Science has always been a fascinating topic to the human mind. Therefore, I believe it is important to recognize some amazing scientific contributions made by Black women this February. Many of these scientific contributions have been quite influential to society and have allowed mainstream projects, such as NASA missions, to be possible. All of these Black female scientists are very inspirational, and their dedication and determination towards their field will always be remembered.
Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson was an extremely bright American mathematician whose calculations played an influential role in the Apollo 11 mission, the Mercury program, and Freedom 7. Additionally, she analyzed and calculated flight paths for the U.S. space program. In 1937, she graduated with the highest honours from West Virginia State College and eventually moved on into teaching before enrolling in a graduate program at West Virginia University. After some time, she started working at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) alongside other African American women who manually calculated complex math problems for the engineers. Thus, these calculations were essential to the success of many of the early U.S. space missions. By now, some of you may recognize this story from the movie Hidden Figures as it was inspired by Johnson’s life alongside other African American women working in NACA. Today, Katherine Johnson is regarded for her intelligence and passion for mathematics and aeronautics. She also helped overcome racial prejudices and gender stereotypes by working in a predominantly white department. Over her career, she was a part of 26 research reports, and she even received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the highest honours an individual can get.
“Like what you do, and then you will do your best” ~ Katherine Johnson
Roger Arliner Young
The next Black female scientist I want to highlight is Roger Arliner Young. Young is recognized for being the first Black woman in U.S. history to hold a doctorate in zoology. As you can imagine, Young was a brilliant zoologist and her paper on discovering Paramecium gained national prestige. Despite all of her accomplishments, racial prejudice was common in American society, and that caused her achievements to be undermined. However, Young did not let that stop her from pursuing her dreams as she eventually became the acting head of Howard Unversity’s zoology department. Throughout her career, Young also experienced a series of hardships. The stress and pressure that came alongside acting as lead and pursuing a doctorate caused her to fail her first doctoral qualifying exam at the University of Chicago. Even after experiencing this failure, Young persevered and finished her degree at the University of Pennsylvania. At this time, she also started advocating for Black rights and was even arrested for doing so. Young’s genius was sadly often lost due to the segregation of Black people, racial stigma, and preference of male scientists over females. But, her legacy continues to remind us that failure does not correlate to lost hope but only acts as a starting point for success.
Alma Levant Hayden
Another inspirational Black female is Alma Levant Hayden. She was an American chemist and is regarded as the first Black female to hold the position of a scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Washington. Hayden graduated with a master’s degree from Howard University. Her research was around the ideas of spectrophotometry, which is a type of electromagnetic spectroscopy to measure the number of chemicals in a solution and light absorption. During this time, Hayden’s work was published several times, and she continued to conduct studies relating to pharmaceutical chemistry. Her greatest contribution to science is uncovering the Krebiozen scam. Krebiozan was thought to be a drug that “cured” cancer and relieves pain. Hayden discovered the drug was a scam by using an infrared spectrometer to study the white compound’s chemical composition. She soon realized that Krebiozin was just creatine, an amino acid found in the human body. This means the Krebiozin was not curing cancer for those taking the drug. Sadly, Hayden’s contributions towards uncovering this scam are unrecognized, and her name is not listed on documentation. Black women in science faced discrimination, which caused their accomplishments to be overlooked and not mentioned in official documents. But, Hayden’s life remains inspiring and reminds us that one may achieve success even in moments of adversity.
In the end, I hope you gained inspiration and empowerment from these incredible Black female scientists. All of them left highly influential legacies that promote dedication, perseverance, and strength. I also consider these women pioneers of women’s involvement in major scientific research and publication, and they continue to motivate me in my pursuits.
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