Samuel C.C. Ting » MIT Physics

Samuel Ting was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Shortly after, his parents, who were both graduate students at the University of Michigan, took him to China. He grew up in Chongking, Nanjing, and Taipei during the war years. He returned to the University of Michigan where he received his B.S.E. degrees (in Physics and in Mathematics) and Ph.D. (in Physics). He is the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ting has always proposed and led international collaborations in experimental physics using accelerators in the U.S., Germany and Switzerland and on board the U.S. Space Shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station.

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A $2 billion particle detector stars in new Disney Plus docuseries ‘Among the Stars’: Q&A with principal investigator Sam Ting

As viewers will see, fixing a 7.5-ton space magnet on the ISS is no easy task.

2025 // Basic Science Lifetime Award (ICBS) for " his transformative discovery of the J/ψ meson, groundbreaking contributions to space-based research, and visionary leadership in global collaborations in experimental physics. " 2023 // Bhabha Award for " his vision and leadership of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment on the International Space Station, which has provided data of unprecedented precision on the spectrum & composition of Galactic cosmic rays that challenge conventional models of their origin. " 2017 // Award for Compelling Results in Physical Sciences, NASA 2013 // Doctor Honoris Causa, Gustavus Adolphus College, Minnesota 2012 // University Distinguished Professor, University of Hawaii at Manoa 2012 // American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow 2011 // World Federation of Scientists 2009 Erice Prize for Peace 2005 // Doctor Honoris Causa, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology 2005 // Doctor Honoris Causa, National Central University, Taiwan 2004 // Honorary Fellow, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India 2004 // Doctor Honoris Causa, Rheinische Westfalische Technische Hochschule, (RWTH), Aachen, Germany 2003 // Foreign Member, Royal Spanish Academy of Science 2003 // Doctor Honoris Causa, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan 2003 // Doctor Honoris Causa, Hong Kong Baptist University 2002 // Distinguished Science and Technology Award from the Chinese Institute of Engineers/USA 2002 // Doctor Honoris Causa, National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan) 2001 // NASA Public Service Medal 1996 // Member, Deutsche Academy Naturforscher Leopoldina, Germany 1995 // Foreign Member, Russian Academy of Sciences 1994 // Foreign Member, Chinese Academy of Sciences 1993 // Foreign Member, Hungarian Academy of Sciences 1993 // Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Bucharest, Romania 1992 // Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Science and Technology, China 1992 // Doctor Honoris Causa, Moscow State University, USSR 1990 // Doctor Honoris Causa, Columbia University, New York 1988 // Gold Medal for Science, Brescia, Italy 1988 // Golden Leopard Award for Excellence, Taormina, Italy 1988 // Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Bologna, Italy 1988 // DeGaspari Award in Science from the Government of Italy 1988 // Foreign Member, Soviet Academy of Sciences, USSR 1987 // Doctor Honoris Causa, Chinese University of Hong Kong 1983 // Foreign Member, Pakistan Academy of Sciences 1980 // Member of the Editorial Board, Mathematical Modeling 1978 // Sc.D. (Hon.) University of Michigan 1977 // Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement 1977 // Eringen Medal, Society of Engineering Sciences, USA 1977 // Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor, MIT 1977 // National Academy of Sciences Member 1976 // Member, Academia Sinica, Taiwan 1976 // Nobel Prize in Physics (co-recipient with Burton Richter) “ for their pioneering work in the discovery of a heavy elementary particle of a new kind ” 1975 // Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award from the U.S. Government 1975 // American Academy of Arts and Sciences Member 1970 // Associate Editor, Nuclear Physics B

M. Aguilar, et al., “Towards Understanding the Origin of Cosmic-Ray Positrons”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 0411102 (2019).

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