The Unsung Achievements of Black Scientists

When you see the word “scientist,” what immediately pops into your head? A man in a lab coat surrounded by beakers, microscopes, and test tubes? What about a specific scientist: Albert Einstein, sticking his tongue out at the camera? Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree, awaiting his legendary (literally; the story is fictitious) bonk on the head before theorizing about gravity? Perhaps you can think of some women, like Marie Curie or Rachel Carson.

What about a black scientist? How many famous black scientists can you name? It’s not as though they don’t exist, that they haven’t been important. However, I believe that their groundbreaking achievements in medicine, tech, physics, and the environment too often fly under the radar. If I wanted someone to do my homework for me, the assignment being to discuss the most important scientists of the past few centuries, I would ask them to include at least some black scientists in order to obtain full credit. Any good teacher would rightly take off points for not including them.

Why does race matter when it comes to scientific achievement? Isn’t science, well, science, regardless of who’s doing it? It’s a fair point, but I would argue that to ignore the contributions of black scientists is to continue a longstanding practice of omission whereby we, as a society, fail to recognize just how important they’ve been. Furthermore, if we want children of all races to grow up loving and appreciating science, teaching them about historical figures who look like them can help show that they, too, belong in STEM. Whether it’s to be fair to past generations or to inspire future ones, we should all celebrate diversity in STEM for making our collective achievements even more extraordinary. In this article, that’s exactly what I intend to do.

Ten Black Scientists That Every College Student Should Know

Since “black” is a modern racial term, this list remains relatively modern. That said, it is also rooted in the idea that no race gets to claim ownership of the history of science. Asking who was the first black scientist is a little like asking who was the first black person to make a grocery list. Such questions, in any field, imply that white people by default set the standard that other races “get” to follow, usually much later. Of course, access to scientific education is a racial issue with a history of unequal opportunities. Scientific curiosity, being a human quality, is not.

Benjamin Banneker

This brings us to our first entry, who, despite the caveats noted above, is considered to be one of the first prominent African American scientists. Given that he was almost entirely self-taught, Banneker’s sheer range of scientific pursuits is even more incredible: astronomy, natural history, mathematics, and more. Published in the late eighteenth century, Banneker’s almanacs charted upcoming eclipses, calculated tidal patterns in the Chesapeake Bay, and even predicted the weather. White observers, including Thomas Jefferson, consistently marveled (with condescension characteristic of the time period) at how an African American scientist could produce such “respectable” work. Banneker’s admirers, and, when he died, his most glowing obituaries, noted that his work proved that black scientists were capable of as much knowledge and wisdom as his white counterparts. For this reason, Banneker is honored today not just as a scientist, but as a pioneer of the concept of a “black scientist” in the first place.

George Washington Carver

Even among those on this list, Mr. Carver is a relatively famous black scientist. I learned about him in elementary school as the “peanut guy,” and yes, it is true, Carver is known for encouraging farmers to grow peanuts and teaching the public different ways of preparing it. (He did not, however, invent peanut butter, as is often claimed.) But he was, as an agricultural scientist, much more than that.

As a professor at Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute in the early twentieth century, Carver was largely concerned with preventing soil depletion, which had been spurred in the South by excessive cotton production. Carver’s introduced new means of crop rotation, developed ways in which agricultural products could be used for industrial purposes, and taught his black students his state-of-the-art farming techniques so that they could pursue self-sufficiency. So yes, he was “the peanut guy.” However, we also crafted much of our modern methods of agriculture.

Bettye Washington Greene

If you had to ask any black American scientist on this list for online chemistry homework help, it would undoubtedly be Bettye Washington Greene. As the first black woman to work as a PhD chemist for the Dow Chemical Company–and only the fifth black American woman to earn a PhD in chemistry–Greene spent much of her career developing new understandings of latex, polymers, and each one’s relationship with paper.

Today, Greene is recognized by the American Chemical Society for contributing to materials science in spite of harsh institutional barriers. Her doctoral dissertation introduced new methods for measuring particle size based on the emulsion of light. Her tenure at Dow produced new innovations in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, paints, and other commercial product. In the final analysis, she’s considered a pioneer for aspiring black scientists everywhere, especially black women who may feel the sting of gender, not just racial, judgment. For that alone, Greene is a role model.

Katherine Johnson

If you’ve ever seen Hidden Figures, you may already know a bit about Ms. Johnson and her legendary career at NASA. If you haven’t seen the film, here’s a one-sentence summary that captures her importance: Everything you know about the Space Race, from the United States’s earliest spaceflights to the Apollo mission which put men on the moon, happened in large part because of Katherine Johnson’s calculations.

That’s right. Johnson was an exceptional mathematician who plotted navigation charts and calculated trajectories for America’s first astronauts. At the same time, she, along with Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, proved while working at NASA that black women had just as much to offer to the field of aeronautics as their white male counterparts. Today, Johnson is remembered as a trailblazer for aspiring black female scientists whose ambitious vision for humanity overpowers the narrow-mindedness of their doubters. Plus, she helped inspire a fantastic movie!

Percy Lavon Julian

Talk about things we might not have today without their contributions! Whereas Johnson, Vaughan, and Jackson helped expand humanity’s reach (literally out of this world), Percy Lavon Julian’s innovations were much, much smaller. As a chemist, Julian was among the first scientists to synthesize hormones from plants and, therefore, lay the foundation for the modern steroid industry, including the all-important birth control pill.

Julian rose from a humble childhood in Montgomery, Alabama to pursue a storied academic career that included a Master’s at Harvard and PhD in Vienna, Austria. During World War II, his designs helped the U.S. military supply a soy protein foam that could extinguish fires on ships and aircraft carriers alike, saving the lives of thousands of soldiers. Today, his honors include a spot in the National Inventors Hall of Fame, a stamp from the Post Office, and even, in 2014, his very own Google Doodle!

Edward Bouchet

How many people can say they were the first African American to earn a PhD in the U.S.? It should be obvious: only one. That honor goes to Edward Bouchet, who earned his PhD in Physics from Yale University in 1876.

Born to a formerly enslaved father and a mother whose job was to do laundry for Yale students, Bouchet’s academic path was anything but guaranteed. That didn’t stop him from graduating sixth in his class, expanding our knowledge on the refractive properties of different types of glass, and embarking upon a teaching career that, despite harsh barriers due to racial discrimination, still lasted decades. For 26 years, Bouchet taught physics, astronomy, chemistry, and other sciences at Philadelphia’s Institute for Colored Youth, now known today as Cheyney University, the country’s oldest HBCU. Today, his legacy is immortalized in the Edward A. Bouchet Award, bestowed by the American Physical Society upon physicists from underprivileged communities who, nevertheless, contribute to our understanding of physics.

Shirley Ann Jackson

Whereas Bouchet was the first African American to earn a PhD from any American university, Shirley Jackson (not to be confused with the author) accomplished something more specific and no less extraordinary as the first black woman to earn a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Like Bouchet, Jackson also earned her doctorate in physics, but with a specific focus on nuclear. Since then, she has gone on to hold positions at AT&T Bell Laboratories; the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she served as president; and even as chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, being appointed by President Bill Clinton. Since 2020, she has served on the Global Board of the Nature Conservancy, where she uses her knowledge and experience to confront urgent environmental challenges. Talk about a résumé!

As one of the few scientists on this list who is still alive, we believe Jackson especially is a role model for young black scientists everywhere.

Mae Jemison

Ok, we’re back to talking about space. If Katherine Johnson was the “computer” behind many of NASA’s earliest and most iconic missions, Mae Jemison has matched (yes, she’s still alive, too) her intelligence with a special distinction: in 1992, she became the first African American woman to travel into space.

Jemison is a bona fide Renaissance woman: scholar, medical doctor, entrepreneur, author, actress, and even dancer. Her accomplishments (besides, you know, being an astronaut) include attending Stanford University at sixteen years old, serving as a doctor in the Peace Corps, and founding an educational non-profit devoted to promoting space exploration in the future. Museums and schools alike are named after her, and Jemison herself has received countless awards, including honorary doctorates, in tribute to her scientific achievements. For any young scientists interested in space and medicine, Jemison is an excellent source of inspiration and proof that ambition, combined with hard work, can take you far.

Charles Henry Turner

As we near the end of this list, let’s talk about bugs. Some of us hate them, but some of us are absolutely fascinated by their behavior. This next scientist falls into the latter group.

Charles Henry Turner was an entomologist and zoologist who dedicated his life to understanding the personalities and cognitive abilities of ants, spiders, and other creepy crawlies. While spending much of his career as a high school teacher, Turner (who still earned a doctorate, mind you) continued his research on everything from the hunting habits of wasps, the psychology of spiders, and the color vision of honeybees. If that wasn’t enough, he single-handedly proved that insects can hear and even recognize different pitches. Though Turner’s cognitive approach to studying animal behavior was highly unusual for his time, it is now recognized today for its ingenuity. Those of us who like to observe bugs will be pleased to know that they aren’t alone.

Marie Maynard Daly

We’re rounding out this list with another chemist, this time the first African American woman ever to earn a PhD in chemistry. Marie Maynard Daly was specifically interested in biochemistry, and her academic research encompassed everything from protein synthesis to hypertension.

Daly was among the first scientists to understand how diet can affect our cardiac and circulatory systems. It sounds obvious to us today, but the fact that high cholesterol can clog arteries and cause heart attacks came from somewhere; Daly was the first to prove that relationship. When James Watson co-discovered DNA with Francis Crick, based largely on the work of Rosalind Franklin, he cited Daly for influencing his research. Throughout her career, Marie Daly also improved our understanding of topics like protein metabolism, creatine uptake, and the health impacts of sugar. It’s not an understatement to say that we just wouldn’t know as much about our own bodies without her contributions.

The Importance of Black Scientists

This list is not all-encompassing, nor is it complete. Rather, it serves as proof that groundbreaking black scientists of the past have inspired famous black scientists today, which in turn will influence the next generation. All of this is to say that your ambitions should not go unnurtured. The next time you seek science homework help online, take a moment to read about these individuals but also any classes, programs, and contacts that can help you pursue your goals. Whether it’s biology, chemistry, physics, or another discipline, science never stops. It always needs new scholars. Don’t ever doubt that you shouldn’t be one of them.