The Citadel School of Science and
Mathematics

Distinguished Alumnus Award

2009

John M. Palms, Ph.D., Sc.D., LHD

Chairman of the Board of Trustees

Institute for Defense Analysis

Distinguished President and

Distinguished Professor Emeritus

University of South Carolina

President Emeritus Georgia State

University

As a teenager John Palms emigrated with his family from "
his native Netherlands to the United States. He was the 1958 Citadel
Distinguished ROTC Graduate with a B.S. degree in physics. He
served as a Nuclear Scientific Officer in the U.S. Air force and taught
 at the Air Force Academy. Later at Los Alamos National Laboratory
he began a distinguished research career in nuclear physics
John Palms received his PhD degree in physics from the
University of New Mexico in 1966 and joined the physics faculty at
Emory University where he also held a joint appointment in
the Radiology Department of the Medical School. Within three years of
his arrival , he became chairman of the Department of Physics. At
Emory he rose quickly through the academic ranks and was
appointed to the Charles Howard Chandler Chair in Physics. He also
held numerous important administrative posts including Dean of the
College of Arts and Sciences and Vice President for Academic Affairs.
The Faculty awarded him their highest award: The Thomas Jefferson
Award.

Dr Palms served as President of The University of South
Carolina from 1991-2002 and was President of Georgia State
University from 1989 to 1991. In addition to a very distinguished
career in teaching, research and university administration, Dr.
Palms has served and continues to serve, on numerous
governmental committees and civic and corporate boards including
Assurant Corp., Exelon Corp., The GEO Group, Computer Task
Group and others. Currently he is  Chairman of the Board of
Trustees of the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) which employs
more than 1300 research professional and support staff in Virginia,
Princeton, NJ, LaJolla, CA, and three sites in Washington D.C.
area. Its studies support the Department of Defense, The Congress,
Homeland Security, the White House Office of Science and
Technology Policy, The National Security Agency. and other
governmental agencies.

He received the University of New Mexico Distinguished
Alumni award and the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters
from the University of South Carolina. In 1980 the Citadel
conferred an Honorary Doctor of Science degree on Dr. Palms. He
has truly honored The Citadel by his long and distinguished
professional career. The School of Science and Mathematics is
pleased to add this small but heartfelt recognition to his long list of
honors