‘Discomfort can break ground’: physicist Stephon Alexander on the value of difference

As a Black scientist in a traditionally white field, the Brown University professor has often been ostracized. But to move forward, he says, science must embrace diversity

As a Black physicist, Dr Stephon Alexander has been doubted, spoken over and met with intentional silence. The tenured Brown University professor has even faced this treatment from his students.

This is par for the course for many Black professionals in traditionally white environments, but Alexander happens to excel in an especially insular field that was once thought to be too advanced for people like him. In the 70s, the American Physical Society, the country's most recognized organization of physicists, remained silent as some members claimed that people of African heritage were incapable of engaging in physics because of their inferior intellect - a damning assertion in a field that requires supporting colleagues as they make huge conceptual leaps.