The late University of Mississippi professor Donald Summers wrote his first research paper in junior high school during spring break, conducting the research at the University of California Astronomy Observatory Library where he worked in the library during the day and camped in the observatory’s post office lobby at night.
Now he’s being remembered for his intellectual impact by his older brother, Robert Summers of Palo Alto, California, with a faculty position named in his honor. Summers committed $3.35 million to establish the Dr. Donald Summers Chair of Physics, the inaugural endowed chair for the UM Department of Physics and Astronomy.
“We have high hopes that an endowed position will allow us to attract a prominent, established physicist to join the department — someone who will raise our international profile and open new frontier research opportunities for students,” said Kevin Beach, department chair.
“The gift from Robert Summers is transformational for us. We are all grateful for his decision to honor Don’s long tenure and amazing contributions to our department in this way,” Beach said, adding that the search to fill the Summers Chair has not yet begun.
Don Summers, who died in March 2021, was a distinguished professor and researcher at Ole Miss for 31 years.
“Dr. Summers was a dedicated teacher and a productive researcher who made a difference in students’ lives and strengthened the academic reputation of our university,” said Lee Cohen, dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “Faculty support is such a crucial need in higher education and we are extremely grateful to Robert Summers for honoring his brother this way, at the university he made his professional home for so many years.”
Robert Summers said Ole Miss was the ideal place for his brother.
“Don enjoyed his career immensely at the University of Mississippi; this was the perfect position for him — both the research opportunities and the teaching,” said Robert Summers. “He continued to work on the International Particle Accelerator programs and enjoyed the 19th-century Astronomy Observatory.”
The Summers brothers — both Eagle Scouts — grew up in San Jose, California, each pursuing teaching and research careers inspired by their grandfather, who had a career in education with the U.S. Foreign Service in the Philippines.
Don Summers intended to pursue graduate work in astronomy, but his adviser suggested astronomy could be limiting. A degree in physics, he learned, is an open door to both fields. He conducted his thesis research at Fermilab in Illinois, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California and at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research headquartered in Switzerland. He earned his doctorate at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Summers was recruited to Ole Miss in 1989 and became a full professor in 2002. His research interests were focused on the investigation of the fundamental nature of matter, and he collaborated on high-energy physics experiments at Fermilab and at CERN.
The professor worked on the discovery of the W+, W− and Z0 heavy particles, which mediate all weak interactions, and this discovery at CERN was eventually awarded the Nobel Prize. With Mississippi’s experiment at Fermilab, Summers accumulated the world’s largest sample of heavy charmed quarks, a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter.
Don Summers began his gifts to the university years ago. With $262,000, he created an endowment to help graduate students pursue degrees in experimental particle physics, naming the fund in honor of James J. Reidy, former chair and professor emeritus of physics and astronomy, whom he credited with bringing the university to the attention of the international scientific community through high-energy physics research.
Summers also established the Dr. Lee N. Bolen Jr. Scholarship Endowment in 2015 with gifts of almost $50,000 to provide scholarship assistance to undergraduate and graduate students in physics and to honor the now late Bolen, another professor of physics.
Robert Summers enjoyed a research career with the U.S. Geological Survey, studying the field of high-pressure rock deformation and its direct application to the understanding of earthquake source mechanisms. World-renowned researchers came to Menlo Park, California, to work with him.
Robert Summers made a gift of approximately $275,000 in 2022 to create endowments for undergraduate and graduate student scholarships in Don Summers’ name on the Oxford campus.
“Don and I both understood the significant benefits that student and faculty endowments undeniably provide,” he said.
To make a gift to the Dr. Donald Summers Chair of Physics, send a check, with the fund’s name written on the memo line, to the University of Mississippi Foundation, 406 University Ave., Oxford, MS 38655; or online here.
To learn how to support the Department of Physics and Astronomy, contact Caroline Hourin, director of development for the College of Liberal Arts, at cehourin@olemiss.edu or 662-915-6385.
By Tina H. Hahn/UM Development