2022 Regular Session ENROLLED
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 149
BY SENATOR BOUIE
A RESOLUTION
To commend and congratulate Dr. Stephen C. McGuire for his selection as a 2022 Louisiana
Legends honoree by Friends of Louisiana Public Broadcasting (LPB).
WHEREAS, Friends of LPB has honored Louisiana's best and brightest as Louisiana
Legends for more than thirty years; and
WHEREAS, the 2022 honorees have a unique distinction as Dr. Stephen C. McGuire
and his wife Dr. Saundra Yancy McGuire were the first married couple to be honored for
their individual accomplishments in Science at the Friends of LPB awards gala and auction
held on April 28, 2022, at Louisiana's Old State Capitol; and
WHEREAS, as a high school student at Joseph S. Clark Senior High in New Orleans,
McGuire knew that he wanted to pursue a career in physics; on a four-year academic
scholarship, McGuire attended Southern University in Baton Rouge, pursuing that goal and
graduating in 1970 with a B.S. in physics, magna cum laude; McGuire then received his
M.S. degree in nuclear physics in 1974 from the University of Rochester, and obtained his
PhD from Cornell University in nuclear science with a focus on low energy neutron physics;
and
WHEREAS, while on the faculty at Alabama A&M University, Dr. McGuire began
research with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and was later
honored by NASA with its Office of Technology Utilization Research Citation Award; and
WHEREAS, in 1989, Dr. McGuire became the first African-American faculty
member at the endowed College of Engineering at Cornell University; and
WHEREAS, in 1992, Dr. McGuire was a charter fellow of the National Society of
Black Physicists; and
WHEREAS, from 1999 to 2008, Dr. McGuire has served as professor and chair of
the department of physics at Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, while
also pursuing his interest in optical materials as part of the Laser Interferometer
Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), leading to the establishment of the partnership
between LIGO and Southern University; and
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WHEREAS, Dr. Stephen McGuire is currently a James and Ruth Smith Endowed
Emeritus Professor of Physics at Southern University and A&M College and is Southern
University's Principal Investigator (PI) to the LIGO Scientific Collaboration that was
awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics; and considers serving as Southern University's PI
to the collaboration his greatest achievement.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
does hereby commend and congratulate Dr. Stephen C. McGuire on his selection as a 2022
Louisiana Legends honoree by Friends of LPB and does hereby express the sense of honor
and pride that he and his accomplishments bring to his family, friends, Southern University,
and the state of Louisiana.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
Dr. Stephen C. McGuire.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
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