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If you need an account, please register here Email Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in During the COVID-19 pandemic, is providing complimentary access to its entire 73-year archive to readers who register . like and follow us Facebook Twitter Most recent (RSS) Most cited (RSS) Subscribe Magnetic fields for modulating the nervous system Michael G. Christiansen and Polina Anikeeva more... Most Recent Online Stories See More 4 Feb 2021 South Africa develops a transient-tracking “intelligent observatory” Sarah Wild 4 Feb 2021 Light anions swim upstream Christine Middleton 3 Feb 2021 Magnetic waves in the Sun are linked to corona composition Alex Lopatka 1 Feb 2021 A fast, scalable approach to making wood transparent R. Mark Wilson 29 Jan 2021 New tools are proposed to prevent nuclear proliferation David Kramer 28 Jan 2021 Topological phases emerge in an ecological model Heather M. Hill From The Magazine See More Borexino experiment detects neutrinos from the Sun’s carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle R. Mark Wilson more... Guiding inventions from lab to market Toni Feder more... California dreamin’ Stuart J. Leslie more... Whiskey webs: Fingerprints of evaporated bourbon Stuart J. Williams more... Today in History Born on 7 February 1943 in Petersburg, Virginia, Ronald E. Mickens is a physicist and science historian who has worked to attract more African Americans to the field of physics. Mickens attended Fisk University, a private historically black institution in Nashville, Tennessee, from which he graduated summa cum laude in 1964 with a BA in physics. Four years later he earned his PhD in theoretical physics from Vanderbilt University. After a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT’s Center for Theoretical Physics, he returned to Fisk in 1970 to teach. In the 1970s Mickens helped found the National Society of Black Physicists, for which he has also served as the society’s historian. Since 1982 Mickens has been a member of the physics department of the historically black Clark Atlanta University in Georgia, where in 1985 he was named the Distinguished Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Physics. His areas of research have centered on nonlinear dynamics and mathematical modeling, and he has published more than 300 scientific articles and 15 books. Besides his scientific publications, he has written several historical and biographical works about African American scientists, such as Edward Bouchet: The First African-American Doctorate (2002). (Photo credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Ronald E. Mickens Collection) Read More -- Read More Most Read Talked About Magnetic fields for modulating the nervous system Whiskey webs: Fingerprints of evaporated bourbon California dreamin’ US government acts to reduce dependence on China for rare-earth magnets Borexino experiment detects neutrinos from the Sun’s carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle Latest Physics Jobs view all jobs view all jobs Latest Magazine Issues See More Vol. 74, Issue 2, February 2021 Vol. 74, Issue 1, January 2021 Vol. 73, Issue 12, December 2020 Vol. 73, Issue 11, November 2020 Vol. 73, Issue 10, October 2020 Vol. 73, Issue 9, September 2020 Vol. 73, Issue 8, August 2020 Sign up for our magazine's newsletters! Sign up for our emails! Receive weekly updates with the most interesting articles and exclusive content. Receive weekly updates with the most interesting articles Sign up -- Sign up is a publication of the American Institute of Physics . 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