Walter E. Massey, PhD '66, is an alumnus of Washington University in St. Louis, and is an educator, physicist, executive and former Argonne National Laboratory Director.
Massey became the lab's first African American director in the early 1980s.
He is president emeritus of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) since 2018 and previously served as its president beginning in 2010 and chancellor in 2016. He is also chairman of the board overseeing construction of the Giant Magellan Telescope, and serves as trustee chair of the City Colleges of Chicago.
Massey's career had earlier seen him serve for 12 years as president of Morehouse College, of which he is now President Emeritus. He is also a former director of the National Science Foundation and chairman of Bank of America. He has served in professorial and administrative posts at the University of California, University of Chicago, Brown University, and the University of Illinois.
In a recent Argonne Voices episode, Massey speaks with the current director, Paul Kearns, about leadership, building a diverse and inclusive workplace, and a lesson involving cheesecake.
Argonne Voices is an oral history project recording the stories behind decades of world-changing science at the laboratory.
The laboratory named its first Walter Massey Fellow this year. The Walter Massey Fellowship is awarded to outstanding doctoral scientists and engineers who are at early points in promising careers. That it bears the name of Massey underscores the prestige of this fellowship.
