for almost eight years with just a few weeks of respite during that period. Slaughter never knew his biological father and his stepfather was not around very much. Consequently, many years of growing up for him was in the several Projects in New Orleans. However, his Uncle and Aunt (sister to his mother) took great interest in his childhood development in elementary, junior high, and high school and his Uncle supported Slaughter to the best of his ability. Slaughter's initial interests were in mathematics and physics, although biology and chemistry were not far behind. With money earned from cutting grass and selling newspapers and Jet magazines and home tasks, Slaughter was able to explore and utilize chemistry and biology sets, build a small reflector telescope, build an analog computer, and build a crystal radio (later stolen at a junior high science fair). From 7th grade through high school, Slaughter read just about anything concerning mathematics and physics from public library books and magazines and had taught himself advanced calculus and algebra and geometry. He also became fixated on one day becoming a scientist at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (as it was called then). With much confusion and personal events in the coming years, including a full scholarship to Columbia College of Columbia University, an engineering aide job at Boeing in New Orleans while on probation, Slaughter took to heart some advice from his Columbia mentor (an Associate Dean) and enlisted in the military (Times Square, NYC). That military service served him well as it gave him confidence in carving out his future and also providing a great deal of maturity.

Career

Slaughter is currently Affiliate Visiting Professor of Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Florida International University, where he is also a STEM Founding Fellow. He was elected to the rank of Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and honored for “For contributions to non-perturbative elementary particle and nuclear physics and for the creation of effective educational programs involving minority and female STEM students.” Dr. Slaughter is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society with the citation "For creating effective programs that attract and educate minority and female physics students and involve historically black colleges and universities in forefront research". and a founding Charter Fellow of the National Society of Black Physicists. Slaughter's career in research, teaching, administrative, and service interests have been wide-ranging and include theoretical and phenomenological nuclear and particle physics, intense field quantum optics, shock wave physics, nanotechnology, computational science, biophysics, and their applications to “real-world” problems of interest and extend to developing innovative and effective programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Helping to develop STEM–associated disciplines (where societal considerations are often paramount) have always been important to him. A recent short article by Slaughter for the Optical Society of America [Reflections in Diversity: Increasing Minority Participation in University STEM Programs. Optics & Photonics News, 5 December 2014] was quite uplifting and demonstrates his immense enjoyment working with federal, state, and local agencies, international agencies, corporations, and foundations to increase the number of female and underrepresented minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Slaughter developed a much longer, detailed "White Paper" entitled Status of Underrepresented Minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) [includes a Program Solution Outline for an University Organizational Unit (UOU)].

Slaughter’s career includes more than twenty-two years of administrative service, refereed articles in top-rated journals, refereed proceedings, seven book chapters, and more than fifty invited national and international presentations. These activities were of a multi-disciplinary nature involving research in nuclear physics, particle physics, medium-energy physics, detonation theory and applications, computational physics, and education with an special emphasis on issues involving underrepresented minorities, women, and the disadvantaged. Representing the Laboratory, and under the auspices of Presidential Executive Order 12320, Slaughter negotiated with DOE Forrestal Headquarters, DOE Germantown, DOE Albuquerque Field Office, and DOE Los Alamos Area Office personnel for funding of HBCU programmatic activities, created the Laboratory administrative and managerial infrastructure necessary to support a program whose focus was external aid to HBCUs and whose funding was provided directly from DOE and organized the first national laboratory conference that brought representatives of over 30 HBCU schools to Los Alamos to confer with Laboratory scientific personnel on research initiatives in all areas of physics, chemistry, and mathematics. This conference led to direct DOE funding via subcontract for equipment and personnel at several HBCUs (Alabama A&M University, Howard University, and Southern University, Baton Rouge), the establishment of a summer internship program for HBCU students first conducted at Los Alamos in 1985, and the inception of several very fruitful collaborations between Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists and HBCU professors. Slaughter organized A Workshop for the American Physical Society's Corporate Sponsored Scholarships for Minority Undergraduate Students Who Major in Physics, Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and hosted by Hampton University and the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, October 1993. Co-Principal Investigators were Dr. Anthony Johnson and Dr. Brian Schwartz. He served as Chair and Member of the American Physical Society Committee on Minorities in Physics (1989–1991) and was elected General Member-at-Large and Executive Committee Member and Officer of the American Physical Society Forum on Education (1993-1995 term).

As mentioned above Slaughter was a postdoc at the Center for Theoretical Physics, University of Maryland, College Park and another postdoc in the Elementary Particles and Field Theory Group of the Theoretical Division Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL); Affirmative Action Representative for the LANL Theoretical Division; A Staff Physicist in Detonation Theory and Applications Group of the Theoretical Division at LANL; LANL Assistant Theoretical Division Leader for Administration; LANL Historically Black Colleges and Universities Project Manager; Nominated for the LANL Distinguished Performance Award; and a Staff Physicist in the LANL Nuclear and Particle Physics Group of the Medium Energy Physics Division and Advanced Hadron Facility Beam Energy Group Member. He has also served as a consultant, session chair, moderator, workshop and conference organizer, course lecturer, and panelist for many national and international activities in addition to being the recipient of numerous awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Louisiana Board of Regents. Dr. Slaughter is currently Chair of the Edward Bouchet-Abdus Salam Institute (EBASI) of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) located in Trieste, Italy, initiated the creation of a Memorandum of Understanding between ICTP and EBASI, and garnered funds from NSF to support EBASI scientific and technological activities in South Africa. He was a member of the International Organizing Committee, US-Africa Workshop on Nanosciences and received an invitation as an international expert by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to serve on a nuclear science education and accelerator training enhancement panel. Dr. Slaughter has also presented international talks on how one may perhaps understand from a quantum point of view the interaction of ultra-high intensity laser pulses with biological and environmental physical systems at the nanoscale.

International activities

• Founding Council Member and Chair of the EBASI Executive Board, International Centre on Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy
• Invited Speaker to professional conferences world-wide, including events in China, Ghana, Benin, South Africa, England, Italy, Japan, and others.

Personal life

Slaughter's mother was a homemaker with an occasional job as restaurant busgirl and he never knew his father, but did have a step-father who was a truck driver and very seldom around. His uncles and aunts took care of him and his two younger sisters from the time he was in 4th grade through 6th grade as his mother was ill and hospitalized for almost eight years.. Teachers (in 6th and 7th grade) generated and initiated his growing interest in mathematics and physics, while some of his high school mathematics teachers and his principal ignited those interests---Slaughter had already taught himself advanced calculus before graduating from high school as a result. He is married to Hazel Nicholas, who has a B. A. in special education from Dillard University. They have three wonderful adult children together and took care of Slaughter's sisters after he finished serving active duty in the U. S. Military as non-commissioned offer (Sergeant) [that military duty taught discipline and heightened innovation to Slaughter!].

See also

• Optical Society of America
• American Physical Society
• University of Maryland, College Park
• American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Florida International University