Did You Know?

First Science Ph.D.'s Awarded to African Americans

 

Anatomy

  • Roscoe Lewis McKinney

University of Chicago – 1931

 

  • Ruth Lloyd

Case Western University – 1941 

  • Clarence William Wright

Ohio State University – 1965(First from Ohio State University)

 

Astronomy

  • Harvey Washington Banks

Georgetown University -- 1961

 

Bacteriology

  • Ruth Ella Moore

Ohio State University -- 1933

 

Bioscience

  • Alfred O. Coffin

Illinois Wesleyan Univsersity – 1889

(Second Science Ph.D. awarded to an African American)

 

Botany

  • Jessie Jarue Mark

Iowa State University -- 1935

 

Chemistry

  • St. Elmo Brady

University of Illinois – 1916 

  • Marie Maynard Daly

Columbia University -- 1948

 

Computer Science

  • Clarence A. Ellis

University of Illinois -- 1969

 

Dairy Technology

  • Emmett Bassett

Ohio State University -- 1956

 

Dentistry

  • Robert Tanner Freeman

Harvard University -- 1867

 

Electrical Engineering

  • Percy A. Pierre

Johns Hopkins University -- 1967

 

Engineering

  • Walter Thomas Daniel

Iowa State University – 1941

(First African American engineer licensed in Louisiana)

 

Geology

  • Marguerite Thomas Williams

Catholic University of America – 1942

 

Pure Mathematics

  • Walter Richard Talbot

University of Pittsburgh – 1934

 

Mathematics

  • Elbert Frank Cox

Cornell University – 1934 

  • Evelyn Boyd Granville

Yale University – 1949

 

  • Marjorie Lee Browne

University of Michigan – 1949

 

Metallurgical Engineering

  • Frank Alphonso Crossley

Illinois Institute of Technology – 1950

 

Meteorology

  • Charles Edward Anderson

Massachusetts Institute of Technology – 1960

 

Nursing (Public Health)

  • Elizabeth Lipford Kent

University of Michigan – 1955

(First African American Nurse to earn a Ph.D.)

 

Pathology

  • Robert Stewart Jason

University of Chicago – 1932

 

Pharmacy

  • Ray Clifford Darlington

Ohio State University – 1948

 

Physics

  • Edward Alexander Bouchet

Yale University – 1876

(First Ph.D. awarded to an African American.

 Elected to Phi Beta Kappa)

 

Physiology

  • Julian Herman Lewis

University of Chicago – 1915

 

Psychology

  • Francis Cecil Sumner

Clark Universitiy – 1920 

  • Inez Beverely Prosser

University of Michigan – 1933 (Educational Psychology)

 

  • Ruth Howard

University of Chicago – 1934

  • Frederick Payne Watts

University of Pennsylvania -- 1941

Public Health

  • Paul Bertau Cornely

University of Michigan – 1934

 

Veterinary Medicine

  • Augustus Nathaniel Lushington

University of Pennsylvania -- 1897

 

Wood and Paper Science

  • Chavonda J. Jacobs-Young

North Carolina State University - 1998

 

Zoology

  • Roger Arliner Young

University of Chicago – 1940 

  • Ernest Everett Just

University of Chicago – 1916 (Physiology and Zoology)

 

Sources:

 Princeton University, Mitchell C. Brown

 Blacks in Science and Education, Vivian O. Sammons (Washington, D.C.; Hemisphere Publishers), 1989, pp.278-279.

 Black First: 2,000 Years of Extraordinary Achievement, Jessie Carney Smith, editor; Caspar L. Jordan, Robert J. Johns, associate editors; foreword by Johnetta B. Cole (Detroit, MI; Gale research), 1994