African American Scientific Contributions – Extended List
By John Cowens

To view John Cowens article on African American Innovators click here.

Biology
Jewell Plummer Cobb (1924- ) received a lifetime achievement award in 1993 for her contributions to the advancement of women and under-represented minorities in science. She is currently the president of California State University in Fullerton.

Ernest Everett Just (1883-1941) became known as a brilliant researcher and pioneer in the field of egg fertilization and the study of the cell at Howard University in 1907. In 1915 he received the NAACP's first Spingarn Medal for outstanding achievement in marine biology.

Dorothy V. McClendon (1924- ) is a microbiologist who coordinates microbial research for the U.S. Tank Automotive Command. She is currently developing a fungicide that will not be harmful to humans but will protect storage materials.

Charles Henry Turner (1867-1923) was a zoologist known for his work with insects. Turner was the first to demonstrate that insects can hear.

Chemistry
Harrison Allen, Jr. (1928-2006) was a chemical engineer who developed high-energy fuels for rockets, supersonic combustion and solid-rocket ignition.

Emmett W. Chappelle (1925- ) is a biochemist and a remote-sensing scientist for Goddard Space Flight Center. He has been able to correlate acid-rain damage to the fluorescence spectrum of chlorophyll.

Donald Cotton (1939- ) is a technical leader for nuclear chemistry research at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Lloyd Noel Ferguson (1918- ) became the first African American to receive a chemistry doctorate, in 1943.

Lloyd Augustus Hall (1894-1971), a pioneering industrial food chemist, developed curing salts and a method of sterilizing spices that revolutionized the meatpacking industry.

James A. Harris (1932- ) co-discovered two new elements – Rutherfordium (element 104) and Hafnium (element 105) at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.

W. Lincoln Hawkins (1943- ) was the first African American to work for Bell Labs. He co-invented a chemical additive that prevents plastic coatings on telecommunications cables from deteriorating. This additive paved the way for universal telephone service.

Percy Lavon Julian (1899-1975) was a chemist best known for developing a way to synthetically produce cortisone in large quantities. He also did pioneering work in developing drugs from soybeans.

Virgil G. Trice, Jr. (1926- ) is a chemical engineer who helped develop nuclear energy and techniques for managing radioactive waste that results from nuclear power generation.

Computer Science
Mark Dean (1957- ) lead the team that built a gigahertz (1000mhz) chip that performed a billion calculations per second.

Philip Emeagwali (1954- ) designed "The Connection Machine" in 1989, a computer that could perform 3.1 billion calculations per second.

Marc Hannah (1956- ), a computer scientist, cofounded and serves as chief scientist for the company Silicon Graphics – a leader in the development of 3D computer graphics.

Inventions
Andrew Jackson Beard (1849-1921) received a patent in 1897 for the Automatic Railroad Coupler (a.k.a. the "Jenny" coupler).

Henry Blair (1807-1860) invented in 1834 the seed planter for corn and cotton that sped up the planting process and reduced the amount of hand labor needed to sow crops.

Sarah Boone invented an improvement to the ironing board and received a patent in 1892.

Otis Boykin (1920-1982) was the inventor of a variable resistor used in guided missiles and an electronic control unit for an artificial heart stimulator (pacemaker).

Phil Brooks developed and received a patent for the disposable syringe in 1974.

Clarence L. Elder (1935-) invented a monitoring and energy conservation system in 1976 called the Occustat, which reduced the use of energy in temporarily vacant homes and schools.

Sarah E. Goode (1850-?) was the first African American woman to receive a U.S. patent, in 1885, for inventing a folding cabinet bed.

Hezekiah was an Alabama slave who invented a cotton-cleaning machine around 1825.

Thomas L. Jennings (1791-1859), a tailor living in New York City, received a patent in 1821 for inventing a method for dry cleaning clothes.

Marjorie Stewart Joyner (1896-1994) invented a hair permanent-wave machine in 1928 that could style hair of both black and white women.

Lewis Latimer (1848-1928) received a patent for an improved process for manufacturing carbon filaments used in electric lamps, and supervised the installation of electric lighting systems in New York, Philadelphia, Montreal and London.

Joseph Lee (1849-1905) invented a bread-crumbling machine and the first bread-making machine.

Jan Ernst Matzeliger (1852-1889) developing a "shoe lasting machine," which attached the sole to the shoe in one minute. This invention not only made the shoes more durable but also made them more affordable since it reduced labor and sped up the manufacturing process.

Frederick McKinley Jones (1892-1961) was granted more than 60 patents in the field of refrigeration for long-haul trucks, eliminating the problem of food spoilage in long-distance shipping.

Elijah McCoy (1843-1929) was the mechanical engineer who invented the lubricating or "drip" cup, which lubricated moving parts of a machine while it was operating.

Garrett Morgan (1875-1963) improved traffic safety with the invention of the automatic traffic signal, and also invented a gas mask that was widely used by American firemen in the 1900s and by soldiers on the battlefields during World War I.

Norbert Rillieux (1806-1894) developed the vacuum evaporation method of refining sugar that reduced the time, cost and safety risk involved in producing sugar from cane and beets.

Dewey Sanderson invented the urinalysis machine.

Rufus Stokes (1924-1986) developed and received a patent for an air purification device that reduced gas and ash emissions from furnace and power plant smokestacks.

Lewis Temple (1800-1854) invented the toggle-harpoon, which became the standard harpoon for the whaling industry

Madame C.J. Walker (1867-1919) developed a metallic hot comb and hair care products that revolutionized hair care for African American women.

Mathematics
Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806) was the mathematician, astronomer and inventor who is best known as a surveyor of Washington, DC.

David Blackwell (1919-) became, in 1941, the seventh African American to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics. He was 22 years old.

Elbert Frank Cox (1895-1969) was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics, receiving his doctoral degree in 1925 from Cornell University.

Thomas Fuller (1710-1790) was shipped to America as a slave when he was 14 years old. At that young age, he had the ability to calculate numbers and mentally process other arithmetical operations.

Evelyn Boyd Granville (1924- ) was the second woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics (in 1949). She went on to make several contributions to the U.S. Space program including Vanguard, Mercury and Apollo. She also worked at Space Technology Laboratories as a mathematical analyst studying rocket trajectories.

Martha Euphemia Lofton Haynes (1890-1980) earned her Ph.D. in mathematics in 1943, becoming the first African American woman to accomplish this educational achievement. She went on to teach in the public schools of Washington, DC, for 47 years and was the first woman to chair the DC School Board.

Fern Y. Hunt earned a doctorate in mathematics in 1978. She also received the prestigious Arthur S. Fleming Award for a sustained record of contributions to mathematics and computer science in 2000.

Kelly Miller (1863-1939) was the first African American to study graduate mathematics at Johns Hopkins University.

Charles L. Reason (1818-1893) at the age of 14 was appointed an instructor at a New York school because of his mathematical ability. Later in his life he became a famous abolitionist and the first principal of Philadelphia's Institute for Colored Youth, now known as Cheyney University.

J. Ernest Wilkins, Jr. (1923- ), who received his doctorate at 19, created the mathematics models by which the absorption of gamma rays by a given material can be calculated. Wilkins also worked on the Manhattan Project.

Medicine
William Harry Barnes (1887- ) is an otolaryngologist who invented a delicate instrument that facilitated the approach to the pituitary glands.

Patricia E. Bath (1949- ) is an ophthalmologist who revolutionized cataract surgery by inventing a laser device, the Laserphaco Probe, which removes cataracts.

William Montague Cobb (1903-1990) helped perfect the standard color plate of the anatomy of the human heart. He also created an organization called "Imhotep" for the purpose of eliminating segregation in hospitals in 1953.

Rebecca Lee-Crumpler (1831-1895) was the first black woman to be educated as a medical doctor in the United States.

James Derham (1757-?) bought his freedom in 1783 and was one of the most renowned black doctors of the 18th century.

Charles R. Drew (1904-1950) pioneered research of the storage and shipment of blood plasma, due to which he is credited with saving the lives of hundreds of British soldiers during World War II.

Joycelyn Elders (1933- ) was the first African American appointed U.S. Surgeon General.

Wilcie Elfe, whose prescription book dates from 1853, was the earliest known black pharmacist.

Robert Tanner Freeman was the first African American to receive a dental degree in the United States, during the 1860s.

Solomon Carter Fuller (1872-1953) was the first African American to practice psychiatry.

John Richard Hillery (1874-1940) was the African American podiatrist who invented the "Tarsal Arch Support" in 1929.

William Augustus Hinton (1883-1959) developed a test for the detection of syphilis.

Samuel Lee Kountz, Jr. (1930-1981) developed techniques to determine when the rejection of a transplanted organ begins and how to appropriately administer anti-rejection drugs.

Theodore K. Lawless (1892-1971) created new dermatological techniques and improved the treatment of leprosy.

Myra Adele Logan (1908-1977) was the first black woman doctor to lead a team in open-heart surgery.

Herman J. Mabrie III (1948- ) became the first African American otolaryngologist (ear, nose and throat specialist).

Onesimus, a Massachusetts slave, in 1721 encouraged inoculation against smallpox by injecting the disease itself, an ancient African practice and a method of vaccination that would later become standard practice.

Louis (or Lucas) Santomee was the first university-trained black physician. He practiced medicine in the colony of New Amsterdam (New York) in the 1660s.

James McCune Smith (1811-1865) was a successful doctor who used scientific reasoning to counter racist notions that blacks were mentally inferior to whites.

Vivien T. Thomas (1910-1985) developed the surgical procedure that saved countless "blue babies" – children born with a congenital heart malfunction that robs the blood of oxygen.

Daniel Hale Williams (1856-1931) performed the first surgery on the pericardium, the sac surrounding the heart in 1893.

Jane Cooke Wright (1919- ) was a leader in the study of anticancer drugs. She explored the relationship between patient and tissue culture response, and developed new techniques for administering cancer chemotherapy.

Louis T. Wright (1891-1952) did extensive research into the use of antibiotic drugs. He was also the first black doctor on the staff of Harlem Hospital.

NASA astronauts and scientists
Michael P. Anderson (1959-2003) flew on STS-89 "Endeavor," which was the eighth Shuttle-Mir docking mission. He died on February 1, 2003, over the southern United States when STS-107 Space Shuttle Columbia and the crew perished during entry, 16 minutes prior to scheduled landing.

Charles F. Bolden, Jr. (1946- ) was a member of the 1990 Space Shuttle Discovery crew that deployed the Hubble Space telescope.

Dr. Beth A. Brown is an astrophysicist for the National Space Science Data Center and NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. She researches the area of the hot interstellar medium in elliptical galaxies, and the mechanisms for X-ray emission from faint elliptical galaxies. She also does galaxy observations in multi-wavelengths.

George R. Carruthers (1939- ), known for his efforts on ultraviolet observations of Earth's upper core and astronomical phenomena, developed the ultraviolet camera that was carried to the moon by Apollo 16 astronauts in 1972, and is involved in developing the instrumentation that captured an image of the Leonid meteor shower.

Patricia Cowings is the director of psychophysiological research at NASA's Ames Research Center. She also developed ways to help astronauts avoid motion sickness using biofeedback, self-hypnosis and desensitization.

Robert Lee Curbeam, Jr. (1962- ) is a veteran of two space flights, STS-85 in 1997 and STS-98 in 2001, and has logged over 593 hours in space, including over 19 EVA hours during three spacewalks.

Edward Dwight, Jr. (1933- ) was the first African American to train as an astronaut and is also a sculptor of major monuments.

Annie Easley (1932- ) works at NASA's Lewis Research Center developing the computer codes used in solar, wind and other energy projects.

Frederick D. Gregory (1941- ) was the first African American astronaut to command a Space Shuttle.

Bernard A. Harris (1956- ) was the first African American to walk in space during a Space Shuttle mission.

Katherine Johnson (1918- ), in her 33-year career with NASA, calculated the trajectories for the missions that have made America the leader in space exploration. She also studied new navigation procedures to determine more practical ways to track manned and unmanned space missions.

Robert H. Lawrence, Jr. (1935-1967) was the first African American to be selected as an astronaut by NASA.

Vance H. Marchbanks (1905-1973) was the U.S. Air Force flight surgeon who monitored astronaut John Glenn's vital signs as he orbited the earth in 1962.

Winston E. Scott (1950- ) is currently active as a Space Shuttle mission specialist.

Robert Shurney is the African American test engineer who helped to design and test devices used by astronauts in zero-gravity environments such as the wire mesh tires for the Apollo 17 lunar rover.

Physics
George Edward Alcorn, Jr. (1940- ) is a physicist whose work in semiconductors led to the development of spectrometers for the detection of planetary life.

Francis Kofi Ampenyin Allotey (1932- ) became the world expert on soft X-ray spectroscopy, which established the principal known as Allotey formalism.

Ernest Coleman (1942 or '43-1990) directed high-energy physics at three governmental agencies.

Meredith C. Gourdine (1929-1998) did groundbreaking work in the field of electrogasdynamics, whereby high-voltage electricity is produced from flowing gas.

Warren E. Henry (1909-2001) worked nearly 70 years in the fields of magnetism and superconductivity. His research is included in many textbooks and his graph on paramagnetism has been a physics textbook standard for many years.

Elmer Iames (1883-1941) became the second African American to hold a doctorate in Physics and coauthored the study of molecular structure through the use of infrared spectroscopy.

Shirley Ann Jackson (1946- ) became the second African American woman to receive a doctorate in physics and is a leader in the field of studying forces holding together the nucleus of an atom.

Roscoe L. Koontz (1922- ) developed techniques and procedures for measuring thermal neutron fluxes, which is instrumental in protecting people from the hazards of ionizing radiation.

Walter Eugene Massey (1938- ) was the first African American Director of the National Science Foundation and is currently the President of Morehouse College.

Willie Hobbs Moore (1934-1994) was the first African American woman to receive a doctorate in Physics.

Earl D. Shaw (1937- ) was the co-inventor of a laser device that helped hospitals throughout the world to provide radiation therapy to cancer patients.

To view John Cowens article on African American Innovators click here.

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John Cowens teaches sixth grade at Fleming Middle School in Grants Pass, OR.

February, 2007 Volume 37, Number 5