Mary James

Mary B. James is an American physicist and educator. She is the Dean for Institutional Diversity and the A. A. Knowlton Professor of Physics at Reed College. James specializes in particle physics and accelerators. Early life and education James' father was one of the Tuskegee Airmen. She earned a bachelor's in physics at Hampshire College in 1976. She completed a PhD in accelerator physics at Stanford University in 1986. She worked at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, designing high current electron injectors for the linear collider. She studied the longitudinal bunching of transrelativistic electron beams in high space charge forces and longitudinal wake fields. At SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory she also contributed to the polarized electron injector (PEGGY). Research and career In 1987 James joined University of Maryland, College Park as an assistant professor in electrical engineering. Soon thereafter she moved to Portland, Oregon, to join the faculty of the department of physics at Reed College, where she has been a faculty member since in 1988. At Reed, James has taught broadly across the physics curriculum. James has been an advocate for women and minority students throughout her career. In 2013 James was announced as Dean for Institutional Diversity at Reed College. She is on the leadership team of the Liberal Arts Diversity Officers consortium. The consortium looks at how faculty can navigate incidents of bias, and develops ways to change the structure and allow them to thrive. She has served as a member and chair for the American Physical Society committee on Minorities in Physics.