John Palms
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John Michael Palms (born June 6, 1935, in
Rijswijk, Netherlands Rijswijk (), formerly known as Ryswick ( ) in English, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. Its population was in , and it has an area of , of which is water. The municipality also includes t ...
) is an American military officer, nuclear physicist and college professor who also served as president of the University of South Carolina and Georgia State University. Palms and his family left the Netherlands shortly after Germany invaded Poland, returned after the war, and then permanently immigrated to the United States in 1951, and became a naturalized citizen in 1957. Palms is married to Norma Cannon Palms, LHD (Hon) University of South Carolina (1958). They have three children. Palms' career has been in academia, national security, business and volunteerism. He graduated from The Citadel in 1958 as a distinguished Air Force ROTC cadet and received a regular commission in the
United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
. He was first posted to
Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...
where he received a master's degree in physics. Then, as a nuclear weapon officer, he was stationed at
Kirtland Air Force Base Kirtland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in the southeast quadrant of the Albuquerque, New Mexico urban area, adjacent to the Albuquerque International Sunport. The base was named for the early Army aviator Col. Roy ...
,
New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
working at
Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ...
,
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States. The lab was originally established as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch in 1952 in response ...
and
Sandia National Labs Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), also known as Sandia, is one of three research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Headquartered in Kirtland Air Force B ...
; he was also a professor of physics at the
United States Air Force Academy The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academy in El Paso County, Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs. It educates cadets for service in the officer corps of the United States Air Force and Uni ...
. After his military service he received a PhD in physics from the
University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...
then joined the faculty at
Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...
where he served for twenty-three years moving from an assistant professor to the university's chief academic officer; he also held the Charles Howard Chandler Chaired Professorship of Radiation and Environmental Physics. He was a member of the National Nuclear Accreditation Board and the Advisory Council for the National Academy of Nuclear Training of the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations. He also was a co-head of the team who designed the public assisted Ecological Based Environmental Radiation Monitoring Programs after the
Three Mile Island accident The Three Mile Island accident was a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island, Unit 2 (TMI-2) reactor in Pennsylvania, United States. It began at 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979. It is the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclea ...
. In 2001, the North American Technical Center Board chose him The Radiation Protection Professional of the Year. After moving from Emory to Georgia State University as president for two years, he moved to be president of the University of South Carolina in Columbia. After serving in that capacity for almost twelve years, he assumed his role as distinguished professor for five more years retiring in 2007. He has published over sixty scientific and technical papers and reports. His business experience includes serving for twenty-one years on the boards of Exelon Corporation, the largest nuclear utility with nineteen nuclear power plants and on the board of Assurant Corporation where he has served as chairman from 2006 to 2011. Other public corporate boards include The Geo Group, one of the largest public prison companies in the world and Computer Task Group, (an information technology company). His national security service includes serving as a board member and chairman of the Institute for Defense Analyses, a federally funded research and development not for profit agency which advises the Secretary of Defense and undersecretaries and other federal agencies, including the
National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
,
National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...
, the Office of Science and Technology (serving the President's science advisor) and the Department of Energy. He currently serves as a MENTOR to IDA's Defense Science Study Group. His volunteer work involves his membership in the Catholic Church as it relates to higher education. He and his wife, Norma, both received the Papal Honor Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Cross from
Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...
. He also received The Wisdom Award from Mepkin Abbey, Cistercian Trappists Monastery. He serves on the board of the Nederland American Foundation as chair of the Education Committee. The foundation among other programs between the Nederlands and the US supports Fulbright scholar exchanges between the two countries. He also supports numerous other volunteer organizations including Spoleto Festival USA, the United Way and The Citadel Advisory Committee for Math and Science. Palms and his wife donated $1 million to the Department of Religious Studies at the University of South Carolina. Palms is a member of
Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...
, he received the Emory faculty Thomas Jefferson Award. He served on the White House Fellows selection committee and chaired the Rhodes Scholar Selection Committee in Georgia and South Carolina. He holds honorary degrees from The Citadel (1990) and the University of South Carolina (2002) and received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of New Mexico (2003) and The Citadel (2009). He was awarded the State of South Carolina Order of the Palmetto in 2002. Exelon named a scholarship in his honor at
Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...
and Linn State Technical College; in 2012 the University of South Carolina named a building, The John M. Palms Center for Graduate Science Research, in his honor. He currently is the president emeritus and distinguished professor emeritus at the University of South Carolina and resides in Charleston, South Carolina.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palms, John M. 1935 births Living people 21st-century American physicists Presidents of the University of South Carolina University of New Mexico alumni The Citadel alumni Emory University alumni United States Air Force Academy faculty Emory University faculty Georgia State University people University of South Carolina faculty