Image Courtesy of Dr. Robert Shepard Robert Louis Shepard, PhD. is an author and chemist. He is best known for opening doors of opportunity for faculty and students in science-related fields at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Beginning in 1983 he became an advocate for inclusion of … Read MoreRobert Louis Shepard (1947- )
An accomplished organic analytical chemist, Dr. Betty Wright Harris is widely recognized as a leading expert on explosives, environmental remediation, and hazardous waste treatment. In 1986, she patented a simple and extremely sensitive spot test for the presence of 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB). Her innovation allowed the military and private … Read MoreBetty Wright Harris (1940- )
The work of James Edward Maceo West transformed the way people around the world hear and transmit sound. In 1962, West, then a research scientist at Bell Laboratories, developed the foil electret microphone in partnership with his colleague Dr. Gerhard M. Sessler. Until that time, most microphones, which transform … Read MoreJames Edward Maceo West (1931- )
Astrophysicist Arthur Bertram Cuthbert Walker was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 24, 1936, the only child of Cuthbert Walker, an attorney and native of Barbados, and the former Hilda Forte, a social worker. His mother fought to facilitate his early exposure to science at his … Read MoreArthur B. C. Walker, Jr. (1936-2001)
The physicist and inventor George Carruthers, known for inventing the ultraviolet camera and spectrograph, was born on October 1, 1939 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr. Carruthers is the oldest of four siblings. Carruthers’s father, George Carruthers, Sr., died when Carruthers was only 12 years old. However, … Read MoreGeorge Carruthers (1939- )
Image Courtesy of Sargeant Memorial Chronicles (Winter 2008), Sargeant Memorial Room, Pretlow Library, Norfolk, VA Born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1921, physicist Robert Johnson Omohundro was one of a select few black scientists and technicians to work on the Manhattan Project and thus contribute to … Read MoreRobert Johnson Omohundro (1921-2000)
