THE TWENTY-FIVE GREATEST SCIENTISTS WHO HAPPEN TO BE OF AFRICAN ANCESTRY! ALSO, FIND OUT WHO JUST MISSED MAKING THE LIST!


Human Relations Associates seeks to dispel stereotypes by providing well-researched and accurate information. Perhaps the ugliest and most damaging of all stereotypes is the myth that people of African ancestry are intellectually inferior. This stereotype is especially prevalant when discussing the sciences and mathematics. Simply put, some people hold a racist notion that people of African ancestry aren't smart enough to be scientists or mathematicians. Sadly, this stereotype cuts across ethnicities, and contaminates the thinking of people who should know better.

Not long ago I was visiting with a European-American man who holds advanced degrees from prestigious universities--a White man who prides himself on being informed. In the course of our conversation he mentioned DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. I quickly said, “Yes, the science and math center there is named after Percy Julian.” The man said that he was familiar with the Julian Science and Mathematics Center at DePauw, had even visited it, but didn't know much about the person after whom it was named, Percy Julian. I informed him that Julian was a great chemist whose research opened the door for the synthetic development of cortisone. “Whoever he was, I knew he had to be important,” the man replied. Then I added, “He also was an African American.” Suddenly the man declared: “You've got to be kidding?” Apparently, he was shocked that a Black man could be a great chemist.

However, it's not just White folks who hold the damaging stereotype of the intellectually inferior Black person. Sadly, I've met African Americans who believe in this myth.

A while back the board of education of the public school district where I live was debating whether or not to increase the number of math credits required to graduate from high school. During the debate a friend of mine who happens to be African American whispered into my ear, “I'm against that.” Naturally, I asked why a person wouldn't want kids to learn more math. “The Black kids won't be able to handle it,” was the answer. Unfortunately, my friend was victimized by the same ugly stereotype as the aforementioned gentleman.

So for all those out there like the “informed” man and my doubting friend, the following list is going to kick the stereotype of Black intellectual inferiority square in the crotch. Bottom line: Some of the greatest scientists were –and are—Black.

NOTE #1: Several months have been devoted to the construction of this list. It took that long not because I couldn't find brilliant Black scientists, but because I found so many that considerable research had to be undertaken in order to limit the list to twenty-five. The criteria used to select those who appear on this list are as follows:

A scientist was considered if she or he was on the list submitted by one of the two scientists who took part in this project. Thanks to Dr. Scott Williams of the State University of New York at Buffalo, NY, and to Dr. Ron Mickens of Clark-Atlanta University in Atlanta, GA.*
A scientist was considered if her or his body of research had a significant impact on science.
A scientist was considered if her or his body of research significantly benefited humanity.
A scientist was considered if she or he made a discovery or did research that led to a breakthrough that significantly impacted science.
A scientist was considered if she or he made a discovery or a breakthrough that significantly benefited humanity.

NOTE #2: A couple of things to keep in mind. First, no scientist from ancient Africa is on the list. Remembering, though, that Africans in the ancient kingdoms were involved in scientific and mathematical pursuits long before Europeans colonized the continent. Secondly, this list does not include “inventors” such as Granville T. Woods, Elijah McCoy or Madame C.J. Walker. Although, these individuals are important, they were not scientists in the sense that they applied the scientific method and shared their work through scholarly publication.

The list of the TWENTY-FIVE GREATEST SCIENTISTS OF AFRICAN ANCESTRY follows in alphabetical order.

http://www.stacylwhitman.com/
(Above is website of a Multicultural publisher in development.)

BENJAMIN BANNEKER (1731-1806)--Fields of study were astronomy and mathematics: Banneker is the only person on the list who did not graduate from college. He was born “free” in Maryland where he received a rudimentary education in a local private school. Banneker received further training in mathematics and astronomy from neighbors and friends, particularly the Ellicot family. However, Banneker was essentially self-taught. Although, there is a great deal of legend about Banneker, some of which is exaggeration and even fabrication, one accomplishment is well documented and warrants him being placed on this list. Banneker published an almanac that had useful scientific and mathematical information. Included in this almanac were accurate predictions of solar eclipses based on ephemerides—daily time tables showing the positions of heavenly bodies--created by Bannaker, as well as other information that required an uncommon knowledge of astronomy and mathematics. All of this, of course, is remarkable when taking into account the blatant racism of the 18th century. Banneker is considered by many to be the first African American person of science.

Sources:
Books--
Bedini, Silvio A. The Life of Benjamin: The First African-American Man of Science.
Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1999.
Haber, Louis. Black Pioneers of Science and Invention. New York: An Odyssey Book by
Harcourt Brace Jovanovick Publishers, 1970.
Russell, Dick. Black Genius and The American Experience. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1998.
Websites--
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/special/banneker-benjamin.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Banneker

ALBERT TURNER BHARUCHA-REID (1927-1985)--Fields of study were mathematical biology and probability: Bharucha-Reid graduated from the University of Iowa with bachelor's in mathematics and biology at the age of 19, and had already published a paper on mathematics prior to graduation. He began graduate work at the University of Chicago, but had no interest in obtaining a Ph.D., yet he published eight papers while at the U of C. Over the course of his career, Bharucha-Reid published over 70 research papers and 6 books. His work touched on biology, physics, economics and engineering. Bharucha-Reid's research in mathematics and its application to science has received the highest praise, and he has been referenced by other mathematicians and scientists. In fact, he was adviser to 13 Ph.D. candidates. Bharucha-Reid remained the editor of The Journal of Integral Equations until his death in 1985. He taught at numerous universities, including The Polish Academy of Sciences. Professor Bharucha-Reid spent much of his academic career at Wayne State University in Detroit, and was professor of mathematics at Clark-Atlanta at the time of his passing. Albert Turner Bharucha-Reid was the nephew of the great entomologist Charles Henry Turner.

Sources:
Website--
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/PEEPS/bharucha-reid_a_t.html

DAVID BLACKWELL (1919--)--Field of study is mathematics, especially statistics: David Blackwell received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. all from the University of Illinois. Although not a “scientist” in the strictest sense of the word, Blackwell's research in mathematics is so significant that it has impacted many scientific fields; therefore, no list of this type would be complete without his name being on it. Blackwell has been a leading researcher in the mathematics of decision making. That is to say, Blackwell developed formulas for determining when enough mathematical information has been gathered to make a decision about a crucial issue. He also has been a leading researcher in the mathematics of cooperation and competition. In 1965, David Blackwell became the first African American mathematician to become a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He was also the winner of the Von Neumann Theory Prize in 1979. The Von Neumann Prize is one of the most important awards a mathematician can receive. A second prize, the Blackwell-Tapia Prize, is named in his honor. Another honor received by Blackwell, is that he is one of the two people after whom the Rao-Blackwell theorem is name. According to Wikipedia: "In statistics, the Rao–Blackwell theorem is a result which characterizes the transformation of an arbitrarily crude estimator into an estimator that is optimal by the mean-squared-error criterion or any of a variety of similar criteria." David Blackwell is retired as the chairman of the department of statistics at the University of California at Berkeley.

Sources:
Books--
Kessler, James H.; Kidd, J.S.; Kidd, Rene'e A.; Morin, Katherine A. Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20 Century. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1996.
Websites--
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/PEEPS/blackwell_david.html
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Blackwell

EDWARD ALEXANDER BOUCHET (1852-1918)--Field of study was physics: Edward Bouchet
received his bachelor's degree from Yale, the first Black person to graduate from that institution.He also received his Ph.D. form Yale. He was the first African American to receive a PhD. in any field, and only the sixth person in the Western Hemisphere to receive a doctorate in physics. Bouchet's dissertation was on the then new area of geometrical optics. Bouchet appears on this list as much for what he was prevented from doing as for what he accomplished. Because of his color, he was denied access to research laboratories and professorships. He was forced to hold a number of jobs unrelated to his field. However, he did teach chemistry and physics at Philadelphia's Institute for Colored Youth (ICY) for twenty-six years, losing that position in 1902 when the school's all-white board of trustees voted to replace an academic curriculum at ICY with an industrial one patterned after Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute. Edward Bouchet did little ground-breaking research; many Black scientists have carried out far more research, and much more important research. But this was not because he was not capable. Bouchet was victimized by racism—but he would never allow himself to live as a victim. Why is he on this list? Because he achieved the near impossible: Ph.D. in physics, only six in the western world at that time; early researcher in geometrical optics; the first African American nominated for Phi Beta Kappa; and an inspiration to scientists of all ethnicities. If Bouchet would have had the opportunities of white physicists, one can only imagine what he might have accomplished.

Sources:
Websites--
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bouchet
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/bouchet_edward_alexander.html

GEORGE R. CARRUTHERS (1939--)Fields of study are physics, astrophysics, engineering, and
astronomy: George Carruthers graduated with a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. all from the university of
Illinois. After earning his doctorate, Carruthers went to work at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). He held the position of Rocket Astronomy Research Physicist, and was in charge of the Ultraviolet Measurements Branch of the NRL. Carruthers has also been the lead researcher on several projects for NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration); in fact, Carruther's was the main inventor of the Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph (FUCS) which was used on the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. Carruthers worked a long time on the design and development of the FUCS. This device allowed scientists for the first time to measure vast concentrations of pollutants in the earth's atmosphere as well as make it possible to use the moon as a deep-space observatory. Carruthers has also developed several other cameras and telescopes that have been carried into space and used to search and record activity in the universe. Additonally, Dr. Carruthers is credited with developing and initiating the use of electronic telescopes on board NASA satellites. These telescopes turn light into electronic signals sent to earth and televised. George Carruthers has received many honors and awards for his research, including the 1971 Arthur S. Fleming Award for outstanding scientific achievement, the Exceptional Achievement Scientific Award from NASA in 1973, and the Warner Prize which is given annually to an astronomer by the American Astronomical Society for exceptional achievement in either observational or theoretical astronomy. As well as a research scientist, Carruthers is an inventor and was elected in 2003 to the National Inventor Hall of Fame (NIHF)--as of 2008 one of only 389 inventors in the NIHF from throughout world history.

Sources:
Books--
Kessler, James H.; Kidd, J.S.; Kidd, Rene'e A.; Morin, Katherine A. Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20 Century. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1996.
Websites--
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcarruthers.htm
http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/georgecarruthers.html
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/carruthers-georger.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Robert_Carruthers
http://blackhistorypages.net/pages/gcarruthers.php
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/carruthers.html
http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/1_1_2_listing_inventor.asp?vAlpha=

CHRISTOPHER CHETSANGA (1935--)--Fields of study biochemistry and molecular biology: Christopher Chetsanga, was born in Zimbabwe and received his B.S. from the University of California and Pepperdine University. He earned both an M.S. and a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He was a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Harvard. He was a full professor at the University of Michigan, and he has held various positions at the University of Zimbabwe. Chetsanga was nominated for a Nobel Prize for his discovery of two enzymes involved in the repair of damaged DNA. He identified formamido-pyrimidine DNA glycosylase that takes damaged 7-methylguanine from DNA. This discovery was made in 1979. His research also isolated cyclase that recluses imidazole rings of guanine and adenine damaged by x-irradiation. This enzyme was discovered in 1983. The term “Chetsangarase” has been coined by molecular biologists to note the discovery of these enzymes by Chetsanga. Dr. Chestanga is one of three scientists born in Africa who made HRA's list.

Sources:
Websites:
http://www.bionity.com/lexikon/e/Christopher_Chetsanga
http://www.colleges.com/admissions/collegesearch/college_search.taf?_function=detail&Type=4&school_id=1100897
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Chetsanga

JEWELL PLUMMER COBB (1924---)--Fields of study were cell biology and chemistry:
Jewell Plummer Cobb received a B.A. From Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from New York University (NYU). Cobb began her career as a research scientist in the late 1940s, directing her own research for her Ph.D. at the famed Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, the same research facility where Ernest Just did his investigations. With her doctorate completed in 1950, she received a fellowship from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), one of the National Institutes of Health, and from 1950 to 1952 she studied cell growth, chemotherapy, and the steps leading to skin pigmentation. She worked at the Cancer Research Foundation in Harlem with the famed cancer research team of Dr. Louis T. Wright and Dr. Jane Cooke Wright. Jewell Plummer Cobb and Jane Cooke Wright would collaborate on and off doing cancer research for the next decade. In 1955, Dr. Cobb started teaching biology and doing research on skin pigmentation at NYU. She grew the cells that contain melanin, or skin coloring, in the laboratory, convinced that these cells were closely liked to cancer cells, also convinced that if she could control their growth, perhaps cancer cells could be controlled. As the head of the laboratory doing research into cell growth at NYU, Cobb was able to conduct investigations revealing that only intense x-ray treatment could stop cancer growth in very dark skin cells. Receiving a number of grants from the NCI, Cobb did further research that yielded significant results. She tested various chemicals to stop skin cancer, finding that a compound called methotrexate also was effective in treating lung cancer and childhood leukemia. Her work not only involved the use of synthetic chemicals to treat skin cancer, but she also did research with hormones naturally produced by the body. Perhaps, the greatest impact of Cobb's research was to demonstrate to the medical community how overexposure to the ultraviolet rays of the sun has a direct link to skin cancer, particularly melanoma, a viral malignancy. During her career, Dr. Jewell Plummer Cobb produced nearly forty research papers, and was the recipient of honorary doctoral degrees from ten different institutions of higher learning.

Sources:
Books--
Kessler, James H.; Kidd, J.S.; Kidd, Rene'e A.; Morin, Katherine A. Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20 Century. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1996.
Warren, Wini. Black Women Scientists in the United States: Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999.

Websites:
http://www.answers.com/topic/jewell-plummer-cobb
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0775685.htm
http://www.globalalliancesmet.org/prom_cobb.html

MARK DEAN (1957---)--Fields of study are computer science and engineering: Mark E. Dean received a B.S. From the University of Tennessee, an M.S.E.E. (electrical engineering) from Florida Atlantic University and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Standford. Dr. Dean is one of the premier computer scientists in the world. He holds 3 of the original 9 patents for the first IBM-PC. He is an IBM Fellow, one of only 50 out of over 300,000 employees. Dean was the head of a team that developed the ISA systems bus that makes it possible to connect devices such as modems and printers to personal computers. He was the chief engineer for the development of IBM PC/AT, PS/2 Model 70 & 80, the Color Graphics Adapter and numerous other subsystems. Dean also lead the team that created the first 1-gigahertz processor chip, reducing the size of computers and making them faster. Currently, Dr. Dean is working on several projects, including a device that will be able to download any printed text, regardless of size. This device is the size of a magazine making it easy to carry and reference, and will also have other features such as voice activation and a wireless telephone. Additionally, Mark Dean is a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and he has received numerous awards and has more than 30 patents or patents pending.

Sources:
Websites--
http://www.black-inventor.com/Dr-Mark-Dean.asp
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/computer-science/dean_mark.html
http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/1_1_2_listing_inventor.asp?vAlpha=
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Dean
http://www.research.ibm.com/people/d/deanm/

CHARLES R. DREW (1904-1950)--Fields of study were hematology and physiology: Charles R. Drew received a B.A. from Amherst College and M.D. and Master of Surgery degrees from McGill University in Canada. Drew's research was carried out from the late 1930's to 1940, and his placement on this list is based on the application of the findings that came out of that research. Drew's research demonstrated that plasma, the liquid part of the blood, could be substituted in most cases for whole blood in a transfusion. This was important because at that time plasma was easier to store than whole blood. This led to an acceleration in the banking of blood plasma for transfusions. His research also showed that plasma was particularly effective in reducing deaths in patients suffering from shock. Drew's findings were timely: World War II was putting a strain on the blood supply in England, and Drew directed the “Plasma for Britain” program that helped to dramatically reduce deaths among British citizens as the result of injuries sustained from Nazi bombing. He also headed the American Red Cross's program to secure a ready supply of blood for wounded U.S. troops. However, he quit this program when he found out that the blood of Black service personnel was segregated from the blood of White troops. This was a racist and absurd practice: there is no such thing as “Black” blood and “White” blood; among people there is only human blood. Drew has become a legendary personality and there has been considerable misinformation about his life and his work. To begin with, Charles Drew did not “invent” or “discover” blood plasma; blood plasma is a natural part of blood, and physicians and researchers knew about it long before Drew. As previously stated, what his research demonstrated was that plasma could be substituted for whole blood. Secondly, Drew was principally a physician and a teacher, not a researcher, and only a few of Drew's professional years were spent in the laboratory. Finally, it is a fact that Charles Drew bleed to death as a result of a car wreck while traveling to a conference in the South. However, the often-told story that he bled to death because he was denied treatment at a white hospital is a myth that has been disproven, yet the the story persists. What is accurate is this: Charles R. Drew's research in blood plasma and blood storage came at an critical time—World War II—when it saved tens of thousands of lives.

Sources:
Books--
Haber, Louis. Black Pioneers of Science and Invention. New York: An Odyssey Book by
Harcourt Brace Jovanovick Publishers, 1970.
Kessler, James H.; Kidd, J.S.; Kidd, Rene'e A.; Morin, Katherine A. Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20 Century. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1996.
Lindenmeyer, Otto. Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed. New York, New York: Avon Books,
1970.

Websites-
http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/charlesdrew.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Drew
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/drew.htm

SOLOMON CARTER FULLER ((1872-1953)--Fields of study were psychiatry and neuropathology: Solomon Carter Fuller was born in Liberia, one of three native-born Africans on HRA's list of the 25 greatest scientists who happen to be Black. Fuller's grandfather had been an American slave who bought his freedom and emigrated to Africa. Solomon Fuller graduated from Livingstone College in North Carolina in 1893, then received his M.D. from Boston University School of Medicine in 1897. He began work at Westborough State Hospital in Massachusetts as a pathologist. Later, Fuller would specialize in neurology and psychiatry, becoming the first Black psychiatrist in the US. He would also serve as a professor in the medical school at Boston University. In 1904, he was one of five non-German doctors to be invited by Dr. Alois Alzheimer to study with him and Dr. Emil Kraeplin at the University of Munich. While there, Fuller did some of the earliest research into Alzheimer's disease as well as several other neurological diseases and disorders. Solomon Fuller continued his research on Alzheimer's disease in the United States by examining the brains of cadavers. He is credited with identifying the ninth recorded case of Alzheimer's and publishing this research in 1912. In fact, Fuller was a regular contributer to journals of psychiatry and neuropathology. Fuller used the term amyloid to describe an aggregate of insoluble fibrous proteins that cause neurological disease. He was so highly thought of that the New England Journal of Medicine reported his death in 1953, and his portrait hangs at the American Psychological Association's (APA) headquarters in Washington, D.C., identifying him as one of the founders of psychiatry. The APA's Solomon Carter Fuller Award is given annually to a person who has “pioneered in an area that has significantly benefited the quality of life for black people,” and the Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller Medical Center in Boston is named in his honor.

Sources:
Books--
Kaplan, Mary. Solomon Carter: Where My Caravan Has Rested. Lanham, Maryland: Univerisity
Press of America, Inc., 2005.

Websites--
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Solomon_Carter_Fuller
http://www.faqs.org/health/bios/34/Solomon-Fuller.html
http://www.hospital-data.com/hospitals/DR-SOLOMON-CARTER-FULLER-M-H-CENTER-755.html
http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/37/17/19
http://www.time.com/time/2007/blackhistmth/bios/05.html

SYLVESTER GATES (1950---)--Fields of study are physics and mathematics: Sylvester Gates earned a B.S. in physics and a B.S. in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) and a Ph.D. from M.I.T where he has taught. After receiving his Ph.D., Dr. Gates was appointed as a Junior Fellow of the Harvard University Society of Fellows and went from there to California Institute of Technology. He is now the first John S. Toll Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland. Gates's groundbreaking research began with his doctoral thesis, the first at M.I.T. to address supersymmetry. Wikipedia defines supersymmetry as follows: “In particle physics, supersymmetry (often abbreviated SUSY) is a symmetry that relates elementary particles of one spin to another particle that differs by half a unit of spin and are known as superpartners. In other words, in a supersymmetric theory, for every type of boson there exists a corresponding type of fermion, and vice-versa.” Since his doctoral thesis in 1977, Dr. Gates has authored or co-authored over a 120 articles for scientific journals and contributed several chapters to books on physics and mathematics. He co-authored the book, Superspace. For over a decade this book was the only advanced study of supersymmetry. Dr. Gates has received the following awards: National Technical Association's (N.T.A.) Technical Achiever of the Year for 1993, sharing it with Dr. Bernard Harris; the N.T.A.'s Physicist of the Year Award; recipient of the first Bouchet Award, given by the American Physical Society (APS); appointed a Fellow of the APS in 1994; and Washington Academy of Sciences 1999 College Science Teacher of the Year. Additionally, Dr. Gates has been featured on the PBS series NOVA. Dr. Scott Williams, professor of physics and mathematics at the State University of New York at Buffalo, says the following of Sylvester Gates: “In the 1980s, Dr. Gates worked on structures called 'superstrings' and 'heterotic-strings' and showed how a 1930s concept called 'isotopic charge space' applied in four dimensions. In 1996, he formulated a model by introducing the superpartners 'plonin' for the nuclear force.” Perhaps the highest praise of Dr. Gates's research came from the 2001 citation from Georgetown University when that institution awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. The citation says: “'Professor Sylvester James Gates, Jr. has played a leading role in exploring the most fundamental frontier of theoretical physics, the unification of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity with the theory of relativistic quantum mechanics.'”

Sources:
Websites--
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DXK/is_15_18/ai_79126066
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/gates_sylvester.html
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/gatessylvesterinterview.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/view-gates.html
http://www.superstringtheory.com/people/jgates.html
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7364725034406854877
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvester_James_Gates

WARREN ELLIOT HENRY (1909-2001)--Field of study physical chemistry, physics, mathematics, engineering: Warren Henry earned his B.S. degree from Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University), his M.S. from Atlanta University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Henry held teaching positions at Tuskegee, Spelman College, Morehouse College, Howard University, and was an instructor for the famed Tuskegee Airmen of WWII. However, it is his research that places him on this list. In 1943, he worked with a research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to improve the effectiveness of radar systems. Henry invented the video amplifier which was faster and made the signal clearer than anything else at that time. Also while at M.I.T., Dr. Henry solved a problem the U.S. Navy was facing. The navy needed smaller mobile radar systems to use on ships in the Pacific conflict during WWII. Henry worked 36 hours straight, developing an amplifier as a part of this new system. The amplifier worked flawlessly. After the war, Henry returned to the University of Chicago and solved the problem of cracked wing spars on jet aircraft. The wing spar is the support running from the body of the plane to the wing tips. When it's cracked and not replaced, the wings can fall off in mid-flight. Dr. Henry's research showed which alloy (combination of metals) was the best to make spars out of and when in the life of the plane the spar should be replaced. In 1948, Warren Henry started research at the Naval Research Laboratory near Washington, D.C. where he studied aspects of superconductivity. Starting in 1960, Warren Henry went to work for Lockheed Missile and Space Company in California. While with Lockheed, Henry used his work with superconductivity and magnets to design electronic guidance systems for missiles seeking enemy submarines, and techniques for saving people from crippled submarines. Finally, he helped direct a major development in electronic astronomy by developing a device to measure magnetic fields in outer space. Dr. Henry was a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Among the awards he won were the following: Lifetime Achievement Award in the Community from the National Science Foundation, the 1st Golden Tourch Award for Lifetime Achievement in Engineering from the National Society of Black Engineers, the Technical Achiever of the Year Award from the National Technical Association. Additionally, he was nominated by Nobel Prize Laureate Dr. Glenn Seaborg, with support from Nobel Laureate Dr. Robert Schrieffer, for the National Medal of Science, the highest U.S. Science honor awarded by the president of the United States. Warren Henry authored or contributed to hundreds of scientific articles, and his work on magnetism and superconductivity has been standard fare in physics textbooks for years. He also co-authored the 1934 book, Procedures in Elementary Qualitative Chemical Analysis.

Sources:
Books--
Kessler, James H.; Kidd, J.S.; Kidd, Rene'e A.; Morin, Katherine A. Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20 Century. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1996.
Websites--
http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1673/A_scientific_pioneer_Warren_E_Henry__
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-19986802.html
http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/history_center/biography/henryw.html
http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/Warren-Henry.html
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/henry_warren.html
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00EFD71738F933A25752C1A9679C8B63

ELMER SAMUEL IMES (1883-1941)--Field of study was physics: Elmer S. Imes received a B.S. and an M.S. from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1918, he became the second African American to receive a Ph.D. in physics. His doctorate was awarded by the University of Michigan. While at the University of Michigan, Imes worked in the laboratory of renowned physicist Harrison Randall, after whom the University of Michigan's physics laboratory would be named. In 1919, Imes and Randall jointly published research that opened up the new field of molecular structure through the use of infra-red spectroscopy, revealing for the first time the intricate spectra of simple-molecule gases. The research by Imes and Randall gave support to the emerging quantum theory of physics, and yielded the first accurate measurement of the distance s between atoms and a molecule. As a research physicist at Burrows Magnetic Equipment Corporation and as a research engineer at the Edward A. Everett Company, Imes continued his research on infra-red absorption in the 1920's, publishing his findings and building an appreciation for his work, especially in Europe, where he was not as hampered by racism. He also received four patents for his work, and ended his career by starting the A.B. Physics program at alma mater, Fisk. Elmer Imes was the husband to the Afro-Danish-American writer Nella Larsen, a contributor to the Harlem Renaissance.

Sources:
Websites--
http://www.answers.com/topic/elmer-samuel-imes
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/imes_smuele.html
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/Imes-More.prize.html
http://physics.about.com/b/2007/02/21/black-physicists-elmer-s-imes.htm

MONTY JONES (1951---)--Field of study is plant biology: Dr. Monty Jones earned a B.S. from Njala University College, University of Sierra Leone (West Africa), and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. Jones is one of three scientists born in African who made our list. He has spent most of the last three decades researching rice strains. His painstaking research in developing a hardier variety of rice that can withstand the drought conditions plaguing much of Africa could eliminate starvation on that continent. The breakthrough in his research came in 1994 when Jones was the head of the Upland Rice Breeding Program at the West African Rice Development Association (WARDA). Jones developed an exceptionally hardy hybrid of rice by crossing an African rice genome with an Asian rice genome. The new variety has received the acronym NERICA for “New Rice for Africa.” For this achievement, Jones received the 2004 World Food Prize, shared with China's Yuan Longping. Jones was also listed among Time magazine's 100 people who are “transforming the world.” Jones is the executive secretary of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, a fellow of The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), and a fellow in the African Academy of Sciences.

Sources:
Websites--
http://www.clickafrique.com/Magazine/ST019/CP0000002418.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Jones
http://www.worldfoodprize.org/laureates/Past/2004.htm
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/time100/
(For Time website, click on "Scientists &
Thinkers." Monty Jones is #76.)

PERCY L. JULIAN (1899-1975)--Field of study was organic chemistry: Percy L. Julian earned a B.A. from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, an M.A. from Harvard, and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Vienna in Austria. As was the case with other black scientists of his era, Julian had to face blatant discrimination. For example, he was denied an appointment as a faculty member at DePauw in the 1930's because he was African American. His alma mater discriminated against him even though he was one of the world's top chemists. In fact, his research would later be called “Nobel Prize” caliber. Julian gained world-wide attention in the 1930's when he challenged the findings of the famous English chemist Dr. Robert Robinson on the production of artificial eserine, an important hormone. Julian argued that he had the correct formula, and that Robinson's conclusions were flawed. In 1935, a critical test demonstrated that Julian was in fact correct and that Robinson was in error. Julian went on to do research with the soybean, leading to new ways of extracting from that plant the female hormone progesterone and the male hormone testosterone. Perhaps, Julian's most important contribution was developing an inexpensive way to produce cortisone, an important drug used to bring relief to arthritis sufferers. Percy L. Julian received more than 100 patents and authored 50 major research reports. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. Also, the postal service issued a first-class stamp honoring him in 1993, and the science building at DePauw University is named the Julian Science and Mathematics Center. Like George Carruthers and Mark Dean, who also appear on HRA's list,Julian is a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF).

Sources:
Books--
Haber, Louis. Black Pioneers of Science and Invention. New York: An Odyssey Book by
Harcourt Brace Jovanovick Publishers, 1970.
Kessler, James H.; Kidd, J.S.; Kidd, Rene'e A.; Morin, Katherine A. Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20 Century. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1996.

Websites--
http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/percyjulian.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Lavon_Julian
http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/1_1_2_listing_inventor.asp?vAlpha=
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcortisone.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/julian/

ERNEST E. JUST (1883-1941)--Fields of study were marine biology, zoology, and cytology, or the study of the cell: Ernest E. Just received a B.A. from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Just has been called “one of the great scientific minds of the early twentieth century.” Like other Black scientists of his time, he battled blatant academic racism. However, he was still able to conduct research at the famed Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts; moreover, in a day and age when “white” academia usually turned its back on black scholars and scientists, Ernest E. Just was able to secure grants from prestigious foundations. He also was awarded the NAACP's Spingarn Medal in 1915 for his contributions to biology. Because his work was more appreciated in Europe than in his home country, Just spent extended periods doing research in Italy, at the Sorbonne in Paris, and was the first American of any ethnicity asked to do research at Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. Just's body of work was published in his 1939 book, The Biology of the Cell Surface. The work contained new information about small marine animals and offered new theories about animal cells. These new theories challenged notions about the cell that were widely accepted at the time. Future investigations eventually proved Just correct.

Sources:
Books--
Haber, Louis. Black Pioneers of Science and Invention. New York: An Odyssey Book by
Harcourt Brace Jovanovick Publishers, 1970.
Kessler, James H.; Kidd, J.S.; Kidd, Rene'e A.; Morin, Katherine A. Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20 Century. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1996.
Manning, Kenneth R. The Black Apollo of Science: The life of Ernest Everett Just. New York &
Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 1983.
Websites--
http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/Museum/ernest.html
http://www.musc.edu/eeo/justbio.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Everett_Just
http://www.vsu.edu/students/organization/omega/_private/just.htm
http://www.africanamericans.com/ErnestJust.htm
http://web2.ccpl.org/prvEmployees/HTML/scienceproject/ScienceWalk/Ernest%20Everett%20Just.html
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0775692.html

RONALD E. MICKENS (1943---)--Fields of study are mathematics and physics: Ronald Mickens received his B.A. From Fisk University in Nashville, TN and his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt, also in Nashville. Dr. Mickens is the Callaway Professor of Physics at Clark-Atlanta University and is the author of several books for advanced students in mathematics. Mickens is credited with making early contributions to the study of chaos theory. In fact his book, Difference Equations, gave researchers the fundamentals for investigations into chaos theory. This theory has application to such everyday fields as medicine and weather forecasting. Mickens has done extensive work to show the connection between mathematics and science in general, and he theorizes that science can best be understood with the language of mathematics. Ronald Mickens has published over 200 scientific papers and abstracts on issues and areas related to mathematics and science. Mickens has done research at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, the Aspen Center for Physics, the Joint institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, and the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Mickens is a Fellow in the American Physical Society, which is limited to less than 1% of the Society's membership. Dr. Mickens was the 2008 winner of the Bouchet Award. The award citation was as follows: For contributions to the understanding of nonlinear oscillations, the creation of novel numerical techniques for differential equations and his motivational lectures and writings about the history of African American physicists."

(*Please note that Dr. Mickens' name was not on the list he submitted, but Dr. Scott Williams had placed him on his list. Dr. Williams submitted his list prior to my contacting Dr. Mickens for his recommendations. Absolutely no self-promotion was involved in Dr. Ronald Mickens' selection for this list of outstanding scientists.)

Sources:
Books--
Kessler, James H.; Kidd, J.S.; Kidd, Rene'e A.; Morin, Katherine A. Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20 Century. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1996.
Websites--

http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?name=Ronald%20E.%20Mickens&year=2008
http://www.ebasi.org/bio_mickens.html
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/PEEPS/mickens_ronalde.html
http://www.aps.org/units/sesaps/awards/slack/mickens.cfm
http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/category_details.asp?sp=1&category=scienceMakers

WILLIE HOBBS MOORE (1934-1994)--Field of study was physics: Willie Hobbs Moore became the first African American woman to earn a PhD. in physics. She received her doctorate while studing under Professor Samuel Krimm at the University of Michigan. Moore's doctorial research presented solutions to significant problems in the vibrational analysis of macromolecules. Moore followed her doctorial research with investigations into spectral anaylsis of proteins. She was a senior engineer with several corporations, eventually working with Ford Motor Company to improve the engineering and production processes. She was an expert on the technique called “design of experiments” or D.O.E., even co-writing with Yuin Wu a textbook on D.O.E. titled Quality Engineering.

Sources:
Websites--
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/moore_williehobbs.html
http://www.physics.lsa.umich.edu/nea/special/imesmoore.asp

ARLIE PETTERS (1964---)--Fields of study are physics and mathematics: Arlie Petters is one of four members of this list born outside of the United States. Petters, now a naturalized American citizen, was born in the Central American country of Belize. He received a B.A. and M.A. from Hunter College in New York and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.). He has been a visiting mathematician at Oxford Unveristy, the Max-Planck-Institute fur Astrophsik in Germany, and the Geometry Center of the University of Minnesota. Currently, he holds the William & Sue Gross Chair of Mathematics at Duke University. He was the 2002 recipient of the Blackwell-Tapia Prize in mathematics. He has also been awarded a CAREER Grant Award from the National Science Foundation, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, and a Bell Labs Cooperative Research Fellowship Award. In 2008, Petters was named by Queen Elizabeth II to Membership in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Petters is one of the foremost researcher in Gravitational Lensing and the development of the mathematical theory of lensing. He did this pioneering investigations over a ten year period from 1991 to 2001 and reported his findings in 13 research papers and a mathematical monograph. Dr. Petters's research has been the basis for predicting the nature of space time near black holes and developing new ways to test hyperspace gravity models and Einstein's General Relativity theory. Petters collaborates across disciplines with physicists, mathematicians, and computer scientists. He has produced 30 papers and a book.

Sources:
Websites--
http://www.math.duke.edu/~petters/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlie_Petters
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/PEEPS/petters_arlie.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3411/04.html

EARL D. SHAW (1937---)--Field of study is physics: Earl Shaw received his B.S. From the Univerisity of Illinois, an M.A. From Dartmouth College, and a Ph.D. in physics from the Univerisity of California at Berkeley. Dr. Shaw gained wide recognition when he was featured, along with his son Alan Shaw the computer scientists, in the book Black Genius. Earl Shaw has been a major contributor to the science of lasers and is the co-inventor of the spin-flip Raman tunable laser. According to Scott Williams, professor of physics and mathematics at SUNY Buffalo, Shaw's laser “will permit the analog or pulsed magnetic resonance techniques for the first time in optical wavelengh regime.” Earl Shaw has applied the physics of lasers to the biochemistry of DNA. His objective has been to enhance biochemical activity with far-infrared radiation. Shaw work nearly two decade for Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ, then took a position as professor of Physics at Rutgers University.

Sources:
Books--
Russell, Dick. Black Genius and The American Experience. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1998.
Websites--
http://www.bookrags.com/research/earl-d-shaw-scit-07123456/
http://curie.umd.umich.edu/Phys/classes/p150/archive/goodfor/SpinFlip.htm
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/shaw-earld.html
http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/people/pdps/Shaw.html

CHARLES HENRY TURNER (1867-1923)--Field of study was zoology, especially entomology or the study of insects: Charles Turner received his B.S. from the University of Cincinnati and his M.S. and PhD. from the University of Chicago. Like Edward Bochet, Turner earned his degrees in a time when African Americans were widely and severely discriminated against in academia, as well as in society generally. In fact, Turner was forced to do the bulk of his research in the laboratory of the St. Louis high school where he taught. It was there that Turner made pioneering discoveries about the behavior of insects. He was the first to show that ants use light to guide them from one location to another. His research also demonstrated that burrowing bees use surroundings to guide them back to their nest. In addition, he showed that bees can distinguish color and shapes and that cockroaches use trial and error to learn. Further experiments conducted by Turner demonstrated for the first time that some insects hear. He published his findings in 49 research papers that were read by other entomologists throughout the world. In fact, a circling behavior displayed by ants when they are disturbed was discovered and described by Turner in one of his papers, and this ant behavior bears his name, “Turner Circling.”

Sources:
Books--
Kessler, James H.; Kidd, J.S.; Kidd, Rene'e A.; Morin, Katherine A. Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20 Century. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1996.
Websites--
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Henry_Turner
http://psychology.okstate.edu/museum/turner/turnerbio.html
http://www.indiana.edu/~animal/Turner/WhoWasTurner.html
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0800431.html
http://www.infography.com/content/215287765588.html

ARTHUR B.C. WALKER (1936-2001)--Fields of study were astrophysics and solar physics: Arthur Bertram Cuthbert Walker received his B.S. from Case Institute of Technology, his M.S. from the Univerisity of Illinois, and his Ph.D. in Astrophysics also from the U of I. Walker's research established him as one of the foremost solar physicists in the world. He did groundbreaking work investigating the X-ray spectrum of the solar corona, and in the 1990's he was the head of a team of scientists who were the first to use normal incidence X-ray optical systems to make astronomical observations. Walker was a pioneer in various aspects of the use of films and X-rays to examine the sun's corona. Additionally, Dr. Walker developed telescopes carried by satellites into space; these telescopes took the first pictures of the corona. According to the Wikipedia article on Walker, “Two of his sounding rocket payloads...recorded the first full-disk, high resolution images of the sun....” Dr. Walker is probably best known as the mentor to Sally Ride, the first American woman to go into space, and he was chairman of the committee established by President Ronald Reagan to investigate the space shuttle Challenger disaster. He also was a driving force in getting Congress to approve funding for the National Solar Observatory. At his death, Dr. Arthur B.C. Walker, Jr. was professor of physics and applied physics at Stanford University as well as member of the Hansen Emperimental Physics Laboratory.

Sources:
Websites--
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/walker_arthurbc.html
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/physics/people/faculty/walker_ii_arthur.html
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/may18/memlwalk-051805.html
http://www.compadre.org/Student/scholarships/Detail.cfm?id=504


WARREN M. WASHINGTON (1936--)--Fields of study are meteorology and atmospheric physics:
Warren M. Washington received a B.S. and M.S. from Oregan State University and a Ph.D. from
Penn State University. Washington has been a major contributor to advancements in meteorology over the past forty years. He has served as the director of the the Climate and Global Dynamics Division of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Collaborating with Dr. Akira Kasahara at NCAR's Boulder, Colorado facility, Washington developed a system of mathematically-based climate prediction that continues to the present-day. Through Washington's research, meteorologists are able to make a very precise five-day forecast using complex equations that require a computer. Additionally, Washington's work has opened up the possibility that predictions of long-term climate change can be made, especially as greenhouse gases relate to climate change. Dr. Washington is a past president of the American Meteorological Society and has been an advisor to US. presidents starting with Jimmy Carter. He is the recipient of numerous awards for scientific achievement. Among these are the National Weather Service's Modernizatoin Award, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow of the American Scientific Insitute, Inductee into the National Academy of Sciences Portrait Collection of African Americans, the Vollum Award for Distinguished Accomplishment in Science and Technology from Reed College in Portland, OR, and induction into the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) with this citation: “...for pioneering the development of coupled climate models, their use on parallel supercomputing architectures, and their interpretation.” Dr. Washington has published over 100 professional articles about atmospheric science. He co-authored, with Claire Parkinson, An Introduction to Three-Dimensional Climate Modeling in 1986, and the book has since become a standard reference text for study of climate modeling.

Sources:
Books--
Kessler, James H.; Kidd, J.S.; Kidd, Rene'e A.; Morin, Katherine A. Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20 Century. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1996.
Websites--
http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/ccr/warren/
http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/ccr/warren/warreninfo.html
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/warren-m-washington-1936
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/washington-warrenm.html
http://www.enotes.com/earth-science/washington-warren-m
http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=1363

J. ERNEST WILKINS (1923--)--Fields of study are theoretical physics, mathematics, and engineering: J. Ernest Wilkins entered the Univerisity of Chicago when he was 13, graduated when he was 17, and had an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago when he was 19. He went on to earn a B.M.E. and M. M.E. (bacholer's and master's of mechanical engineering) from New York University. Wilkins has been called one of the “masters” of both mathematics and physics. He was one of the scientists who worked on the Manhatten Project which led to the development of the first atomic bomb. He helped develop optical techniques to facilitate zeroing in on objects in distant space. Wilkins was also a pioneer in the development of nuclear power for peaceful uses. In addition, he designed and supervised construction of nuclear power facilities. Wilkins studied new peaceful ways to use nuclear power and new ways to build low-cost nuclear power plants. He was also involved with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission studying reactor safety. He taught physics and mathematics at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Wilkins was a delegate for the United States Government at a 1955 conference on peaceful uses of atomic energy. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1976, and was awarded the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal in 1980. Throughout his career, Wilkins has produced over 100 scholarly papers on mathematics, physics, and engineering. J. Ernest Wilkins is the Distinguished Professor of Mathematical Physics at Clark-Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Sources:
Books--
Kessler, James H.; Kidd, J.S.; Kidd, Rene'e A.; Morin, Katherine A. Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20 Century. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1996.
Websites--
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/PEEPS/wilkns_jearnest.html
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/PEEPS/wilkns_jearnest.research.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Ernest_Wilkins,_Jr.
http://www.engology.com/eng5wilkins.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/2907/wilkins.html
http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/07/070227.wilkins.shtml
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/wilkins-jr-j-ernest-1923
http://homepage.mac.com/ehgoins/iblog/B335600579/C1122736055/E20070302124704/index.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/j-ernest-wilkins-jr

JANE COOKE WRIGHT (1920—present)--Fields of study were medical research and chemistry: Dr. Jane Cooke Wright received her B.A. from Smith College and her M.D. from New York Medical College. Starting in the mid-1940s, Dr. Wright worked with her father, Dr. Louis T. Wright, who had established the Cancer Research Foundation at Harlem Hospital in New York City. Along with her father, Wright performed some of the earliest research on the use of chemotherapy on cancer patients. These early investigations of Louis and Jane Wright yielded some hope in fighting cancer cells with chemicals. The Wrights were joined in their research by the famed cell biologist, Jewell Plummer Cobb. The research partnership between Cobb and Jane Cooke Wright would continue on and off for over a decade. After Louis Wright's death in 1952, Jane Wright assumed the directorship of the Cancer Research Foundation, at the same time continuing her research in chemotherapy. Wright believed that antibiotics used to fight microbes that cause infection might hold promise as cancer fighting agents. She was particularly interested in the potential effectiveness of a drug called mithramycin and had hopes that it could be effective against inoperable brain cancer. In the early 1960s, Wright and her assistants used this drug in a study on fourteen people suffering from brain cancer. The results were very promising: Better than half the patients improved, and three went into remission. In 1967, Jane Wright became a full professor at New York Medical School, at that time the highest position held by an African American woman in any medical school. Wright continued her research, developing a new method of determining which cancer-fighting drug would work best with a particular type of cancer. She accomplished this by surgically removing some of the cancer cells and treating them in the laboratory with different drugs. If the drug killed or slowed the cancer cells in the laboratory then it was used on the patient. However, if the drug was ineffective in the laboratory, then logically it would not help the patient, and another drug or combination of chemicals were tried. This was significant, because time could be saved in finding the right drug for a patient, and the patient could be spared the unnecessary pain and discomfort that comes with medical trial and error. Wright followed this development by finding new ways of delivering chemicals directly to the site of the cancer, thereby lessening damage to healthy cells. Wright was also one of the first researchers to study the effects of combinations of drugs to fight cancer. Dr. Jane Cooke Wright also served on President John F. Kennedy's Presidential Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke and was vice president of the African Research Foundation. During her career, Dr. Wright produced over seventy-five papers on cancer chemotherapy, and in 1971 she became the first women elected president of the New York Cancer Society.

Sources:
Books--
Kessler, James H.; Kidd, J.S.; Kidd, Rene'e A.; Morin, Katherine A. Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20 Century. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1996.
Warren, Wini. Black Women Scientists in the United States: Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999.

Websites--
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Lquilter/Jane_Cooke_Wright
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_336.html
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/video/336_1_trans.html
http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/JCEWWW/Features/eChemists/Bios/wright.html
http://www.aacr.org/home/scientists/scientific-achievement-awards/micr-wright-lectureship/jane-cooke-wright-biography.
http://scienceu.fsu.edu/content/scienceyou/meetscience/wright.html
http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=106259275

WHO JUST MISSED MAKING THE LIST?

As I said in the opening of this article, there are too many great people of science who happen to be of African ancestry for a limited list of 25.

Following are the names and a bit about the other outstanding people who were seriously considered for HRA'S list of THE TWENTY-FIVE GREATEST SCIENTISTS WHO HAPPEN TO BE OF AFRICAN ANCESTRY.

PATRICIA BATH—Opthamologist and researcher in eye diseases and disorders; first African-American woman to receive a patent for a medical device; Bath's invention is used to removed cataracts.

OTIS BOYKIN--Engineer who developed numerous electronic devices; most notable device was a heartbeat regulator for pacemakers.

HERMAN BRANSON—Physicist who worked with chemist Linus Pauling in the discovery of the helical structure.

BENJAMIN CARSON—Neurosurgeon who made the first successful separation of syamese twins conjoined at the skull.

GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER—Agricultural chemist and botanist who promoted crop rotation and use of alternative planting.

CHEIKH DIARRA—Astrophysicist and former head of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, now head of MicroSoft Africa.

KAREN DRAKE--Perinatologist who co-lead
40-doctor/nurse team along with Dr. Paula Mahone (See Mahone in this list) and delivered only the second set of septuplets ever born alive, and the first set ever to survive.

PHILIP EMEAGWALI—Winner of the Gordon Bell Prize for supercomputing.

BERTRAM FRASER-REID-Jamaican chemist recognized for research in using carbohydrates as initiates for chiral materials and for the role of oligosaccharides in immune response. According to a number of sources, Fraser-Reid was nominated for the 1998 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

LLOYD HALL—Industrial chemist responsible for the development of important food preservatives.

W. LINCOLN HAWKINS--First African-American scientist to work for Bell Labs; made universal telephone service possible by co-inventing a chemical additive that prevents the plastic coating on cables from deteriorating; won the National Medal of Technology in 1992.

WILLIAM A. HINTON—Medical researcher who developed Hinton-Davis test to detect syphilis.

SHIRLEY A. JACKSON—Physicist and president of Renssellaer Technical Institute.

ERICH JARVIS-Neuro-biologist who is doing groundbreaking
research with songbirds; winner of the Waterman Award, the
highest honor awarded to young scientists by the National Science Foundation (NSF); named one of the ten most promising young scientists by POPULAR SCIENCE magazine.

ANTHONY M. JOHNSON--Editor-in-Chief of OPTICAL LETTERS and recipient of the American Physical Society's 1996 Edward A. Bouchet Award.

CLIFFORD V. JOHNSON—Leading string theory physicist and mathematician; frequently referenced by others; winner of the Institute of Physics Maxwell Medal
Prize.

PAULA MAHONE--Perinatologist who co-lead 40-doctor/nurse team along with Dr. Karen Drake (See Drake in this list) and delivered only the second set of septuplets ever born alive, and the first set ever to survive.

WALTER S. MCAFEE--Physicist/mathematician who in the 1940's made the first calculations of the speed of the moon while working on a lunar radar project.

DOLPHUS EDWARD MILLIGAN--Photochemist

ALAN SHAW—Computer scientists and developer of the theory of “Social Constuctionism” and the computer software Multi-User Sessions In Community (MUSIC); son of Earl Shaw who is on the list of 25.

VIVIAN THOMAS--surgical technician who helped develop the procedures used to treat blue baby syndrome.

NEIL deGRASSE TYSON—Astrophysicist and Frederick P. Rose Director of Hayden Planetarium at
the Museum of Natural History in NYC.

LEVI WATKINS, JR.-- Associate Dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Professor of Cardiac Surgery. Performed the first human implantation of the automatic implantable defibrillator.

DANIEL HALE WILLIAMS--A leading American surgeon of the 19th century; performed second recorded surgery on the human pericardium in 1893.

LOUIS TOMPKINS WRIGHT—Pioneer in chemotherapy and director of Cancer Research Center of Harlem; father of Jane Cooke Wright who is on the list of 25.

PLEASE NOTE, THAT RESEARCH IS UNDERWAY TO EXPAND THIS LIST!!!! POSTED 11/9/09 JIM JACOBS

RONALD MICKENS: ONE OF THE WORLD'S PREMIER PHYSICISTS AND MATHEMATICIANS REPLIES
Posted by Jim Jacobs on 2008/5/31 11:54:06 (33 reads) News by the same author

I visited your site yesterday ...

...it is an impressive, much needed effort that hopefully will help in the suppression of the myth of African American intellectual inferiority. The individuals listed, with their contributions, provide direct proof of our high attainment across a broad range of scientific disciplines. In addition to "others," this list can be used by the younger members of our race for inspiration to help them achieve even greater heights of scientific accomplishments.

Sincerely,
Ron (Mickens)


Another of the World's Great Minds Responds: A

Note from Dr. Arlie Petters
Posted by HRA Staff on 2008/5/16 12:30:00 (71 reads) News by the same author
Stereotypes

Dear Mr. Jacobs,

Thank you for...

informing me of the honor of being including in your list of "Twenty-Five Greatest Scientists Who Happen to be of African Ancestry." Indeed your piece brings an important message shattering awful stereotypes and giving hope to our young people.

Thank you for doing this important piece and I hope that it gets
wide circulation.

Respectfully yours,

Arlie


One of the World's Preeminent Minds Responds: A note from Dr. S. James Gates
Posted by HRA Staff on 2008/5/15 11:30:00 (40 reads) News by the same author
Stereotypes

Dear Mr. Jacobs,

I wanted to express my gratitude...

...for your kind message informing me about my inclusion in your list of "Greatest Scientists who happen to be of African Ancestry." I am not sure I deserve this designation, but I certainly thank you for your generosity.

I apologize for my slight delayed response. I
am currently in Cape Town, South Africa and as
well at first I mistook your message for spam.

In March, I was in Australia where I met some
people that told me an interesting story re-
lated to the topic of your message. Let me
share it with you.

Apparently during the time when Dr. James Wat-
son made his recent observations on how the
genotype of African peoples left them intel-
lectually disadvantaged compared to their Euro-
pean cousins, a story about this appeared on
the local television news program there in
Australia.

A young Sudanese imigrant man was out with
another of his similar friends. I believe