Celebrating Black History Month: Black Pioneers in Science

 

In continuing to celebrate Black History Month we honor Black pioneers and their contribution to science. 

Marie Maynard Daly was the first Black woman to receive a PhD in chemistry in the United States. Born in the Corona neighborhood of Queens, Daly completed her undergraduate studies at Queens College in Flushing, New York, as a commuting student, and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1942 with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. Shortly after graduating, she was offered a fellowship to continue her studies at New York University while working part-time as a laboratory assistant at Queens College. In just one year she completed her Master’s degree. In 1947, she was awarded her doctoral degree from Columbia University. Daly is best known for her work on how foods and diet can affect the health of the heart and the circulatory system.

Percy Julian was a research chemist and pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants, such as cortisone, steroids and birth control pills. One of his notable works involves extracting steroids from soybeans. In the 1940’s he began working on synthesizing progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone from the plant sterols stigmasterol and sitosterol. Julian did this by using a foam technique he invented and patented to isolate the steroids from soybean oil. In doing so, this opened many doors within the science field and helped paved the way for contraceptives.  

Born into slavery, George Washington Carver was an agricultural scientist and inventor who developed hundreds of products using just peanuts. In addition, he became the first Black man to earn a Bachelor degree in Science in 1984. Through his work on soil chemistry, Carver learned that after plenty of years of growing cotton, it would deplete the nutrients from the soil, which would  eventually cause low yields of cotton. However, Carver discovered that by growing nitrogen-fixing plants like peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes, the soil could be restored, allowing yield to increase dramatically when the land was reverted to cotton use a few years later. Thus, everyone started to grow an abundant amount of peanuts and didn't have any use of it, so Carver started to discover alternate uses for peanuts. He developed more than 300 foods, industrial and commercial products from peanuts, including milk, Worcestershire sauce, punches, cooking oils and salad oil, paper, cosmetics, soaps and wood stains. He also experimented with peanut-based medicines, such as antiseptics, laxatives and goiter medications. Although being the father of the peanut industry, Carver did not invent peanut butter. 

In 1915, Alice Ball became the first woman and first Black student to graduate with a Master's degree in Chemistry from the College of Hawaii. It was around this time she helped fight the war against Leprosy. She began experimenting with chaulmoogra oil to treat patients suffering from Hansen's disease (leprosy). Although the oil had been used topically before this, Ball successfully isolated the oil into fatty acid components which allowed her to create a water-soluble, injectable form. This would prove to be the world's first working treatment for Leprosy. Sadly, at the age of 24 she passed due to a laboratory accident and was never fully recognized for her achievements. Not to mention, the University of Hawaii did not recognize her work for nearly ninety years. However, in the year of 2000, the university finally honored her by dedicating a plaque to her on the school's lone chaulmoogra tree behind Bachman Hall. On the same day, the former Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii  declared February 29 "Alice Ball Day" which is now celebrated every four years.