Black History : African Americans in Science

[cherryblossom]

Physicists of the African Diaspora

George Edward Alcorn
birth: March 22, 1940
place:
B.S. (1962) Physics Occidental College; M.S. (1963) Nuclear Physics Howard University

Ph.D. (1967) Howard University
thesis: An Electron Impact Study of the Methylamine, Monoethylamine, Dimethylamine, and Trimethylamine;

-Asst Director For Standards /Excellence -- Applied Engineering and Technology Directorate for the Goddard Space Flight Center.


George Edward Alcorn, Jr. was born on March 22, 1940, to George and Arletta Dixon Alcorn. His father was an auto mechanic who sacrificed so Alcorn and his brother could get an education. Alcorn attended Occidental College in Pasadena, California, where he maintained an excellent academic record while earning eight letters in baseball and football. Alcorn graduated with a B.A. in physics in 1962, and in 1963 he completed a master's degree in nuclear physics from Howard University. During the summers of 1962 and 1963, Alcorn worked as a research engineer for the Space Division of North American Rockwell, computing trajectories and orbital mechanics for missiles. A NASA grant supported Alcorn's research on negative ion formation during the summers of 1965 and 1966. In 1967 he earned his doctorate from Howard University in atomic and molecular physics.

After earning his Ph.D., Alcorn spent twelve years in industry. He was senior scientist at Philco-Ford, senior physicist at Perker-Elmer, and advisory engineer at IBM Corporation. In 1973, Alcorn was chosen to be IBM Visiting Professor in Electrical Engineering at Howard University, and he has held positions at that university ever since, rising to the rank of full professor. Alcorn is also a full professor in the department of electrical engineering at the University of the District of Columbia, where he has taught courses ranging from advanced engineering mathematics to microelectronics.

Alcorn left IBM, where he worked as a Second Plateau Inventor, to join NASA in 1978. While at NASA, Alcorn invented an imaging x-ray spectrometer using thermomigration of aluminum, for which he earned a patent in 1984, and two years later he devised an improved method of fabrication using laser drilling. His work on imaging x-ray spectrometers earned him the 1984 NASA/GSFC Inventor of the Year Award. During this period he also served as deputy project manager for advanced development, and in this position he was responsible for developing new technologies required for the space station Freedom. Alcorn served as manager for advanced programs at NASA/GSFC from 1990 to 1992, and his primary duties concerned the managing of technology programs and evaluating technologies which were required by GSFC. He also managed the GSFC Evolution Program, concerned with ensuring that over its 30-year mission the space station develops properly while incorporating new capabilities.

Since 1992, Alcorn has served as chief of Goddard's Office of Commercial Programs supervising programs for technology transfer, small business innovation research, and the commercial use of space programs. He managed a shuttle flight experiment that involved Robot Operated Material Processing System, or ROMPs, in 1994. The experiment involved the manufacture of materials in the microgravity of space.>>>>

http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/alcorn_georgeE.html

 

[cherryblossom]

August 13, 1919 -Oct. 21, 1994


Charles Edward Anderson was born on a farm in University City, near St. Louis, Missouri on August 13, 1919. He graduated as valedictorian from Sumner High School in 1937. He received a Bachelor of Science from Lincoln University, Jefferson City, MO in 1941. He was Certified in Meteorology (master's degree) from the University of Chicago in 1943. Charles Anderson also earned a Master of Science in chemistry in 1948 from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, New York. In 1960, Mr. Anderson earned a Ph.D. in Meteorology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA. Charles Edward Anderson was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in Meteorology.

Dr. Anderson worked at the Chief Cloud Physics Branch at the Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Massachusetts from 1948 to 1961. He served as a captain in the Army Air Forces in World War II and was the weather officer for the Tuskegee Army Airfield weather detachment, Tuskegee, AL.

From 1961-65, Dr. Anderson worked at the Atmospheric Science Branch of Douglas Aircraft Company, California. He served as Director of the Office of Federal Coordination in Meteorology in the Environmental Science Service Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce, from 1965 to 1966. From 1967 to 1969, Charles Anderson was appointed as Professor of Space Science and Engineering. From 1966 - 1987, Professor Anderson served as the Professor of Meteorology and Chairman of Contemporary Trends Course at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI.

In 1970, Professor Anderson was appointed Professor of Afro-American Studies and Chairman of the Meteorology Department. In 1978 Professor Anderson was elevated to Associate Dean at University of Wisconsin, Madison. Dr. Anderson was a professor in the Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C., from 1987 until he retired in 1990. He was a major contributor to a program at the university that has received national recognition for its forecasting of severe storms. Charles Anderson's research focused on Cloud and Aerosol Physics and Meteorology of other Planets.


http://bentonspiritnews.com/celebra...ce-p1253.htm?twindow=Default&smenu=156&mad=No

 

[cherryblossom]

Neil DeGrasse Tyson : http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/

Neil deGrasse Tyson (born October 5, 1958) is an American astrophysicist, a science communicator, the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space, and a Research Associate in the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. Since 2006 he has hosted the educational science television show NOVA scienceNOW on PBS, and has been a frequent guest on The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Real Time with Bill Maher, andJeopardy!. It was announced on 5 August 2011 that Tyson will be hosting a new sequel to Carl Sagan's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage TV series....


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_deGrasse_Tyson

 

[cherryblossom]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Henry_Lawrence,_Jr.
Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr. (October 2, 1935 - December 8, 1967) was a United States Air Force officer and the first African-American astronaut.

[

At the age of 16, he graduated in the top 10 percent from Englewood High School in Chicago. At the age of 20, he graduated from Bradley University with a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry. At Bradley, he distinguished himself as Cadet Commander in the Air Force ROTC and received the commission of Second Lieutenant in the Air Force Reserve Program.



At the age of 21 he was designated as a U.S. Air Force pilot after completing flight training at Malden Air Force Base.
..... By the time he was 25, he had completed an Air Force assignment as an instructor pilot in the T-33 training aircraft for the German Air Force.
In 1965, Lawrence earned a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Ohio State University.[2] His dissertation related to that part of chemistry which involved the conversion of tritium rays to methane gas.[3]
....Lawrence was killed on December 8, 1967, in the crash of an F-104 Starfighter at Edwards Air Force Base, California. He was flying backseat on the mission as the instructor pilot for a flight test trainee learning the steep-descent glide technique. The pilot flying made such an approach but flared too late. The airplane struck the ground hard, the main gear failed, and the airplane caught fire. The front seat pilot of the aircraft successfully ejected upon ground impact and survived the accident, but with major injuries. By the time Lawrence ejected, the airplane had rolled onto one side and his ejection seat, with Lawrence still in it, struck the ground, killing him instantly.
...
Had Lawrence lived he likely would have been among the MOL astronauts who transferred to NASA after the program's cancellation, all of whom flew on the Space Shuttle.[4] During his brief career, Lawrence earned the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Outstanding Unit Citation. After many years of relative obscurity, on December 8, 1997, his name was inscribed on the Space Mirror Memorial at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

 

[Shikamaru]

Booker T. Whatley

Booker T. Whatley (November 5, 1915 in Calhoun County, Alabama - September 3, 2005 in Montgomery, Alabama) was an agricultural professor at Tuskegee University, Alabama, USA and one of the pioneers of sustainable agriculture in the post-WWII era.

Regenerative farming system

Dr. Whatley is best known for his regenerative farming system in combination with the direct marketing concept of Pick-Your-Own (PYO) harvesting by a farmer-managed buyer's club, which he popularized through his plan. Today, PYO (or U-Pick) farms are a worldwide phenomenon.[1] Whatley believed that the regenerative system of farming by small farmers made greater use of the internal resources that a farm produced and, therefore, when properly managed would provide a more sustainable livelihood.[2] Regenerative farming has a long history and can be traced to the agricultural extension work of Dr. George Washington Carver at Tuskegee University in the early part of the 20th century, as well as Carver's scientific contributions regarding the nitrogen cycle and the biological regeneration of soils in the southern United States where he introduced crop rotation methods in combination with the planting of nitrogen-fixing legumes, such as peanuts, peas, and soybeans.[3]
Education


Raised on a family farm in Anniston, Alabama as the oldest of his parent's 12 children, Whatley received his B.S. degree in agriculture from Alabama A & M University. Upon graduation, he was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War, where he was assigned to manage a hydroponic farm in Japan to provide safe, nutritious foods for the US troops stationed there. After completing his military service, and encouraged by the scientist who interviewed him for his assignment in Japan, Whatley enrolled at Rutgers University to earn a doctorate in horticulture, which he completed in 1957. He later earned a law degree from Alabama A&M University in 1989.

His book: How to make $100,000 farming 25 acres