February 2023

Created by the

Science Department

Dr. Mae C. Jemison

NASA’s first Black woman to go into space

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Cathy Rice

Mary W. Jackson

NASA’s first Black female engineer

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Cathy Rice

Marie M. Daly

First Black woman to receive a doctorate in chemistry in the United States.

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Darrell Evans

Dr. Vivien Thomas

Innovator and pioneer for Cardiothoracic surgery

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Josh Dalessandro

Dr. Alexa Canady

First black woman neurosurgeon in the US

First black woman certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery

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Christine O’Neal

First Black Astronaut

Guy Bluford

First Black Astronaut-1983

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Brad Sauls

David Robert Lewis was Purdue University’s first black graduate. He earned a degree from the Lyles School of Civil Engineering in 1894. He was one of only nine African American graduates from Indiana Colleges between the Civil War and 1900. He went on to teach at Hampton University (then Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute), an institution founded to teach former slaves agriculture and vocations.

Dr. Esquivel is an Afro-Latinx particle physicist, science outreach specialist, and advocate for Black, Latinx, and LGBTQIA2S+ people in STEM fields. She is the co-founder of the twitter movement #BlackinPhysics and is an AAAS IF/THEN Ambassador.

Jessica Esquivel

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David Robert Lewis

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First Black woman doctor in the United States. She was a nurse, physician and lauded medical author. She was able to attend medical school because the Civil War had created a need for medical care. She is the author of the 1883 book “A Book of Medical Discourses” one of the first books addressing Black maternal health.

An African American scientist who led the team that developed the Moderna mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. Dr. Corbett is a leading scientist for the National Institutes of Health. She is graduated as a Myerhoff Scholar from the University of Maryland.

Kizzmekia Corbett

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Rebecca L. Crumpler

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Julie Torres-Roman

Dr. Reatha Clark King

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American Chemist & educator

Contributed to the coiled tube for rocket fuel

Former Vice President General Mills Corporation

Served as President, Executive director, and

Chairman Board of Trustees of General Mills

Foundation

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Laurie Leet

Percy Lavon Julian

Contributed by: Celine Hall

• Research chemist who synthesized medicinal drugs from plants. Received more than 130 chemical patents.
• Pioneer in the industrial large-scale chemical synthesis of progesterone and testosterone from plant sterols laying the foundation for the steroid drug industry's production of cortisone, other corticosteroids, and birth control pills.
• One of first African Americans to receive a doctorate in chemistry.
• First African-American chemist inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, and the second African-American scientist inducted (after David Blackwell) from any field.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Lavon_Julian

Marie Van Brittan Brown

Contributed by: Celine Hall

• American nurse and innovator.
• Invented a video home security system in 1966 with her husband Albert Brown
• Applied for a patent which was granted in 1969.
• Has had a huge impact on the entire security system - expanding beyond home use to security systems in businesses around the world.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Van_Brittan_Brown

Dudley Randall - American poet who wrote “To the Mercy Killers” highlighting the powerful issues surrounding euthanasia.

To the Mercy Killers

If ever mercy move you murder me,

I pray you, kindly killers, let me live.

Never conspire with death to set me free,

but let me know such life as pain can give..

Even though I be a clot, an aching clench,

a stub, a stump, a butt, a scab, a knob,

a screaming pain, a putrefying stench,

still let me live, so long as life shall throb.

Even though I turn such traitor to myself

as beg to die, do not accomplice me.

Even though I seem no human, mute shelf

of glucose, bottled blood, machinery

to swell the lung and pump the heart–even so,

do not put out my life. Let me still glow.

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Contributed by Dave Chico.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dudley_Randall.png

Dr. Wangari Maathai

• First woman in East and Central Africa to earn a PhD (1971)
• Dr. Maathai was also the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
• Though classically trained in veterinary sciences (M.S. Biology - University of Pittsburgh; PhD veterinary anatomy University of Nairobi), Dr. Maathai also founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental NGO focused on planting trees, environmental conservation, and women’s rights, for which she won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Contributed by Heather Stricker

Dr. Ernest Everett Just�Marine Zoologist (1883-1941)

• Taught at Howard University.
• Earned a PhD from the University of Chicago.
• Traveled to Italy, France, and Germany to study fertilization in sea urchins. Prior to World War II, he enjoyed working in Europe because he did not face as much discrimination there in comparison to the U.S.
• Published 2 books and over 70 articles influencing our modern understanding of embryonic development, parthenogenesis, cell biology, and genetic effects of ultraviolet rays.

Contributed by Gwen M White

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Everett_Just

Dr. Daniel Pauly

Fisheries Biologist

• Born in France and grew up in Switzerland.
• Completed his Ph.D. at Kiel University in Germany.
• Authored several books, including
• Darwin's Fishes
• Vanishing Fish: Shifting Baselines and the Future of Global Fisheries
• Gasping Fish and Panting Squids: Oxygen, Temperature, and the Growth of Water-Breathing Animals.
• Created an online encyclopedia with more than 30,000 different species of fish.
• Conducted research on commercial fisheries in West Africa, Indonesia, the Philippines, and is a professor at the University of British Columbia.

Contributed by Gwen M White

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Pauly

Dr. Mamie Parker

Aquatic Conservationist

• Raised in Wilmot, Arkansas, the youngest of 11 children. Her mother was a single parent and worked as a sharecropper.
• Earned a PhD in limnology from the University of Wisconsin.
• First African American to lead a regional office of 13 northeastern states for the US Fish & Wildlife Service, a federal agency.
• Advanced professional diversity in conservation and fisheries careers by mentoring many women and people of color.

Contributed by Gwen M White

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamie_Parker

Neil deGrasse Tyson

• American astrophysicist, author, and science expert
• Founded the Department of Astrophysics at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City
• Consultant for NASA, the U.S. Government, and countless astrophysics programs across the country
• Published multiple books on Astrophysics
• Guest starred as himself on numerous TV shows and movies including the Big Bang Theory, Stargate Atlantis, and Batman v. Superman
• Holds 20+ honorary doctorates

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Contributed by: Annissa Furr

Contribution: Kat Vanderburg

Matthias, M. (2022). Gladys West. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gladys-West

Contribution: Kat Vanderbug

Matthias, M. (2022). Gladys West. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gladys-West

Atomic Heritage Foundation. (2020). Samuel P. Massie. https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/profile/samuel-p-massie-jr/

Contribution: Kat Vanderburg

George Washington Carver

• A renowned botanist and inventor.
• Invented over 300 uses for the peanut and was an expert on soils, agriculture and nutrition.
• Born into slavery but went on to become a Member of the British Royal Society of Arts.

Contributed by Amy Smith

Dr. Charles Richard Drew

• Discovered methods to store blood plasma for transfusion
• Considered Father of the Blood Bank

Contributed by Fiona G-Poe

Source: https://www.biography.com/scientists/charles-drew

• Started at a community college
• Former NASA Rocket Scientist
• Aerospace Engineer
• Founder and CEO of STEMBoard

Aisha Bowe

Contributed by Nikki Williams

Source: Matta, N. (2021, February 19). 50 Black Women in STEM You Should Know About. Rediscover STEAM. https://medium.com/rediscover-steam/50-black-women-in-stem-you-should-know-about-f74bd23503fd

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Thank you to the contributors.

Dave Chicoine

Josh Dalessandro

Darrell Evans

Annissa Furr

Fiona G-Poe

Celine Hall

Laurie Leet

Christine O’Neal

Cathy Rice

Julie Torres-Roman

Brad Sauls

Amy Smith

Heather Stricker

Kat Vanderburg

Gwen White

Nikki Williams

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