Organic chemist and chemistry professor Fillmore Freeman was born in 1936 in Lexington, Mississippi. Freeman earned his high school diploma from John Marshall High School in Chicago, Illinois in 1953. In 1957, he graduated summa cum laude from Central State College in Wilberforce, Ohio, with his B.S. degree, and then went on to pursue his graduate studies at Michigan...

Chemist and chemistry professor Krishna L. Foster was born on January 7, 1970 in Culver City, California to parents Warren Foster and Frances Smith Foster. Her father, a sales representative for International Business Machines (IBM), and her mother, a professor of English and women’s studies, encouraged Foster and her brother to excel in school. Foster graduated from Helix High...

Chemist and chemistry professor Lloyd N. Ferguson (1918 – ) earned his Ph.D. degree in chemistry from University of California, Berkeley in 1943, making him the first African American to do so. He was instrumental in building the doctoral program in chemistry at Howard University, the first of its kind at any historically black college or university and later...

Chemist and chemistry professor Billy Joe Evans was born on August 18, 1942 in Macon, Georgia. Evans grew up amidst the racism and segregation policies of the south during the 1950s. Evans’ father, Will Evans, worked part-time as a coordinator for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and went to Washington, D.C. to confer and strategize with founder and...

Organic chemist and inventor Linnaeus Dorman was born on June 28, 1935 in Orangeburg, South Carolina to schoolteachers John Albert Dorman, Sr. and Georgia Hammond. He and his twin brother, James are the youngest of five siblings. Raised in the Jim Crow South, his parents sent him to the historically black South Carolina State College laboratory school. The state...

Research chemist and chemistry professor William C. Davis was born on August 22, 1926 in Waycross Georgia to parents Kenice and Laura Jane Davis. In 1941, Davis moved to New York City to live with his brother, Ossie Davis, and attend college. Following graduation from Dwight High School in 1945, Davis attended City College of New York and New...

Biologist and biology professor Edwin Cooper (1936 – ) is a leader in the fields of invertebrate immune system and comparative immunology – he is credited with having established that discipline. He has conducted research at the University of California, Los Angeles for more than forty years. Link: http://www.idvl.org/sciencemakers/Bio38.html

Organic chemist and historian, Jeannette E. Brown was born in Bronx, New York on May 13, 1934 to Freddie Brown, a building superintendant and Ada Brown. At age six, Brown was inspired by her family doctor, Arthur C. Logan, to pursue a career in science. Brown graduated from New Dorp High School on Staten Island in 1952 and in...

Education professor and chemist Sondra Akins was born on March 16, 1944 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She became interested in chemistry by the time she graduated from Atkins High School in 1962. Akins earned her B.S. degree in chemistry in 1967 from the University of California, Berkeley where she also worked as a laboratory technician. She received her M.S....

Chemist and chemistry professor Albert Antoine (1925 – ) taught chemistry at Clark College and researched fuel efficiency, batteries, and jet and rocket propulsion at NASA Lewis Research Center. Antoine became a senior research associate for Cleveland State University, teaching students at the NASA Lewis Research Center. Link: http://www.idvl.org/sciencemakers/Bio4.html