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My father loves problem solving.

He looks at a problem in the.

Most in-depth way of anyone I've ever.

Encountered.

And he's a Renaissance individual, a cut above all the rest that I've.

Met as a scientist.

And my life and has been enhanced by by knowing Dr. Stephan McGuire.

I know that his work ethic and his the way he approaches family, his his scholarship.

Has been just wonderful examples.

For me.

And he really.

Really sets that.

Standard high.

Steven C McGuire entered the world on September 17th, 1948.

The third of eight children.

His parents, Harry and Ruth, Audrey Bar Sok McGuire, always emphasized that the way to a better life was through education, though at that time, schools were segregated by law.

My father grew up in the Treme in New Orleans in the 1950s, and Against All Odds and Obstacles became a professor of physics at an Ivy League institution.

From an early age, Stephen excelled in school and graduated valedictorian of his class at Joseph S. Clark Senior High School.

He was the first in his family to graduate high school.

He earned a four year academic scholarship at Southern University and A&M College, where he majored in physics and minored in mathematics.

Stephen graduated magna cum laude and continued his education with a master's degree in nuclear physics from the University of Rochester and a Ph.D. from Cornell University in Nuclear Science.

My dad is the embodiment of the highest standard, so whatever it means to do your absolute best, pull out all the stops in the service of one particular worthy goal.

That's my dad.

In 1982, Stephen joined Alabama A&M University's Department of Physics and Applied Physics, where he began research with NASA.

Seven years later, in 1989, he became the first African-American faculty member at the Endowed College of Engineering at Cornell University.

However, Ithaca, New York, is a long way from the Bayou State.

It was a desire to return home that brought Stephen back to Southern University in 1999.

As chair of the Department of Physics, he set out to make a difference in the lives of young people in his community, the state and beyond.

And 90% of the young people who attend there are first generation college attenders, and that's really a transformative experience for them to be able to attend the university and have their futures opened up to them.

It was during this time that Stephen began his critical role as the LIGO█s scientific collaboration principal investigator for Southern University.

He considers work with Largo the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, to be one of his greatest achievements.

He was one of the hundreds of scientists on the paper that established the existence of gravitational waves, which was Einstein's last major prediction that didn't have experimental evidence until they found it.

And if that wasn't enough, he single handedly made sure to involve Southern University in this international gravitational wave experiment.

And he spearheaded the education center attached to it.

The Largo project won a multitude of awards, most notably the Nobel Prize in physics in 2017.

The thing that really that I really admire about Steve and all of his awards there, is he an extremely humble person.

It's a legacy.

Stephen and his wife, Dr. Sandra Maguire, have passed on to their two daughters.

Dr. Carla Maguire Davis is a department chair at Baylor College of Medicine, and Dr. Stephanie and Maguire is an author and mezzo soprano in Berlin, Germany.

The Maguires have four grandchildren.

I am Robyn Merrick and we're here with nuclear physicist and physics professor emeritus and 2022 Louisiana legend Dr. Stephen C McGuire Hello, sir.

So very glad to be here at the famous Ligo's Center out in Livingston.

It's my pleasure for having you.

Thank you so very much for coming.

Yes, we are glad to be here.

And first, we're just going to start at the beginning, Dr. Maguire.

What was your childhood like?

I had a very happy childhood.

I grew up in the dreamy neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana.

There was a relatively large family of eight children.

I was third in the sequence, then walked out of here, worked outside the home, and mom worked inside the home.

And together we were a team.

And I can truly say that they did everything that they could in order to give us a happy, safe childhood.

It was wonderful.

There were four boys and two girls, and you might imagine that there never was a dull moment in the house.

I would imagine, indeed.

Right.

Indeed.

Speaking of your parents and their real push for education with you, I know they encouraged you along the way.

Tell us your most memorable, I guess, memory of what your parents did to really instill in you this this drive for education?

Well, there were a few things I would be doing, actually.

One is that they instilled in us, you always kept God first in your life.

That was one thing.

The other thing was that they emphasized getting your education and it was something that they just instilled in all of us.

I didn't know all of the details as a youngster, of course, but later on, of course, I realized that they grew up in communities.

My mother in Mississippi and my father and Bayou Lafourche, Louisiana, they grew up in communities where they didn't have access to education beyond the eighth grade.

And so they knew the limitations that they had placed on people's lives.

And they just worked.

They did everything they could.

They committed their lives to providing a better life for us.

And that meant equipping us and giving us a value for education.

Question What led you to science?

When did you realize that science was your thing?

Even before I knew what science was, what I knew is that I had an insatiable desire to understand the physical world around me.

Some things were large, some things were small.

There were animals that I would see out in the in the values and whatnot.

And they all it all worked together in a way that had a certain completeness to it.

What made it work that way always fascinated me.

Well, I mean, in looking in the nighttime sky, you know, something's a large, you know, the moons.

And I was very large.

Then there were stars.

Just one thing after that, I always pondered, Why was it like that?

I didn't say much about it.

And it wasn't until I got access to second reading materials that I began to understand what it was, what it was all about, so to speak.

And I'll mention one other thing.

I graduated valedictorian of my high school class, and that was also first class in high school in New Orleans.

So it started well before college.

Yes.

And as a matter of fact, I received the four year academic scholarship to study physics at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

That taught me the lesson that, you know, having a desire to learn indeed, could open up doors for you.

Here it is, just my interest in developing myself to learn, in fact, allow me to pay for my college education.

And you mentioned Rochester and Cornell also.

It turns out that that same desire allowed me to pay for my graduate education as well.

So having been told at Southern that you is what do you what do you want to do with this physics degree?

I was advised that, you know, you have to get a Ph.D. in order to be able to do physics.

And so it was that advice and my drive to learn more which enabled me to actually achieve those things that were all that was driven by a deep faith in the Lord that somehow we didn't know all of the answers, but we could work it out.

Sometimes we would find that you would figure it out.

You'd find a way along the way.

You did not waver as you go.

You know, it's going to be ups and downs, of course, And there's you know, there's some what looks like a stumbling block that could be a stepping stone in any case.

So you you just have to look at everything with the same view, positive view, in terms of your ultimate objective in going through life.

We don't know all the answers that any one point in time, but we stay the course in the process and it'll be original to us.

And that was that was instilled in me as I go all the way back to when I was a child growing up in the Army and within the New Orleans public school system.

Right.

And in the sort of that was my parents.

My parents.

And then the drive that you had and your curiosity to continue with this.

That.

Thank you.

So your curiosity and the degrees, of course, led you to Nestle.

You worked at Nestle with Alabama A&M University, SWAC Love, I'll say right now between Southern and Alabama A&M.

So that was your first your first outing.

What was that like?

Fantastic.

Not that I used.

I don't use it lightly that term.

Okay.

Having left, Cornell, graduated from Cornell, and my first job was at the National Laboratory, basically as a nuclear scientist.

And that was a great that was great.

But the real wave of the question of recognizing so many people who helped me to get there.

So the idea of what do you do to prepare the next generation should be for me, certainly we, Sandra and I, as a family by that time, and we have our own children.

But what do you do beyond that?

My sense was that I had a responsibility to contribute to their future in the same way that people contributed and invested in me.

And so that led me to Alabama University that I had been recruited.

And but now there was an opportunity there to go into another area of study education at the undergraduate level.

First with the idea that students would come by and come come through my classroom in my office, all of us.

And I had an obligation to show them the opportunities that were really available to them, the same type of opportunities that help guide me, if not propel me to my current dome status in terms of my profession.

So what was it like?

It was a tremendous growth period for me, a way to make contributions to the young people.

And that was the beginning of my my activities within academia.

And it stayed there until the time that I am.

I retired.

So that opened a whole new door for you.

You went from being curious to now saying I needed to teach others how to be curious and explore and discover and learn.

Yes.

So the to realize the just the beauty of the inquiry and discovery is not so far flung from what they might think is to say it's closer than you might think.

Oh yeah.

You taught me some things today.

Already.

Prior to us getting together to have this conversation, we learned some really important science things.

Even when I said science isn't my thing.

I don't get that.

But you said I'm not going to I'm not going to let you off that easy.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

It's the mud.

Well, again, I go back and go back to my parents and members of my family who encouraged me to pursue.

So I think if I if it happens to me, it can happen to anybody else.

I'm sure of it.

I'm sure I always carried that that knowledge with me and that enthusiasm for turning on the light bulb, so to speak, with my students.

I mean, once you do that, you instilled in me an intrinsic drive to go forward and do great things.

That's right.

That that is so, so right.

So, you know, you went on to become the first African-American faculty member in the College of Engineering at Cornell University.

That's that you blazed the past places trail.

You did something that no one else had done prior to that at Cornell University.

What do you want to tell the next generation of African-American scientists?

Never give up.

Always keep your focus on your the things that matter to you and in their case, find out where your interests are and to pursue it.

Aggressive.

Okay.

And it's going to be challenging from time to time, which is what I want to say.

Acknowledge the challenges.

Acknowledge the challenges.

There will be challenges.

Oh, yeah, There'll be challenges.

Challenge is a good thing.

That's another thing where you can just step to the next level.

If it turns out and so be not just me, but indeed always keep your focus on your interests, keep your focus on your self-development.

Really, when it comes down to it, what I'm saying right now is that we all have a God given purpose.

And when you in a key item in everybody's life is to find what that purpose is and you will be successful at it.

No, it won't be easy all the time, but that's all right.

You will reflect on the world, you will learn, and you'll be in a position then to help someone else with that.

That same feeling, same arena.

Yes.

So let's talk about this facility that we're in today.

You call it like go Actually, we call it like over.

You call it the Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observer.

I've got that right.

I want to get that right.

I knew I had it right.

It was yeah, I want to say it correctly, but is the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory right?

Got it right that time.

Okay, so that's what you call it.

And you say that this is your life's greatest achievement.

And that's saying a lot for you, Dr. Maguire, because you've achieved so much.

So tell us more about that.

Okay.

Let me start off with the following if I could.

Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, Laser Interferometry.

And this well-known technique, which is used to detect direct phenomena that was predicted by Einstein gravitational radiation, that is the form of gravitational waves.

And we do that within a facility that houses all of the equipment, the offices and the people that form our observatories.

And that's the building itself.

So Laser Interferometer, Gravitational-Wave Observatory, this is the forefront physics experiment.

It's very exciting and you can sort of break down the words in those terms and you ask me something specific, what was it?

Not again, why is this your life's greatest achievement?

Why do you what do you say?

That's your life's this is your life's greatest.

Oh, because the challenge sad.

First of all, the physics of.

Physics themselves.

Right?

I mean, and I'm an experimentalist, I'm a nuclear physicist, and what I do is designed and developed experiments, experimental apparatus to test theories.

You know, on the one hand, I don't have a background for background, so you may see a broad background in general relativity.

On the other hand, the challenge to indeed build a facility that can be placed to test on this idea that was very appealing to me from a professional standpoint.

Okay.

And next, such a facility will provide opportunities for the next generation to be part of a for fun physics experiment, for fun activity that can really embellish their own development.

Everybody may not go into general relativity, which may okay.

However, the basic principles of performing a test on an idea experimentally can mean a lot to students in terms of their understanding of how science is done.

So this is a great opportunity.

If there was an imperative for me to begin to, it was a big challenge for me.

But there was an imperative that came along with that challenge, no question about it, which is too much to be gained from the possibility of a great thing.

So yes, there were challenges, but what the the possibilities were outweighed that by far.

And this facility has grown since its inception.

It's not just what it started off being, but it has expanded to be so much more.

Oh, I remember when in the collaboration, the scientist working on an experiment went, and it was for 200 people or so, 250, I got it most.

And those now know well over a thousand scientists.

Wow.

Working on this experiment worldwide.

Incredible.

Yeah so it's for the interest is definitely there and the possibilities on really outstanding it is really really incredible so it's gratifying to see an idea succeed not only in the science but also in the science education, what is commonly called also outreach, where you take that capability and you effect propagate it to a part of the population that otherwise might not have access to it.

Sure.

And it was all happening in my home state of Louisiana.

That was a compelling argument for me to come home and try to become involved in this experiment.

Yeah.

So speaking of home, I'll go back to college.

It was during your time at Southern University that you met the love of your life.

Sandra Maguire We're excited because we got a chance to celebrate you and Sandra together for this award, and we'll be talking to her more a little bit later.

But since that time, you all have two daughters, four grandchildren.

Over 50 years of marriage, I've been around you and you all act as if you're still dating.

So tell me.

Tell me, what is the secret here?

I said this is wonderful married life.

Well, it's some.

Well, I don't know.

I came from different parts of Louisiana, this town from New Orleans and Scotland, of course.

But there was some common factors in there.

Okay.

So we both show up at Southern universities, freshmen, and we both have similar values for family life.

But and large families.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

I had eight in my family.

She had four kids.

Children.

Children.

Okay.

But you're right.

Her father in particular came from a large family.

Okay.

So that same dynamic was there.

Okay.

Well, you can indeed see many different personalities in one place, but all having some common interests in the process.

So there's a lot of overlap there from the beginning.

I mean, we didn't know this.

And the only way you get to know a person is and spend time with them, of course.

And so that happened as a matter of course, began in our freshman year and just continued.

So you have two daughters, four grandchildren, as we said before, and your daughters are equally successful and doing great things.

How is your family life impacted your success?

Confirmation, you say not everybody had an interest in science like I did growing up.

All I knew is that what I enjoyed and fortunately along the way I had the physics teacher in high school for whom that was.

I always say not just all right, but that was a that was a great thing.

And so she took an interest in me.

Right.

The upshot of it all is the people were different and they have different interests, they have different capabilities, they have different purposes.

And the key issue is to find that individual help that child find their God given purpose in life.

Once they find that okay, going to take off, you know, in terms of their own development, then so, okay, one of our daughters is a physician.

She's she's she she directs a program at Baylor University.

Yeah.

The other one, on the one hand, I saw her is being targeted in one area.

She wants to talented in several areas.

And the one she chose is not necessarily the one that I was that I saw the potential.

And there's this aspect of it too.

Know as a father, as a parent, you want to make sure that your children can stand on their own.

Of course, financial independence, able to, in fact, function.

You know, when you go in a way that you know, will be is just reflective of their interest, but also solidify their foundation in life.

I'll say it that way.

And the second one, I have a tremendous talent for a number of things, but certainly in the opera and performing arts, it's okay.

So that's what she really wanted to do.

Okay.

And so so she does some work nowadays that relies upon the fact that she has a piece D from Ashley University.

Okay.

And neuroscience relies upon that.

But if you were to ask me, what is her passion, what is the harp?

That's the performing arts, no question about it.

And that's been the case for as long as I can remember, I'll be honest, which is I can tell you I can keep you busy with lots of stories about carvings.

Definitely.

Yeah.

So, Dr. McGuire, is there anything you would would do differently in your life?

Oh, no, no.

No, no.

Love.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

The demands of, you know, the nuts, as you see that that time.

But it all helps to build you.

You have to look at that.

It's like my own work.

You have to look at that.

You have to look at the success with the same things and say, you know, what could I have done better?

It all works together for the good.

I look at you just.

Does.

It does.

Right?

You have to have that faith.

Yeah.

So last question.

What's next?

What's next for you?

Well, there is probably no I've retired, but I still stay active in in my research work to an extent.

And the main thing I'm doing right now is writing my history of what happened to me over this period.

Okay, So I have to do that and I have to write my own head.

Many firsts.

So that's a lot to write about.

I'll do the best I can.

I work on, you know, this is just, you know, I just have to have faith.

I can I can actually complete it all.

And at this point, I don't really know what complete me, but I'm going to give it a try, that's for sure.

But I think that's very important to put down, you know, in writing.

So makers, the memories of people and people have different recollections, right?

That, you know, that is so false because it's probably not necessary to tell you stories about, you know, what happened in things that happened to me growing up that time.

Well, I didn't see the full impact of them at the time that way, but I'm glad that they happened.

Yeah.

Okay.

So okay, so that's that's what I see myself doing going forward.

Okay.

There's a few things I still would like to do and try out in the laboratory.

No question about that.

Okay.

What the human nature part of it, the human development part of it, certainly is taking the stage right now.

Love it.

I love it.

I love Stephen Maguire.

Thank you.

Thank you for allowing us this time to talk with you.

And she's going to be this amazing facility out here, Lago Livingston.

I encourage everyone to come out and visit this place.

If they haven't seen it already, they definitely have to come out and visit with you.

I think I would encourage you to do thoroughly.

Okay.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Most welcome.

Thank you for having me.

For a copy of this program, call one 800 9737246 or go online to w w w dot lp b dawg.