Hubert Mack Thaxton
born March 20, 1909 - died January 3, 1974
place: Lynchburg, Virginia
pre-doctorate education: B.S. Mathematics and
Physics Howard University 1931
M.S. Mathematics and Physics Howard University 1933. M.S. Mathematics
University of Wisconsin 1936.
doctoral institution: Ph.D. Physics, University of Wisconsin 1939
Hubert Thaxton studied under the famous nuclear physicist Gregory Breit and was very sharp, but found employment possibilities severely limited even though he published a number of papers over the next eight years [his paper with Arthur Eddington was published during this period: Proton Scattering, Physica 7 (1940), 122-124].
Thaxton's first appointment in 1939 was as Professor and Chair of the Physics Department at North Carolina A & T. After a verbal altercation with the president of A&T, Thaxton moved, in 1944, to Delaware State College as Professor and Chair of Mathematics. In 1946 he moved again, this time to professor and chair of physics at Walter Hervey College in New York City.
From 1937 to 1947, Thaxton published papers on protons and proton scattering. Between 1947 and 1971 Dr. Thaxton held a number of jobs in industry - Solar Manufactoring Company, Sperry Gyroscope, Sylvania Electric Company, Balco Research Corporation, Astron Corporation,Curtis-Wright Corporation, Kollsman Instrument Company, Engelhard-Hanovia. Although most of his work was not released to thepublic he did managed to publish articles in such journals as Physical Review, Physica, Journal of Applied Physics, and Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
Dr.Hubert Thaxton was a scientist of great talent and he maintianed a long and tenuous position as an instructor at CCNY. He was appointed full time faculty in 1971, but incredibly he was turned down for tenure and died after a long lawsuit against the school.
Thaxton was president of the Harlem Engineering Corporation, Three R Schools Incorporation, and the Harlem Political Club, and was director of the Sloan Foundation Computer-Space Science Center in Harlem.
Thaxton maintained a long but tenuous relationship with the CUNY school formerly CCNY - the City College of New York. He was adjunct teacher in the night school from 1946. In 1971 he was apppointed a full-time member of the department, but was later denied tenure. Although he won a subsequence legal case, he died deeply disappointed.
RESEARCH
Much of his government and industry work from 1947 to 1971 is classified; however, he did publish a few papers in Physical Review, Physica, Journal of Applied Physics, and Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. He also worked with Nobel Prize winners Hanz Bethe, Don Kerst, Edward Lawrence, and Eugene Wigner. The following came before that period.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Thaxton, Hubert M. and Eddington, Arthur, Proton Scattering. Physica 7 (1940), 122-124.
Thaxton, Hubert M.; Breit, Gregory, and Kittel, C., p-Wave Anomlies in Proton-Proton Scattering. Physical Review 57 (1940), 255-259.
Thaxton, Hubert M.; Breit, Gregory, and Eisenbud, L. Analysis of Experiments on Scattering of Protons by Protons. Physical Reviews 44 (1939), 1018-1064.
references: [Mickens -bpp], [Mickens - Thaxton]
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11/23/99