James Edward Young

Young researched and taught theoretical particle physics, critical phenomena, and nuclear physics in the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics.^[8][9] He earned tenure in the Department of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969, and was the first black member of faculty to do so.^[10] He was interested in the intermediate structures in nuclear reactions.^[11] He contributed to several textbooks, including Nuclear, Particle and Many Body Physics^[12] and the Intermediate Structure in Nuclear Reactions.^[11] Young was the doctoral advisor for Shirley Ann Jackson, the first African-American woman to earn a PhD at MIT, as well as Sylvester James Gates.^[13][14]

In 1977, Young was a founding member of the National Society of Black Physicists.^[1][15][16] He founded the society with Ronald E. Mickens, with whom he had previously discussed senior Black physicists who became role models for their students. They hosted a meeting at Fisk University to celebrate these "elders", including Halson V. Eagleson, Donald Edwards, and John McNeile Hunter. The National Society of Black Physicists emerged from these meetings, an independent society led by African-Americans who "created and developed activities and programs for themselves".^[16]

In 2025, Young is recognized as Professor of Physics, Emeritus, at MIT.^[3]

Young married E. Elaine Hunter, with whom he has one child, James E. Young III.^[5]