Titus Pankey (November 20, 1925 – September 20, 2003)[1] was an American physicist and professor whose research specialties were magnetic susceptibility and cosmology, especially supernovas.

After graduation from high school, he worked as a Pullman porter on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, and helped to fund his four sisters' college educations.

[6] After completing his service, Pankey attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., as an undergraduate and graduated magna cum laude[7] with a degree in physics.

[8] His dissertation advisor was Herman Branson, and the title of Pankey's thesis was "Possible Thermonuclear Activities in Natural Terrestrial Minerals," submitted on 26 July 1961.

[11] Pankey's research was supported by the U.S. Geological Survey and Frank E. Senftle, and his advisory committee composed of Branson, Sohan Singh, Louis G. Swaby, and Stanton L.

[3][16][17] His hypothesis was not widely circulated and did not get immediate attention at the time, but would later be independently reinvented and developed in detail in a 1969 article by Stirling Colgate and Chester McKee.

The pair made significant contributions to molecular-beam epitaxy by demonstrating how to grow gallium arsenide films in vacuum chambers.