Humphreys Bequest Supports Physics Undergraduates
John T. Humphreys helped build some of the country’s most sophisticated scientific instruments, giving us glimpses of far-away galaxies and supernova remnants. With a generous bequest to the UT Department of Physics and Astronomy, his legacy will extend to the tools and discoveries made by a new generation of physicists.
Humphreys was a two-time UT graduate, earning a bachelor’s degree in physics in 1965 and a master’s degree in 1968. Jim Lents (BS, ’66; MS, ’67, PhD, ’70) and Phil King (BS, ’66; MS, ’68) were part of Humphreys’ enterprising cohort.
Lents recalled that during that period, then-Professor Bill Bugg was accumulating and analyzing cloud chamber data.
“To make extra money for college, physics students often helped the professors in this data analysis,” King said. He explained that he and Lents analyzed film to choose worthy candidates for the atomic interactions of interest. Humphreys would then do the actual measurements on the cloud chamber bubble tracks at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
After graduation Humphreys went on to a successful career with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, contributing to ground-breaking initiatives that deepen our understanding of the universe. He was a project development manager and optics manager for the Hubble Space Telescope Project. Launched in 1990, Hubble has provided 35 years of images from the universe, including photos of nebulae, galaxies, and star clusters.
He was part of the Skylab team, the country’s first experimental space station, where he pitched in as a science advisor to students working on projects like “Objects Within Mercury’s Orbit” and “Quasars.” Humphreys was also a telescope project manager for the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) Telescope Project (now the Chandra X-ray Observatory), which is the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope. In 2000 he was awarded the Outstanding Leadership Medal, which is bestowed on “individuals for notably outstanding leadership that has a pronounced effect on NASA’s technical or administrative programs.”
Humphreys passed away in 2023 and in a bequest granted $4 million to the physics department. The funds are to establish the John T. Humphreys Scholarship Endowment in support of undergraduates. This academic year the department’s existing scholarship funds are supporting 20 physics majors. Among them is Samantha Wilder, a first-year student from Johnson City, Tennessee, and a graduate of Science Hill High School.
“Without scholarships,” she said, “I would not have been able to afford to attend college as someone putting myself through school. Thanks to the generosity of those who understand the value of education, I am now able to achieve my dream of studying physics!”
In addition to scholarships for students like Wilder, the Humphreys bequest includes an additional $240,000 in unrestricted physics support to help wherever needed, be that equipment upgrades, conference travel for students, etc.
“Gifts like this are catalytic for our mission,” said Professor and Department Head Adrian Del Maestro. “They support our students and give us the flexibility to pursue bold work at the knowledge frontier, where fundamental discovery incubates solutions with real impact.”