Dr. Bernard Harris, Jr. was born on June 26, 1956, the son of Mrs. Gussie H. Burgess, and Mr. Bernard A. Harris, Sr. A native of Temple, Texas, he graduated from Sam Houston High School, San Antonio in 1974. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from University of Houston in 1978 before following that up with a doctorate in medicine from Texas Tech University School of Medicine in 1982.

After medical school, Dr. Harris completed a residency in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic in 1985. While working on a National Research Council Fellowship at NASA Ames Research Center in 1986, he conducted research in the field of musculoskeletal physiology and disuse osteoporosis. He finished his fellowship in 1987, then trained as a flight surgeon at the Aerospace School of Medicine, Brooks AFB, San Antonio, Texas, in 1988. His duties included clinical investigations of space adaptation and the development of countermeasures for extended duration space flight. Assigned to the Medical Science Division, he held the title of Project Manager, Exercise Countermeasure Project.

Selected by NASA in January 1990, Dr. Harris became an astronaut in July 1991. He was assigned as a mission specialist on STS-55, Spacelab D-2, in August 1991, and later flew on board Columbia for ten days, (April 26 to May 6, 1993), marking the Shuttle's one year of total flight time. Dr. Harris was part of the payload crew of Spacelab D-2, conducting a variety of research in physical and life sciences. During this flight, Dr. Harris logged over 239 hours and 4,164,183 miles in space.

Later, Dr. Bernard Harris, Jr. was the Payload Commander on STS-63 (February 2-11, 1995), the first flight of a new joint Russian-American Space Program. Mission highlights included the rendezvous with the Russian Space Station, Mir, operation of a variety of investigations in the Spacelab module, and the deployment and retrieval of Spartan 204. During the flight, Dr. Harris became the first African-American to walk in space. He logged 198 hours, 29 minutes in space, completed 129 orbits, and traveled over 2.9 million miles. He also accomplished his childhood dream by completing his first walk in space, becoming the first African-American to do so.

In 1996, the year of his departure from NASA, Dr. Harris also received a master's degree in biomedical science from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. He later served as Chief Scientist and Vice-President of Science and Health Services, and then as Vice President, SPACEHAB, Inc., where he was involved in business development and marketing of the company's space-based products and services. Later, he was Vice President of Business Development for Space Media, Inc., establishing an international space education program for students.

Dr. Bernard Harris, Jr. is a member of the American College of Physicians, American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, Aerospace Medical Association, National Medical Association, American Medical Association, Minnesota Medical Association, Texas Medical Association, Harris County Medical Society, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Texas Tech University Alumni Association, and Mayo Clinic Alumni Association. Aircraft Owners, and Pilot Association. Association of Space Explorers. American Astronautical Society. Member, Board of Directors, Boys and Girls Club of Houston. Committee Member, Greater Houston Area Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Member, Board of Directors, Manned Space Flight Education Foundation Inc.

He has also received a number of honors, including 1996 Honorary Doctorate of Science, Morehouse School of Medicine. Medal of Excellence, Golden State Minority Foundation 1996. NASA Award of Merit 1996. NASA Equal Opportunity Medal 1996. NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal 1996. The Challenger Award, The Ronald E. McNair Foundation 1996. Award of Achievement, The Association of Black Cardiologists 1996. Space Act Tech Brief Award 1995. Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, Zeta of Texas Chapter 1995. Election of Fellowship in the American College of Physicians 1994. Distinguished Alumnus, The University of Houston Alumni Organization 1994. Distinguished Scientist of the Year, ARCS Foundation, Inc., 1994. Life Membership, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. NASA Space Flight Medals 1993, 1995. NASA Outstanding Performance Rating 1993. JSC Group Achievement Award 1993. Physician of the Year, National Technical Association, 1993. And many others.

Dr. Harris is married to the former Sandra Fay Lewis of Sunnyvale, California. They have one child. He enjoys flying, sailing, skiing, running, scuba diving, art and music. He is also a licensed private pilot. Most recently, Dr. Harris is President and Founder of the Harris Foundation, which supports math/science education and crime prevention programs for America's youth.
He describes himself as a “dreamer who believes nothing is impossible.” I believe he has proven himself correct.
 

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• African-Americans in Astronomy & Space
   

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His genius, as well as his skill and knowledge of mechanical and electrical devices, is evidenced by his 60 patents in divergent fields.  Forty of those patents were related to refrigeration.

Jones invented the first practical and automatic refrigeration unit for trucks, which eliminated the problem of food spoilage over long hauls, thus making fresh produce available over wide areas.  Subsequently, the unit was adapted to a variety of other carriers, including ships and railway cars.

His invention facilitated the development of international markets for food crops; led to the creation of total industries such as frozen foods, fast foods and container shipping; and altered consumers' eating habits.

Jones's contribution to the World War II effort includes several timely and necessary inventions such as a portable refrigeration unit, which was used to transport vitally needed blood serum and medicines on the battlefields of Europe; an air conditioning unit for military field hospitals designed for the primary purpose of maintaining the temperature of blood serum; and a portable x-ray unit.

Some of his other inventions were specifically designed for the then-fledgling movie industry and include the first process that enabled movie projectors to play back recorded sound—talking pictures—and a box-office device that automatically distributed tickets and change to customers.

Despite his exploits in the movie industry, Jones was primarily concerned with refrigeration.  Recognized as an authority in the field and elected to membership in the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers, he also served as a consultant for the Defense Department and the U.S. Bureau of Standards.

Jones also founded a company jointly with his former boss in the motion picture business, Joseph Numero.  The company, Thermo King Corp. (initially called the U.S. Thermo Control Company), is a world leader in transport temperature control equipment today, operating on a global scale with manufacturing plants in various countries and accessing global markets.

In 1991, Frederick Jones and his partner were awarded the National Medal of Technology posthumously.
 

Books

• African-American Inventors: Lonnie Johnson, Frederick McKinley Jones, Marjorie Stewart Joyner, Elijah McCoy, Garrett Augustus Morgan, Fred M. B. Amram. Capstone Press, 1998.
• Blacks in Science: Ancient and Modern (Journal of African Civilizations; Vol. 5, No. 1-2), Ivan Van Sertima (ed.). Transaction Publishers, 1990.
• Blacks in Science and Medicine, Vivian Ovelton Sammons. Taylor & Francis, 1989.
• Dictionary of American Negro Biography, Rayford W. Logan and Michael R. Winston (Editor). W.W. Norton & Company, 1983.
• Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20th Century, James Kessler (Editor), J.S. Kidd, Renee A. Kidd, Katherine A. Morin. Oryx Press, 1996.
• Eight Black American Inventors, R.C. Hayden. Addison-Wesley, 1972.
• I've Got an Idea!: The Story of Frederick McKinley Jones, Gloria M. Swanson, Margaret V. Ott. Runestone Press, 1994.
• Man With a Million Ideas: Fred Jones, Genius/Inventor, Virginia Ott, Gloria Swanson. Lerner Publications Co., 1976.
• The Negro Almanac: A Reference Work on the Afro American, Harry A. Ploski (Editor), Bellwether Publishing Co, 1989.
• Notable Black American Men, Jessie Carney Smith (ed.). Gale Group, 1998.
  
• Notable Twentieth-Century Scientists, Emily J. McMurray, Jane Kelly Kosek, Roger M. Valade. Gale Group, 1996.
• World of Invention, 2nd edition, Kimberley A. McGrath, Bridget E. Travers (eds.) Gale Group, 1998.
   

Links

• Fred Jones
• The Impact of Refrigeration

Granville's career has included stints as an educator and involvement with the American space program during its formative years.

Granville was born in Washington, D.C., on May 1, 1924. Her father, William Boyd, worked as a custodian in their apartment building; he did not stay with the family, however, and Granville was raised by her mother, Julia Walker Boyd, and her mother's twin sister, Louise Walker, both of whom worked as examiners for the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Granville and her sister Doris, who was a year and a half older, often spent portions of their summers at the farm of a family friend in Linden, Virginia.

Achievement Encouraged throughout Academic Career

The public schools of Washington, D.C., were racially segregated when Granville attended them. Dunbar High School (from which she graduated as valedictorian) maintained high academic standards. Several of its faculty held degrees from top colleges, and they encouraged the students to pursue ambitious goals. Granville's mathematics teachers included Ulysses Basset, a Yale graduate, and Mary Cromwell, a University of Pennsylvania graduate; Cromwell's sister, who held a doctorate from Yale, taught in Dunbar's English department.

With the encouragement of her family and teachers, Granville entered Smith College with a small partial scholarship from Phi Delta Kappa, a national sorority for black women. After her freshman year, she lived in a cooperative house at Smith, sharing chores rather than paying more expensive dormitory rates. During the summers, she returned to Washington to work at the National Bureau of Standards.

Granville majored in mathematics and physics, but was also fascinated by astronomy after taking a class from Marjorie Williams. She considered becoming an astronomer, but chose not to commit herself to living in the isolation of a major observatory, which was necessary for astronomers of that time. Though she had entered college intending to become a teacher, she began to consider industrial work in physics or mathematics. She graduated summa cum laude in 1945 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

With help from a Smith College fellowship, Granville began graduate studies at Yale University, for which she also received financial assistance. She earned an M.A. in mathematics and physics in one year, and began working toward a doctorate at Yale. For the next two years she received a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship, which was awarded to help promising black Americans develop their research potential. The following year she received an Atomic Energy Commission Predoctoral Fellowship. Granville's doctoral work concentrated on functional analysis, and her dissertation was titled On Laguerre Series in the Complex Domain. Her advisor, Einar Hille, was a former president of the American Mathematical Society. Upon receiving her Ph.D. in mathematics in 1949, Granville was elected to the scientific honorary society Sigma Xi.

Granville then undertook a year of postdoctoral research at New York University's Institute of Mathematics and Science. Apparently because of housing discrimination, she was unable to find an apartment in New York, so she moved in with a friend of her mother. Despite attending segregated schools, Granville had not encountered discrimination based on race or gender in her professional preparation. Only years later would she learn that her 1950 application for a teaching position at a college in New York City was turned down for such a reason. A female adjunct faculty member eventually told biographer Patricia Kenschaft that the application was rejected because of Granville's race; however, a male mathematician reported that despite the faculty's support of the application, the dean rejected it because Granville was a woman.

In 1950, Granville accepted the position of associate professor at Fisk University, a noted black college in Nashville, Tennessee. She was a popular teacher, and at least two of her female students credited her with inspiring them to earn doctorates in mathematics in later years.

Begins Affiliation with Space Program

After two years of teaching, Granville went to work for the Diamond Ordnance Fuze Laboratories as an applied mathematician, a position she held for four years. From 1956 to 1960, she worked for IBM on the Project Vanguard and Project Mercury space programs, analyzing orbits and developing computer procedures. Her job included making "real-time" calculations during satellite launchings. "That was exciting, as I look back, to be a part of the space programs--a very small part--at the very beginning of U.S. involvement," Granville told Loretta Hall in a 1994 interview.

On a summer vacation to southern California, Granville met the Reverend Gamaliel Mansfield Collins, a minister in the community church. They were married in 1960, and made their home in Los Angeles. They had no children, although Collins's three children occasionally lived with them. In 1967, the marriage ended in divorce.

Upon moving to Los Angeles, Granville had taken a job at the Computation and Data Reduction Center of the U.S. Space Technology Laboratories, studying rocket trajectories and methods of orbit computation. In 1962, she became a research specialist at the North American Aviation Space and Information Systems Division, working on celestial mechanics, trajectory and orbit computation, numerical analysis, and digital computer techniques for the Apollo program. The following year she returned to IBM as a senior mathematician.

Return to Teaching Marked by Involvement with Children

Because of restructuring at IBM, numerous employees were transferred out of the Los Angeles area in 1967; Granville wanted to stay, however, so she applied for a teaching position at California State University in Los Angeles. She happily reentered the teaching profession, which she found enjoyable and rewarding. She was disappointed in the mathematics preparedness of her students, however, and she began working to improve mathematics education at all levels. She taught an elementary school supplemental mathematics program in 1968 and 1969 through the State of California Miller Mathematics Improvement Program. The following year she directed a mathematics enrichment program that provided after-school classes for kindergarten through fifth grade students, and she taught grades two through five herself. She was an educator at a National Science Foundation Institute for Secondary Teachers of Mathematics summer program at the University of Southern California in 1972. Along with colleague Jason Frand, Granville wrote Theory and Application of Mathematics for Teachers in 1975; a second edition was published in 1978, and the textbook was used at over fifty colleges.

In 1970, Granville married Edward V. Granville, a real estate broker. After her 1984 retirement from California State University in Los Angeles, they moved to a sixteen-acre farm in Texas, where they sold eggs produced by their eight hundred chickens.

From 1985 to 1988, Granville taught mathematics and computer science at Texas College in Tyler. In 1990, she accepted an appointment to the Sam A. Lindsey Chair at the University of Texas at Tyler, and in subsequent years continued teaching there as a visiting professor. Smith College awarded Granville an honorary doctorate in 1989, making her the first black woman mathematician to receive such an honor from an American institution.

Throughout her career Granville shared her energy with a variety of professional and service organizations and boards. Many of them, including the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the American Association of University Women, focused on education and mathematics. Others, such as the U.S. Civil Service Panel of Examiners of the Department of Commerce and the Psychology Examining Committee of the Board of Medical Examiners of the State of California, reflected broader civic interests.

When asked to summarize her major accomplishments, Granville told Hall, "First of all, showing that women can do mathematics." Then she added, "Being an African American woman, letting people know that we have brains too."

External Links

• My Life as a Mathematician, by Evelyn Boyd Granville
• Evelyn Boyd Granville, second African American woman mathematician
• O'Connor, John J; Edmund F. Robertson "Evelyn Boyd Granville". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.  
• Evelyn Boyd Granville at the Mathematics Genealogy Project

His "flash-dried" salt crystals, introduced in the 1930s, combined the preservative effect of sodium chloride with the curative action of sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite. Far superior to any products then available, they helped to revolutionize the meatpacking industry. Hall also introduced the use of antioxidants to prevent spoilage of fats and oils in bakery products. Later, Hall demonstrated that many spices and flavorings, such as ginger and cloves, rather than acting as preservatives as was commonly believed, actually exposed foods to various microbes. In response, he devised a special process known as the Ethylene Oxide Vacugas treatment to control the growth of molds and bacteria while maintaining appearance, taste and aroma.

Lloyd Hall was born in Elgin, Illinois. He received a B.S. in pharmaceutical chemistry from Northwestern University in 1914 and completed graduate work at the University of Chicago. He performed the bulk of his research during his 34-year career at Griffith Laboratories. He held more than 100 patents and was awarded honorary doctorates from Virginia State University, Howard University, and the Tuskegee Institute.

A former director of the National Science Foundation, president of Occidental College in Los Angeles and chancellor at the University of Maryland, College Park, Dr. Slaughter has a long and distinguished background as a leader in the education, engineering and the scientific communities.  He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), where he has served on the Committee on Minorities in Engineering, chaired its Action Forum on Engineering Workforce Diversity, and is a current member of the NAE Council.  Dr. Slaughter is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Tau Beta Pi Honorary Engineering Society.  In 1993, he was named to the American Society for Engineering Education Hall of Fame, and in 2001 was named an Eminent Member of the Eta Kappa Nu Society, the honorary society of electrical engineering.

Dr. Slaughter began his professional career as an electronics engineer at General Dynamics prior to spending 15 years at the U.S. Navy Electronics Laboratory in San Diego where he rose to the position of department head for Information Technology.  He has been director of the Applied Physics Laboratory and professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington; academic vice president and provost at Washington State University; and most recently The Irving R. Melbo Professor of Leadership in Education at the University of Southern California.  He has served as president and CEO of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering since August 2000.

He serves on the board of directors at Solutia, Inc.  In February 2006, he was appointed to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Dr. Slaughter earned a Ph.D. in engineering science from the University of California, San Diego; an M.S. in engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a B.S. in electrical engineering from Kansas State University.  He holds honorary degrees from more than 25 institutions.  Winner of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Award in 1997 and UCLA's Medal of Excellence in 1989, Dr. Slaughter was also honored with the first "U.S. Black Engineer of the Year" award in 1987 and the Arthur M. Bueche Award from the NAE in 2004.

Married to Dr. Ida Bernice Slaughter, an educational consultant and former school administrator, Dr. Slaughter has two children, a son, Dr. John Brooks Slaughter, Jr., DVM, and a daughter, Ms. Jacqueline Michelle Slaughter-Bolden.

Fern Hunt was born to Daphne Lindsay and Thomas Edward Hunt.  Neither of her parents were mathematically inclined.  She has one sister, Erica Hunt, who is currently president of the 21st Century Foundation and a published poet and writer as well.  Her grandparents emigrated to the United States from Jamaica W.I. just before World War I seeking wider economic opportunities.

Her father did not finish high school, but her mom did attend Hunter College for two years during the depression but left when she could no longer afford the costs of higher education.  Her mom encouraged Hunt excel in school and to attend college.  As a result she was one of the first winners of the National Achievement Scholarship and she entered Bryn Mawr College graduating with a bachelor's degree in Mathematics.  After college she did her graduate studies at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences where she earned a Masters and PhD degree in Mathematics.  Hunt has combined a research career in mathematics with service and outreach to the community.  Areas of research include fractals, biology and applications of probability theory.  After obtaining her graduate education, Hunt spent some years in academia at various institutions including City University of New York, University of Utah and Howard University.  She held visiting positions at the National Institutes of Health and the National Bureau of Standards.  In 2000, Fern Hunt was awarded the prestigious Arthur S. Flemming Award for Outstanding Federal Service.  It is given every year to 12 federal employees and 3 of them are in the scientific category.

Selected Honors:
Selected as a 2006 modern Leonardo by the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry
Spectrum Magazine Special Recognition for Minority Scientists- 2005
Invited one hour speaker at the American Mathematical Society meeting  2004
National Science Foundation Career Advancement Award 1989-1990
Black Achiever in Science (one of 16) Chicago Museum of Science and Industry -1988

Selected Professional and Service Activities:
Executive Committee, Association for Women in Mathematics 2002-
Advisory Board for EDGE (Enhancement of Diversity in Graduate Education) 2007-
Bryn Mawr College Board of Trustees 1992-2004
Department of Energy Biological and Energy Research Advisory Committee 1994-2000-

Kevin Kornegay received his B.E.E. from Pratt Institute in 1985 and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1990 and 1992, respectively. In the early part of his career, he was employed in industrial research positions at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J. and at IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. From August 1994 through December 1997, he was an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Purdue University. In 1997, Professor Kornegay was the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professor in the EECS department at MIT.

From January 1998 through December 2005, Professor Kornegay was on the faculty in the School of ECE at Cornell University, where he led the Cornell Broadband Communications Research Laboratory and was the faculty advisor to the 2003 World Champion CUAUV team and to the Cornell chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers. In 2006, Professor Kornegay joined the School of ECE at Georgia Tech as the Motorola Foundation Professor, where he is involved with the Georgia Electronic Design Center. In addition, he currently serves on the technical program committees of the Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, the Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium, and the International Conference on Circuits and Systems.

Selected Publications, Patents

Dr. Vanessa Northington Gamble was born in West Philadelphia in 1953. Dr. Gamble and her sister were raised by her mother and grandmother in a poor neighborhood in West Philadelphia. Gamble overcame the hardships of poverty and excelled in school. She was granted financial assistance from the White-Williams Scholars organization, a non-profit group that pays for the education of children from low-income families, to attend the Philadelphia High School for Girls. Upon graduating summa cum laude in 1970, she went to Hampshire College to study medical sociology and human biology, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1974. While in college she became interested in the Tuskegee syphilis study which prompted her to write her senior thesis on this medical experiment.

Gamble was is no way done with her education at this point. She earned a doctor of medicine degree in 1983 from the University of Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. in the history and sociology of science. Her residency in family medicine was then completed at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.

Dr. Gamble is known for her social activism and her mission to provide equal access to quality medical care for all Americans. Her professional career includes teaching at the Harvard School of Public Health, the University of Massachusetts, and Hampshire College, where she was appointed to the Board of Trustees. Due to her focus on race and medicine, in 1989 while at the University of Wisconsin she developed one of the first courses in the country to explore the history of race and American medicine and public health. She was appointed associate professor of history of medicine and family medicine, and founder and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at the University of Wisconsin Medical School.

Dr. Gamble chaired the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Legacy Committee in 1997 and in 2004 was named director of Tuskegee’s Bioethics Center. Gamble agreed to the position of director, not only for the challenge, but because it is the only national bioethics center in the country dedicated to issues involved African-Americans and other underrepresented groups. Before being named director of the center, in 2003 she was appointed associate professor in the department of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she was deputy director of the Center for Health Disparities Solutions.

In addition to these honors, in 1999 Dr. Gamble was appointed head of the Association of American Medical Colleges’ (AAMC) Division of Community and Minority Programs.  Dr. Gamble has served as a consultant or committee member in a plethora of projects such as the Institute of Medicine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the American Foundation for AIDS Research. Dr. Gamble has published extensively in the field of medical history including “Making a Place for Ourselves: The Black Hospital Movement, 1920-1945.”

Dr. Gamble has and will continue to contribute greatly to providing representation and equal access to health care for vulnerable populations. Her activism and intellect has provided a great service to the medical field and the American public.

Dr. David Harold Blackwell was born on April 24, 1919 in Centralia, Illinois. During his school years, Blackwell admittedly did not care for algebra and trigonometry but fell in love with geometry. He excelled at school and at the age of 16 enrolled at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign with the intention of becoming an elementary school teacher. Dr. Blackwell earned his Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics in 1938, Master of Arts in Mathematics in 1939, and his Ph.D. in 1941 all from the University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign. He became the seventh African American to receive a Ph.D. in Mathematics. Dr. Blackwell was appointed a Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study in1941 for a year. After his year at the Institute, he applied to all 105 black colleges in the country. He was offered a post at Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA in 1942-43 followed by a year of instructorship at Clark College, which is presently known as Clark- Atlanta University. In 1944 he joined the faculty of Howard University and within three years had risen to Full Professor and Chairman of the Mathematics Department. During his time at Howard University, he published a substantial amount of research and was a Visiting Professor of Statistics at Stanford University in 1950-51.

Dr. Blackwell was always looking for others interested in Mathematics in the Washington area which occasioned a meeting with M.A. Girschick of the Department of Agriculture. Girschick’s lectures sparked Dr. Blackwell’s interest in statistics and the two subsequently collaborated on many works including their 1954 book Theory of Games and Statistical Decisions. 1954 proved to be an important year for Dr. Blackwell because it also concluded his stay at Howard University, during which time he had been the Chair of the Department of Mathematics and had published more than 20 papers. He also gave an invited address on probability at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Amsterdam in 1954 and was afterwards appointed Professor of Statistics at the University of California at Berkeley, where he Chaired the Statistics Department for many years. While at the University of California at Berkeley he published an additional 50 papers. In 1955 he was President of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. He is not unfamiliar with holding positions of importance and prestige as he has also served as Vice President of the American Statistical Association, the International Statistical Institute, the American Mathematical Society, and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. Dr. Blackwell became the first African American named to the National Academy of Sciences in 1965 and was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

During his life he has received honorary Doctorate of Science degrees from twelve institutions including: Harvard, Yale, University of Illinois, Howard University, Carnegie-Mellon, University of Southern California, Michigan State, Syracuse, Southern Illinois, University of Warwick, National University of Lesotho, and Amherst College. Dr. Blackwell’s life is marked with grand achievement and he is often revered as one of the greatest African American Mathematicians.

Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson is the 18th President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, and Hartford, CT, the oldest technological research university in the U.S.. Described by Time Magazine (2005) as “perhaps the ultimate role model for women in science,” President Jackson has held senior leadership positions in government, industry, research, and academe.

Since her arrival in 1999, Dr. Jackson has fostered an extraordinary renaissance at Rensselaer. In addition, she is past President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2004) and former Chairman of the AAAS Board of Directors (2005), a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Physical Society, and AAAS. She has advisory roles and involvement in several other prestigious national organizations. She serves as a Trustee of the Brookings Institution, a Life Member of the M.I.T. Corporation, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the Council on Competitiveness and serves on the board of Georgetown University. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Stock Exchange (and is Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange Regulation Board), the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, and is a director of several major corporations.

She was appointed Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), 1995-1999, by U.S. President William J. Clinton. At the NRC, Dr. Jackson reorganized the agency, and completely revamped its regulatory approach, by articulating, and moving strongly to, risk-informed, performance-based regulation. Prior to that, she was a theoretical physicist at the former AT&T Bell Laboratories and a professor of theoretical physics at Rutgers University.

Dr. Jackson holds an S.B. in physics and a Ph.D. in theoretical elementary particle physics from M.I.T., and 40 honorary doctoral degrees.

Over the past several years, President Jackson has worked successfully to bring national attention to the underinvestment in basic research and to what she has dubbed the “Quiet Crisis” in America – the threat to the United State’s capacity to innovate due to the looming shortage in the nation’s science and technology workforce. The shortfall results from a record number of retirements on the horizon, and not enough students in the pipeline to replace them because fewer American students are studying science, mathematics, and engineering and fewer students are coming from abroad to study and stay. President Jackson notes that, if the U.S. is to maintain its leadership in science and technology, we must increase the number of people choosing to pursue careers in science and technology, and to do that, we must tap into all of the talent this nation has to offer, including women and minorities – what she calls the “underrepresented majority.”

President Jackson has urged a national focus on energy research as a focal point to excite and encourage greater interest in science and engineering careers, noting that “energy security is the space race of this millennium.”

I am a research psychologist. I'm also a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles and the principal investigator of Psychophysiological Research Laboratories at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC). I have training in human neurophysiology, statistics, performance assessment and psychology. Mostly, I study how people adapt to space and try to develop methods to help them adapt faster.

My career does stretch from way back to the early astronaut days. I was the first female scientist trained to be an astronaut. This was way before Sally Ride's day and they didn't even have a uniform for me. I was the alternate and never got a chance to fly but that experience is something I will never forget. The event was Spacelab Mission Development-3, a joint effort between Johnson Space Center (JSC) and ARC and was the first simulation of a life-sciences-dedicated space shuttle mission. The crewmembers were: Mission Specialist Bill Thornton, Payload Specialists: Bill Williams (formerly at ARC) and Bill Carter Alexander (formerly at JSC). The back-up Payload specialists were ME and Dick Grindland--who is still at ARC in my branch. There were two years of fairly intense science development and crew training--half of the time at Ames and the other half at JSC. There was also training at university sites. It was two years in which "much ado" was made about my selection and inclusion (some good, some bad).

In 1979, my own flight experiment was selected by NASA and it flew on STS 51-B, STS 51-C (1984) and Spacelab-J (1992). "Autogenic-Feedback Training as a Preventive Method for Space Adaptation Syndrome." I learned a lot through that SMD-3 experience--including the RIGHT way to do flight experiments, and what's involved in learning to be an astronaut.

I was not so good at math (I admit) as a kid. I learned to use it as a tool. But science was always a game! You run your experiment and then add up the points to see if you've won! Scientists are eternal students. We ask questions for a living. I was pressured not to go into a math- and science-based field. This IS Earth, you know. But I was encouraged by my parents to do what I WANTED to do, not what someone else thought I SHOULD do.

Not being taken seriously is one of the obstacles I had to overcome to get where I am right now. I was 23 when I earned my doctorate and most of my associates would not treat me like a scientist. But youth and inexperience, that's something you OUTGROW. Still I have always been (and will always be) a black woman and I still find that people see the outside without seeing the scientist inside.

My parents told me that I am a human being. This is the best animal on the whole planet. Doesn't matter where you are from or what you look like. Doesn't matter if you're poor. A human being can learn and can achieve whatever they set out to do (or come near to it). I've spent my life studying human potential--and stretching my own.

www.quest.arc.nasa.gov/people/bios/women/pc.html

Born in 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Hrabowski took an active role in the Civil Rights Movement as a child. He graduated at 19 from Hampton Institute with highest honors in mathematics. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he received his M.A. (mathematics) and four years later his Ph.D. (higher education administration/statistics) at age 24. Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, has served as President of UMBC (The University of Maryland, Baltimore County) since May, 1992. His research and publications focus on science and math education, with special emphasis on minority participation and performance. In addition to serving as UMBC president he currently serves as a consultant to the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and universities and school systems nationally. He also sits on several corporate and civic boards. Examples include the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Constellation Energy Group, the France-Merrick Foundation, Marguerite Casey Foundation, McCormick & Company, Inc., Mercantile Safe Deposit & Trust Company, and the Urban Institute. He has co-authored two books, Beating the Odds and Overcoming the Odds, focusing on parenting and high-achieving African American males and females in science. Both books are used by universities, school systems, and community groups around the country.

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Cole received her undergraduate degree in anthropology from Oberlin College in Ohio and a Master’s and Ph.D from Northwestern University. Her teaching career began at Washington State University and continued at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Hunter College in NY and Spelman College in Atlanta where she directed the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program and assumed the role of president. Many of her academic publications juxtapose the unique experiences of different racial groups within the feminist movement. She has become one of the first academics to recognize and explore the significant differences and commonalities. With the hope of raising public consciousness, she emphasizes how ignoring the distinctions can engender discrimination and how promoting the common ground can create the dialogue necessary for progress. Currently, Cole is a Distinguished Professor Emerita at Emory University.

Born in Newton County, Missouri shortly after the Civil War, Carver pursued his basic education in several states eventually settling down at the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. He quickly distinguished himself academically with extraordinary skill in raising, cross-fertilizing and grafting plants. After receiving his Master’s degree in 1896, he accepted a faculty position at the Tuskegee Institute where he was to spend his next 47 years. Aside from teaching, Carver donated a substantial amount of time to experimental science focusing on projects aimed at improving the lives of southern farmers: analyzing water, feed, soil, and fertilizers. Throughout his life he received several prestigious accolades including the Roosevelt Medal, the NAACP Spingarn Medal and a number of honorary doctorates and was a member of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. Toward the end of his life, Carver established a foundation in Tuskeegee to continue his work and preserve his legacy.