INTRODUCTION

Why We Wrote This Book

Today, black women are working in every industry imaginable
and doing jobs that, just a genera on or two ago, we could only
dream of. Educa on in STEM (science, technology, engineering,
and mathema cs) careers helps to bridge the ethnic and gender
gaps found in today’s society.
Yet the number of women working at senior levels in STEM fields
remains distressingly low. While there has been significant
progress for women’s representa on in sciences since the 1990s,
black women are among the most underrepresented groups in
STEM, which means these disciplines are losing poten ally
talented workers who can contribute new and important
perspec ves.
Even though ini a ves have been established to increase the
roles of women and minori es in STEM-related fields, it is never
enough. We would like to do our part in changing this reality,
incen vizing and mo va ng our kids in general, and girls in
par cular, to consider choosing a career in science.
Children shouldn’t grow up thinking that STEM learning means
boring textbook reading. Instead, this book will get them excited
about science through fun and mo va onal stories. Our main goal
is to introduce STEM-related concepts and present STEM-
associated careers in an inspiring and entertaining way.
We feel that any kid, teenager, or adult would benefit from this
book, no ma er their gender, race, or age.

About the Book

 This book honors incredible and inspiring black women who
pushed past the bounds of human knowledge and broke down the
thought barriers of their and our me.
We have selected 101 of the most extraordinary black women
across all the sciences from the 1800s to today, and fortunately
there are many more le for future volumes.
We celebrate these leaders from the past through today who
paved the way for future genera ons of black women in science,
technology, engineering, and mathema cs. Spotligh ng their
stories is about more than just augmen ng black history. It’s about
understanding the cultural a tudes, historical forces, and social
reali es that made science what it is today—and what it will be
tomorrow. If just one of these women had
go en fed up and quit, as others do, the history of science
would have been poorer for it.
The achievements of these women are detailed in the pages that
follow. To read their stories is to understand how important it is
that the barriers facing women, minori es, and par cularly black
women in science be broken down as quickly and en rely as
possible.
We have included within the stories STEM concepts and
defini ons in order to enrich understanding, but we have le
other concepts for your child to discover on their own or to engage
adults in conversa on about. We hope this will improve discussion
and quality me between parents and kids.
Hopefully these science snippets will spark curiosity and
mo vate children, as well as adults, to look for more informa on.
At the end of the book, we have included an explora on journal
for children to describe their learning experience.
 Why Is STEM Education
Important?
Preparing today’s children to become the innovators and
inventors of tomorrow begins with STEM educa on.
With the world becoming an increasingly complex place, it’s
important for children to understand STEM concepts. It is clear
that most jobs of the future will require a basic understanding of
math and science. Improving their STEM-related knowledge will
prepare children to par cipate in the future workforce and
understand how technology and the world work.
Developing cri cal thinking skills is an important part of growing
up. Kids must learn how to evaluate informa on and figure out
how to use it. STEM learning helps children to get be er at using
the technology that powers the world, which is par cularly useful
in preparing them for their adult lives.
This book is just the start of a lifelong learning experience. We
just want to ignite the fire of curiosity. We encourage you to learn
more about STEM-based educa on programs for children.
Did You Know...?
According to the US Department of Commerce, STEM occupa ons are
growing at percent, while other occupa ons are growing at . percent.
STEM degree holders have a higher income even in non-STEM careers.
Employment in science occupa ons has grown percent since , from .
million to . million, outpacing overall US job growth.
 A Message to Parents and
Educators
Studies have shown that the best predictor of a child’s success is
not intelligence (IQ), neither emo onal intelligence (EQ), although
they are important. The best predictor of a child’s success is grit—
courage and resolve; and strength of character—drive, passion,
and perseverance toward a long-term goal.
It is essen al that parents and educators encourage kids to
follow their interests and passions and maintain their curiosity.
Take them on trips to botanical gardens, nature reserves, wildlife
refuges, biospheres, museums, aquariums, zoos, libraries, and
other learning centers.
Help us to encourage your kids to use the explora on journal at
the end of this book, wri ng down their own discoveries and
learning experiences. It will help them to find their passion early
on in their lives.

A Message to Children and

Teens
Be humble and never lose your sense of wonder in your learning
experiences on your explora on journey. Even if you feel that you
already know a concept, there is always a new level, a new layer of
understanding.
Learning is not about acquiring knowledge and more knowledge.
Learning is about seeing things from a higher perspec ve. From a
higher peak, you can see an en rely new world; the best view
comes a er the hardest climb!
 However, as high as you may think you have reached, there is
always another peak above, and you can only reach that higher
peak once you realize you are s ll in the valley.
Never stop learning. The world is yours to explore.

NOW GO OUT THERE AND

EXPLORE THE WORLD,
HAVE FUN, AND MAKE HISTORY!
 REBECCA LEE DAVIS CRUMPLER

R
ebecca Lee Davis Crumpler grew up surrounded by healing. From
a young age, her days were spent helping her aunt—a woman
who had opened her home to treat sick pa ents who couldn’t go to the
hospital. Rebecca ran to the store, helped elderly pa ents, and watched
every procedure closely, learning all kinds of useful skills.
Rebecca wanted to heal people, just like her aunt. She knew this
wouldn’t be easy, but she studied hard and earned scholarships that
enabled her to complete high school and a end college. At the me, it was
rare for women to a end medical school. For an African American woman
to a end medical school was unheard of. In spite of this, in 1864, a er
studying at the New England Female Medical College, Rebecca became the
first female African American physician in the United States.
Rebecca knew that just as many people had needed her aunt’s help,
many people could use her help too. So she le her home and moved to
Virginia, where she felt there was the biggest need for doctors. There,
Rebecca worked for the Freedmen’s Bureau to provide medical care to
freed slaves who were denied care by white physicians.

What does a Physician do?

Physicians treat pa ents by figuring out what is wrong with them.
This is called coming up with a diagnosis in order to improve their
pa ents’ overall health. They also educate pa ents on medical
condi ons and preventa ve care when possible

Rebecca not only treated as many pa ents as she could, she also taught
nonprofessionals to heal themselves and educated them on a healthier
lifestyle. She even wrote a book on how to care for sick women and
children.
 History is filled with firsts—people who do something no other before
them has done. Being first in something is never easy. That’s why people
who pave the way for others and inspire them to be brave are heroes—just
like Rebecca Lee Crumpler, who despite the many prejudices toward
African Americans managed to seal her name in history forever.

Did you know...?

Hippocrates (460–370 BC) was a Greek physician and commonly
called the “Father of Medicine.” He is thought to be one of the first
physicians to recognize disease as the result of natural rather than
supernatural causes. He also founded the Hippocra c School, a medical
school that focused on the healing power of nature, as well as the
importance of physical observa on.
 SARAH BOONE

B
orn a slave in North Carolina, Sarah Boone faced many challenges
in life. But Sarah was strong. When slavery came to an end in 1863,
she and her husband moved north, full of hope and ready to start the next
chapter of their lives.
As a dressmaker, Sarah spent much of her me ironing clothes—both the
dresses she made and those of her own family. Back then, everyone ironed
their clothes on their kitchen tables or using wooden boards laid out across
two chairs. This was o en done in the kitchen by the stove so that the iron
could be heated as needed. Although there were some designs for an
ironing board, none had truly come into use. Sarah wasn’t sa sfied with
ironing on chairs or tables, so she came up with her own way to make
ironing easier. Although it took several tries to get it right, she finally
developed a design for an easy-to-use ironing board, with an innova ve
solu on to simplify the hardest part of ironing: long sleeves.
Sarah’s design not only made her life easier, it made the lives of many
other women easier as well. She filed a patent and got it approved,
officially becoming one of the first African American inventors.

What is a patent?
A patent gives an inventor the right to stop other people making or
using their inven on or design. If someone uses the inven on without
being given permission, the inventor can sue that person in court to
make them stop. A patent lasts for up to years, depending on the
country. A er that, anyone can copy the inven on.

Sarah Boone showed people everywhere that anyone can be crea ve

and make something of their own if they are willing to try and don’t give
up. She encouraged people to think outside of the box and be innova ve.
Even though she had a hard life and had to endure slavery, poverty, and
racial discrimina on, Sarah rose up and wrote her name in history.

Did you know...?

In the middle ages, blacksmiths started making flat irons, which
weighed around nine pounds. Irons remove creases in clothing due to
the combina on of a hard surface and heat pressed on the fibers of the
clothes, which stretches and fla ens the fibers. (The molecules are
more easily reoriented when they are hot.) Henry W. Seely invented the
first electric iron in 1882.
 MARY ELIZA MAHONEY

F
rom the moment she was born, Mary Eliza Mahoney’s life was
different. Her parents were freed blacks who had traveled from
North Carolina to Boston in search of a be er and less racially
discrimina ng home. Mary excelled in school, where she learned not only
the standard subjects but also took morality courses and lessons on how to
be a good person.
Mary always knew she wanted to help others, but her family didn’t have
a lot of money, so schooling was difficult. In order to make money, Mary
worked as a janitor, washerwoman, and cook at the New England Hospital
for Women and Children—a hospital known for having a staff of only
female physicians. At the age of thirty-three, she was finally accepted into
the hospital’s nursing program.
It was a tough, sixteen-month-long program that kept students bouncing
back and forth between lessons in the classroom and hands-on work in
one of the hospital wards. O en, Mary was working for more than sixteen
hours a day! Although forty students began the program, only three ended
up gradua ng. Mary was one of the three, and the only African American.
Upon comple ng the course, she became the first African American to
study and work as a professionally trained nurse in the United States.

What does a nurse do?

A nurse is a medical professional who works with a physician to help
treat pa ents. Nurses need to know a lot about medicine and the body,
as well as be able to provide emo onal support to pa ents, so they take
courses in anatomy, biology, chemistry, and even psychology.

A er gradua ng, Mary decided not to work in a hospital. She had seen
firsthand how public nursing discriminated against black women, and she
wanted nothing to do with it. Instead, she went into prac ce working as a
nurse for private pa ents.
From the beginning, Mary Eliza Mahoney was a pioneer in nursing. She
opened the door for other black women to enter the field. But her
influence extended beyond her career. Mary was also highly outspoken
about women’s right to vote, and when women got that right, she was one
of the first women registered to vote in Boston.

Did you know...?

During the Crimean War, Florence Nigh ngale and volunteer nurses
were sent to a Bri sh camp in Turkey, where they began to prac ce
what we know as modern nursing today.
 SUSAN MCKINNEY STEWARD

E
ver since she was very young, Susan McKinney Steward loved
music. She would play any instrument she could get her hands on.
As she grew up, Susan’s love of music stayed with her. But along with it
came a new passion. With the Civil War raging, and so many people sick,
she realized that she could do more to help others.
A er high school, Susan put her music skills to good work, teaching
music lessons to earn enough money for medical school. Despite the belief
of classmates, doctors, and even her own family that medicine was a man’s
profession, Susan pushed on. She not only con nued studying medicine
but graduated from medical school as class valedictorian! Susan became
the third African American woman to earn a medical degree in the United
States (and the first in New York State), proving once and for all that
medicine does not have a gender.
Over the course of her studies and early work, Susan realized that many
diseases were found primarily in children and that African American
children—who did not have access to advanced science or proper hospitals
—were suffering greatly. Susan knew she had to do something to help the
people that needed it most, so she opened a small prac ce in her own
home, specializing in prenatal care and childhood disease.

What is cholera?
Cholera is an infec ous and o en fatal bacterial disease of the small
intes ne, typically contracted from infected water supplies and causing
severe vomi ng and diarrhea.

With the cholera epidemic spreading in New York City in 1866, more and
more people got sick, but Susan was with them every step of the way.
 Susan McKinney Steward fought for the wellness of African Americans
with more than just her medical degree. She wrote essays, gave speeches,
and urged poli cians to take ac on and treat African Americans be er. She
taught students and inspired them to become like her. She even advocated
for women’s vo ng and other rights.

Did you know...?

More germs are transferred through shaking hands than kissing. Each
me you flush the toilet, you release a cloud filled with germs that goes
up almost six feet in the air. The bed that you sleep in has six billion dust
mites. One of the places with more germs than anywhere else is door
handles. Good luck avoiding those!
 ELIZA ANN GRIER

E
liza Ann Grier was born just a er Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves.
Although African Americans now had more rights, a tudes toward
them had not yet changed, and many people s ll treated her terribly. Eliza
refused to listen to people who told her she wouldn’t do anything with her
life. Instead, she set out to care for her community in the best way she
knew how: by becoming a doctor.
Eliza knew she had the right to a good educa on, and she wasn’t about
to let anyone take that away from her. But schooling was expensive, and
Eliza’s family was poor. Rather than le ng that get her down, Eliza created
a schedule that would allow her to pay for her schooling—she would work
for one year and then go to school for one year, then she would work for
another year and go to school for another year. Eliza’s plan worked! She
switched back and forth between work and school un l, finally, she
graduated first from Fisk University and then from the Woman’s Medical
College of Pennsylvania. It was hard work, but it was worth the me and
effort. Eliza became the first-ever African American woman to prac ce
medicine in the state of Georgia.
Throughout the course of her schooling, Eliza was saddened to see
African American women working to help during childbirth with all
payment going to the white doctor. She wanted to change that, so she
opened up her own clinic, where she specialized in obstetrics and
gynecology (OB-GYN).

What is an OB-GYN?
OB-GYN is the medical specialty that deals with pregnancy, childbirth,
and women’s health a er childbirth
 Eliza Ann Grier persevered in the face of adversity and refused to give up
on her dream. Although she fell quite ill and died not long a er opening
her prac ce, Eliza made a huge impact on the medical world—one that will
never be forgo en.

Did you know...?

Human adults have 206 bones in their bodies, but when babies are
born, they have 300 bones. These bones fuse together as a child grows,
resul ng in fewer bones as adults.
Eight out of ten babies are born with some form of birthmark.
Newborns recognize their mother’s voice at birth. Their head
accounts for 25 percent of its weight. Newborns don’t shed tears.
Un l babies are between one and three months old, their tear ducts
and glands only produce enough liquid to lubricate and protect their
eyes.
 ROGER ARLINER YOUNG

W
hen Roger Arliner Young was twenty-seven years old, she
started studying music at Howard University. This quickly
changed, however. Thanks to the encouragement of a professor and
biologist named Ernest Evere Just, Roger changed her major to biology
and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree.
Roger then went on to earn her Master of Science degree in zoology,
achieving elec on to the university’s honor society. Roger next enrolled in
a PhD program at the University of Chicago but was unable to complete
the coursework because she needed to take care of her sick and disabled
mother.
Roger returned to Howard University to teach, but she was fired because
of rumors that she was da ng Evere Just. In reality, Roger was fired
because she was a woman. She was a vic m of workplace discrimina on.

What is a PhD?
A PhD is a postgraduate doctoral degree—the highest university
degree, awarded to students who complete an original thesis offering a
significant new contribu on to knowledge in their subject.

Roger took her firing as an opportunity and returned to school at the

University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her PhD and became the first
African American woman to receive a doctorate degree in zoology. Do you
love animals? Perhaps zoology is for you!
Roger overcame a lot in her life, but one thing she could not overcome
was a severe case of depression. Eventually, she realized she needed help
and checked herself into the Mississippi State Mental Asylum. She was
released a er several years and died shortly therea er.
 Roger Arliner Young’s life is both inspira onal and sad. While her journey
had a tragic ending, she was a woman of great resilience and strength of
character. We should all strive to be resilient and develop our characters as
much as we can.

Did you know...?

Jellyfish use the same hole for ea ng and pooping. That may seem
gross to you, but it really doesn’t ma er to them, as they don’t have
brains.
Warmer weather can cause more female turtles than male turtles to
be born.
Flamingos have knees that can bend backward. Snakes always keep
their eyes open, even when they are asleep. Crickets have ears on their
front legs.
 MABEL KEATON STAUPERS

E
ven as a li le girl, Mabel Keaton Staupers wanted to do something
good with her life and help others. That dream began in earnest
when she was thirteen years old. Full of hope for a be er life in a new
country, Mabel followed her family off a boat from Barbados and stepped
onto American soil, ready to make her mark on the world.
Mabel found her way to help people in the form of a nursing career. But
just being a nurse wasn’t enough for her. Mabel was commi ed to
improving the health of impoverished blacks, and she spearheaded
organiza ons dedicated to just that goal. While working as a private-duty
nurse, Mabel organized an in-pa ent clinic for African Americans with
tuberculosis at the Booker T. Washington Sanatorium. This clinic was one of
very few facili es in New York that allowed black physicians to treat their
pa ents.
Later on in her career, Mabel took advantage of the high public
awareness of the nursing profession during World War II to launch a
campaign seeking the integra on of black nurses into the Armed Forces
Nurse Corps. African American nurses had been admi ed to the US Army
Nurse Corps in 1941, but the Army maintained a strict quota, allowing only
fi y-six black nurses to be in the service. Mabel worked to fight this, even
going so far as to meet with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and in 1945, the
quota was li ed!

What is tuberculosis?
Tuberculosis is an infec ous bacterial disease that spreads through
the air. When someone who’s sick coughs, sneezes, or talks, ny droplets
that contain the germs are released. If you breathe in these germs, you
get infected. These germs don’t thrive on surfaces. You can’t get the
disease from shaking hands with someone who has it or by sharing their
food or drink.
 Mabel Keaton Staupers was an immigrant who served her country to the
best of her ability. In 1951, Mabel was awarded the Spingarn Medal from
the Na onal Associa on for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
She made sure others did their part and helped establish the community
we live in today.

Did you know...?

The lungs are responsible for removing oxygen from the air we
breathe and transferring it to our blood, where it can be sent to our
cells. The lungs also remove carbon dioxide, which we exhale. The
average person takes over , breaths a day!
 EUPHEMIA LOFTON HAYNES

T
he daughter of a den st and a kindergarten teacher, Euphemia
Lo on Haynes was an only child. With no one at home to play with,
she filled her me by studying. It paid off because Euphemia graduated
high school with the highest grades.
Euphemia con nued on to college, where she earned a degree in
mathema cs before receiving a master’s degree in educa on from the
University of Chicago in 1930. That same year, Euphemia founded the
mathema cs department at Miner Teachers College, an ins tu on in
Washington, DC, dedicated to training African American teachers.
Euphemia loved teaching young children, so much so, in fact, that she
taught in the public schools in Washington, DC, for forty-seven years! But
Euphemia also loved learning. At the same me that she was teaching first
grade students, she went back to school to earn another degree for herself.
In 1943, Euphemia Lo on Haynes earned her PhD in mathema cs at The
Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, becoming the first
African American woman to hold a PhD in mathema cs.
Over the years, Euphemia taught first graders, high schoolers, and
college students! She wanted to fix the problems she saw in the educa on
system and even helped to create a department at the University of the
District of Columbia dedicated to training African American teachers.

Why is math important?

Mathema cs is the study of numbers, shapes, and arrangement.
Math is the building block for everything in our daily lives. It is all around
us, in everything we do, and has been since the crea on of the world.
Recorded history shows that, as far back as BC, ancient Egyp ans used
complex mathema cs such as algebra, arithme c, and geometry.
 A er her re rement, Euphemia was appointed to the District of
Columbia State Board of Educa on and became the first woman to chair
the board. During her me on the Board of Educa on, she fought racial
segrega on within the school system.
Euphemia Lo on Haynes was awarded the papal medal Pro Ecclesia et
Pon fice from the Catholic Church in 1959. Un l her death in 1980,
Euphemia wanted to teach others about mathema cs and how to be
be er people to one another.

Did you know...?

The symbols used for addi on (+) and subtrac on (–) have been
around for thousands of years, but it wasn’t un l the sixteenth century
that most other mathema cal symbols were invented. Before this me,
mathema cians wrote equa ons in words, which was very me
consuming.
 ALICE AUGUSTA BALL

W
hile other girls played with dolls and jumped rope, Alice
Augusta Ball spent her me studying. Girls weren’t supposed to
be smart, and her dedica on to learning certainly didn’t make her popular
with her classmates, but Alice didn’t care.
Alice graduated high school with the highest marks in her science class
and went on to study chemistry at the University of Washington. There,
she earned a bachelor’s degree in pharmaceu cal chemistry, followed by a
second degree in pharmacy two years later.
With her pharmacy instructor’s help, Alice published an ar cle in a
science journal. Although ar cles by men were common, ones by women
were rare, regardless of race. Alice was honored to have done something
so special!
Alice wanted to con nue learning chemistry, so she moved to Hawaii and
went back to school, where she began researching a unique oil that was
used to treat leprosy, a very painful disease.

What is chemistry?
Chemistry is the study of how proper es interact, combine, and
change. If you want to know why water turns to ice when it gets too cold
or why the sky is blue or why oil and water don’t generally mix well, you
have to study chemistry. Firefighters study chemistry to understand how
fires spread and how to contain them. Den sts, doctors, and nurses
must understand chemistry to know how medicines will react with
illnesses and with other medicines.

At the me, a good medicine for trea ng pa ents with leprosy already
existed, but doctors had no way of giving it to them. The medicine was too
s cky to be applied on the skin, and injec ng it caused other health issues.
Alice devised a complex chemical process that made it possible to safely
inject the medicine. With it, people were quickly treated and subsequently
cured. No one had ever thought of her process before! It became known as
the Ball Method.
During this me, Alice Augusta Ball herself grew quite sick. She knew she
couldn’t give up, though. Sick people were coun ng on her. Alice
eventually became the first African American woman to graduate from the
University of Hawaii, and she even returned later as a teacher who
everyone loved.

Did you know...?

Unlike many substances, water expands as it freezes. An ice cube
takes up about 9 percent more volume than the water used to make it.
If you expose a glass of water to space, it will boil rather than freeze.
The water vapor will then almost immediately crystallize into ice.
 MARGUERITE THOMAS WILLIAMS

M
arguerite Thomas Williams was born in a me when girls—
especially African American girls—normally didn’t chase
academic goals. But Marguerite was different. She was fascinated by the
earth and what it was made of. Have you ever found an interes ng rock
and wondered where it came from? She wanted to learn more about it, so
she studied hard and went to college to earn a geology degree.
A er college, Marguerite got an assistant professor posi on at Miner
Teacher’s College. While she loved her work, Marguerite s ll wasn’t
sa sfied with her educa on. Her job was kind enough to give her me off
to return to school. Marguerite went on to earn her master’s degree in
geology from Columbia University, a er which she returned to Miner
Teacher’s College. Marguerite later went on to earn her PhD in geology,
becoming the first African American—male or female—to earn a doctorate
in geology in the United States.
Marguerite was finished with school and was promoted to become a full
professor at Miner Teacher’s College. Through her dedica on, Marguerite
Thomas Williams managed to get a PhD and become a teacher at a me
when it wasn’t even common for African American women to go to school.

What is geology, and what do geologists

do?
Geology is the study of the earth and what it is made of. Geologists
study the rocks, minerals, fossils, and landforms that make up the layers
of the earth’s surface. They also study events that have changed and
shaped the earth over me. Geologists use skills from many other areas
of science, like chemistry, physics, and biology, to make connec ons
between the causes and effects of things that have impacted the earth.
 Marguerite Thomas Williams gave others the courage to follow their
academic dreams, whether that was to gain degrees in geology or other
subjects or become teachers in these fields.

Did you know...?

Most rock is a mixture of minerals and bits of other rock. Most
minerals are small par cles, but some form large, beau ful crystals, like
diamonds and rubies.
Salt, a mineral, was so valuable in ancient mes that it was traded
ounce for ounce with gold.
The most common mineral found on Earth is called quartz.
Minerals are always solid and have a dis nc ve geometric shape
called a crystalline structure.
 MAY EDWARD CHINN

M
ay Edward Chinn was a cheerful girl who always wanted to help
out. She helped her mom with the housework and even went
with her to work. May’s mother was a maid for a rich family. While she
worked, the family taught May how to play the piano and encouraged her
interests in music. But music wasn’t her des ny.
When May was a teenager, she was forced to drop out of high school
because her family could no longer afford it. Many girls of her age would
just go to work, but May loved learning too much to give it up. She
con nued studying on her own and applied to Columbia University without
a high school diploma. She was accepted on a scholarship and started
studying science.
It was then that May decided she wanted to be a doctor. She finished
college and her internship, but nobody was willing to give May a job
because, at the me, black physicians were not allowed to prac ce at
hospitals.

How does cancer happen?

Everything that has life is made of cells. Normal body cells grow and
divide and know to stop growing. Over me, they also die. Cancer
happens when abnormal cells grow and spread very fast. Unlike these
normal cells, cancer cells just con nue to grow and divide out of control
and don’t die when they’re supposed to. The field of science that studies
cancer is called oncology.

May was not about to let the biased hospital system get her down or
keep her from her dream. She opened her own private prac ce dedicated
to providing proper care to African Americans who were unable to get it
elsewhere.
 May spent years studying cancer and tes ng medica ons. A er years of
working on her own, May’s luck finally turned for the be er, and she got a
job researching cancer. She stayed with that company for the next twenty-
nine years and was even invited to join the Society of Surgical Oncology.
Had May Edward Chinn quit a er any one of her many rejec ons, she
wouldn’t have saved thousands of lives. She is proof that even when we
are at our lowest, there is always a way.

Did you know...?

Cells are the smallest life units on this planet. They are self-sustaining,
and they are very much capable of replica ng on their own through a
process known as cell division.
 RUTH WINIFRED HOWARD

F
rom the moment she learned how to read, Ruth Winifred Howard
was obsessed with books. Her mother strongly encouraged her
reading habit, and Ruth enjoyed her visits to the library more than
anything. Every me the librarian gave a book to Ruth, the li le bookworm
wished she had that job—being able to read any book she wanted,
whenever she wanted to.
As Ruth grew up, reading for pleasure turned to reading for learning.
Ruth went to college and traveled the country, studying and working all
over. In Cleveland, she got her master’s degree and then landed a job as a
social worker for the Urban League of Greater Cleveland. It was during her
me working with children at the Cleveland Child Welfare Agency that she
became curious about the impact on children of growing up in
dysfunc onal families and foster homes. That curiosity led her to enter
psychology, and she secured a research posi on at the Columbia
University, where she studied children’s psychology.
Ruth found her research fascina ng. She wanted to learn more and
entered a doctoral program at the University of Minnesota. For her thesis,
she studied triplets, concluding that they were less developed and weaker
than twins or single children. Ruth graduated with a PhD in psychology,
becoming one of the first African American women to earn such a degree.

What does a psychologist do?

Have you ever wondered why you feel the way you do or why you do
the things you do? Psychology is the scien fic study of the mind and
behavior. Psychologists are ac vely involved in studying and
understanding mental processes, brain func ons, and behavior.
 Ruth then went on to hold several high-ranking posi ons at universi es
and hospitals before commi ng herself fully to her own private prac ce.
During her life me, she held many consul ng posi ons and was a member
of the boards of several influen al organiza ons.
Ruth Winifred Howard con nued her research, conduc ng many
interviews to determine how children developed through the years and
grew into adults. Her work inspired modern studies and furthered the field
of child psychology considerably.

Did you know...?

People tend to be happier when they are kept busy, as this prevents
them from thinking about the nega ve things in life. Op mis c beliefs
about the future can protect people from physical and mental illness.
The type of music you listen to affects the way you perceive the world.
 ANNA JOHNSON JULIAN

F
rom a very young age, Anna Johnson Julian was very curious. She
loved learning new things and was excited to start school. But
things did not go Anna’s way. Just as her first year of school was about to
begin, she became so ill that she was kept at home for three years!
That didn’t stop Anna; she read books, listened to stories, and gathered
knowledge in any way she could. When she started school, she quickly
caught up and became one of the best students. In fact, Anna was such an
overachiever that at the age of twelve, she moved in with her aunt in
Philadelphia so that she could go to a be er school with higher standards.
In college, Anna ini ally pursued a degree in educa on. It wasn’t un l
a er she finished school that she decided to dedicate her me to
sociology.

What does a sociologist do?

Have you ever wondered if boys and girls are really that different?
How about why we have problems such as racism, or what mo vates
bullies? These type of ques ons are studied by sociologists. Sociology is
the study of human socie es, or groups. We all belong to many groups,
such as family, school, and community groups. Sociologists study how
these groups shape our beliefs and behavior.

Anna went back to school and got a master’s degree, then went on to
become the first African American woman awarded a PhD in sociology by
the University of Pennsylvania. She married a prominent chemist, Percy
Lavon Julian, and the two opened up a laboratory specializing in
synthesizing hormones in bulk.
With the success of their lab, Anna and Percy moved into a new house in
a predominantly white neighborhood in Chicago. Their neighbors were not
welcoming, and the couple’s house was o en vandalized. The town even
refused to switch on their water just because they were black. But Anna
and Percy refused to be in midated!
Anna Johnson Julian faced many challenges in her life and had many
setbacks, but she didn’t back down or run away. She con nued working
hard, first on her own and later with her husband, and together the two
enjoyed great success, both in their work and in their private life.

Did you know...?

Mar n Luther King, Jr., earned his first degree in sociology before
pursuing the study of theology, becoming a civil rights leader and
ac vist, and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
 RUTH ELLA MOORE

A
s a child, Ruth Ella Moore read book a er book on bacteriology.
She thought the fact that the first organisms to live on earth were
so small that they couldn’t be seen with the naked eye was fascina ng.
Ruth was fascinated with biology and how living organisms were made
and func on, but on a microscopic level. She wanted to become a
researcher and a professor on the subject, but her journey was nowhere
near easy. In a me when only a small por on of Americans could afford
educa on, she worked as a teacher and studied to get her degree at
college.
Ruth finished college, and then she got her master’s degree, and then
her PhD. With her persistence and pa ence, she managed to get her
dream job as a college professor teaching bacteriology. But teaching didn’t
sa sfy Ruth’s curiosity. Despite working full- me as a professor, she also
conducted her own studies at the university. She did experiments and
studied illnesses and how medica on affected the human body and its
bacteria. A er years of working as a professor, she became the head of the
Department of Bacteriology.

What are bacteria?

Have you ever had strep throat? If so, you know what bacteria can do.
Bacteria are living, single-celled organisms that are found everywhere.
Some bacteria cause infec ons when they enter your body that can be
very dangerous. A bacteriologist studies various types of bacteria, which
are constantly changing and evolving. Mostly they do their research in a
laboratory.

Ruth devoted her life to science, and her research brought humanity a
step closer to tackling many illnesses and moving past racial bias and
discrimina on.
Ruth Ella Moore was—and con nues to be—an inspira on to many li le
girls across America who want to devote their lives to science. She was the
first African American woman to earn a PhD in natural sciences, but she
wasn’t the last. Following in her footsteps, countless women have poured
in to tackle different problems and make the world a be er place.

Did you know...?

Your body has ten mes more bacterial cells than human cells. Most
bacteria are harmless, and some are even helpful in aiding our
diges on. When you take a pill to kill off a bad bug, you kill some of the
good bacteria too. When that happens, bad bacteria can move into the
prime intes nal parts cleared out by an bio cs, causing painful
inflamma on and diarrhea.
 HELEN OCTAVIA DICKENS

T
he daughter of a former slave, Helen Octavia Dickens was pushed
her whole childhood to get a good educa on and do something
wonderful with her life. At the me, most schools were segregated, which
meant white students went to one school, while black students went to
another. Helen’s parents knew how important school was and encouraged
her to a end one of the few desegregated schools. The school provided a
be er educa on, but it also meant that Helen was frequently a acked
with unpleasant comments.
Helen pushed through the nega vity. She sat at the front of the
classroom so she could focus more on schoolwork and less on the mean
students. The tac c served her well not only in high school but all the way
up to medical school at the University of Illinois, where she was the only
African American woman in her gradua ng class.
Helen’s medical school gradua on broke barriers, as her career would
con nue to do. In 1945, only two African Americans—both men—had
become members of the American College of Surgeons. In 1950, Helen
Octavia Dickens became the first female African American doctor to
become part of this group!

What is prenatal care?

Prenatal means “before birth.” Prenatal care focuses on the health of
the mother and child throughout the course of pregnancy and delivery.

Helen specialized in obstetrics and gynecology, working for seven years

in a birthing and prenatal care center. The poor condi ons in which she
o en had to deliver babies made her realize the need for be er free
birthing facili es, and she did her best to provide just that.
 Later, Helen started a clinic for teenage mothers. She worked with
pregnant girls who could not afford medical care. She also made sure the
University of Pennsylvania, where she taught, created spaces for minority
students.
Wherever she worked—in her office, at the hospital, or at the university
—Helen put her energy into projects to improve the health of women and
students. Throughout her life, she was a role model for people who
thought they couldn’t be a success.
Helen Octavia Dickens would remind them that if the poor daughter of a
slave could become a famous and successful doctor, they could too!

Did you know...?

Life starts as a single cell. This cell is so small that it is literally invisible
to naked eyes. Gradually the cell divides and mul plies, and by the me
the baby is actually born, there are two hundred million cells!
 DOROTHY VAUGHAN

D
orothy Vaughan wasn’t the most popular girl in class, but she was
by far the smartest. Li le Dorothy loved school, especially
mathema cs. She knew a lot about math, and the stuff she didn’t know,
she was excited to learn.
Because she was so smart, Dorothy was a few grades ahead of the other
kids her age. That meant she was always the youngest one in her class. The
same year kids her age finished high school, Dorothy finished college!
At the age of eighteen—only a few years older than her students—
Dorothy began teaching math at a high school. Then, at only twenty-eight
years old, Dorothy got a job at NACA (today’s NASA). Dorothy’s job was to
calculate flight paths for spacecra , keeping the astronauts safe in space
and helping them figure out how to get home.
When Dorothy first started at NACA, her job was that of a “human
computer.” That meant she had to do complex calcula ons by hand. Can
you imagine that? Instead of having a calculator, she was the calculator!

What does a spacecraft do?

A spacecra is a vehicle that can carry people and cargo beyond
Earth’s atmosphere, through space, to other planetary bodies, space
sta ons, or orbits and back home again. Spacecra that are launched
from the surface of a planet are called launch vehicles and usually take
off from launch pads at spaceports.
But mes quickly changed, and the first machine computers soon arrived
at NACA. With computers in place, there was no need for the “human
computers.” Rather than wait for computers to take her job, Dorothy
taught herself and others like her how to program the computers. Dorothy
learned how to write code for the new machines and took over as the first
African American supervisor—one of only a few women supervisors at
NACA.
In 2016, a book by Margot Lee She erly, Hidden Figures, drew a en on
to the contribu ons of Dorothy Vaughan and other human computers,
including Katherine Johnson and Mary Jackson. The book was made into an
acclaimed film!

Did you know...?

The Na onal Aeronau cs and Space Administra on (NASA) was
created by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1958 in response to the
Soviet Union’s launch of the first ar ficial satellite the previous year.
President John F. Kennedy gave NASA the goal of sending a man to the
moon by the end of the 1960s. On July 20, 1969, the first men walked
on the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission.
 MARGARET MORGAN LAWRENCE

M
argaret Morgan Lawrence was an only child. Her older brother
had died before she was even born, a fact that inspired her to
become a doctor. Witnessing her parents’ grief, Margaret decided that she
could prevent the deaths of other children. At fourteen, in search of a
be er educa on, Margaret went to live with her aunts in Harlem. There
she excelled in school and earned a full academic scholarship to Cornell
University.
Due to segrega on, Margaret was not permi ed to live in Cornell’s
dormitories. Instead, she lived in the home of a white family, where she
performed chores in exchange for a room in the a c. Margaret also
worked as a maid in the homes of faculty members, o en serving them
breakfast before she went off to class.
In spite of ge ng excellent grades, Margaret was denied a place in
Cornell’s medical school because she was black. Undeterred, she applied to
and was accepted at Columbia College.

What do psychiatrists do?

Psychiatry is the branch of medicine that deals with mental and
emo onal disorders, and psychiatrists are medical doctors who
specialize in helping pa ents maintain good mental health.

A er gradua ng from medical school, she applied to Columbia’s

pediatrics residency but was again denied a place, this me because she
was a woman. Once again, she pushed on, training instead at Harlem
Hospital Center, where she no ced a strong connec on between physical,
social, and mental health. Margaret became fascinated by these
connec ons and con nued to research how someone’s health could be
connected to the health of the community as a whole.
 Margaret was later accepted to Columbia University College of
Physicians and Surgeons under the condi on that white pa ents could
refuse to be seen by her. She also enrolled at Columbia University’s
Psychoanaly c Clinic for Training and Research as its first black trainee,
where she obtained her cer fica on in psychoanalysis. In 1953, Margaret
moved to Rockland County, New York, where she became the first
prac cing child psychiatrist in the county.
Margaret Morgan Lawrence’s journey demonstrates that no ma er how
many rejec ons you receive, you have to keep trying and stay focused on
your goals.

Did you know...?

The word psychiatry itself derives from the two Greek words psyche,
meaning “soul” or “mind,” and iatros, meaning “physician.”
War and disasters have a large impact on mental health and
psychosocial well-being.
Mental illnesses tend to develop earlier in life, usually during
adolescence or early adulthood.
 MARJORIE LEE BROWNE

M
arjorie Lee Browne’s father was a railway postal clerk with a
passion for mathema cs. He shared his passion with his children,
who quickly understood why he loved it—especially Marjorie, who was a
natural at math.
Marjorie’s father pushed his children to have the best educa on they
could, even going so far as to send them to a school meant to help African
American students. It paid off, and when Marjorie finished high school, she
pursued a mathema cs degree from Howard University. She graduated
with high grades and then went on to teach the subject in high school and
college.
Marjorie loved teaching, but she wasn’t sa sfied with her own
educa on. Leaving teaching behind for the me being, she went back to
school! In 1949, Marjorie earned her doctorate in mathema cs. She was
among the first black women to earn a doctorate in the field. Marjorie
returned to teaching, but this me was different. Instead of teaching
students, she taught high school teachers to be er use and teach modern
math.

Why is geometry important?

Geometry is important because the world is made up of different
shapes and spaces. Geometry provides the knowledge of how to deal
with measurements and rela onships of lines, angles, surfaces, and
solids.

But Marjorie’s work wasn’t finished, and she s ll had things she wanted
to accomplish. In 1951, she was honored as the chair of the mathema cs
department at North Carolina College. Marjorie knew that even though
numbers can be scary some mes for kids, if learned properly and in a fun
way, they can be pre y amazing and cool. Her new posi on let Marjorie
be er the school’s math department and achieve her goal of ge ng
minori es and young girls more involved in math.
Marjorie also helped bring computers into her field, which was almost
unheard of at the me! Realizing her students could do even more in the
mathema cs field with the help of computers, Marjorie sought out and
received a $60,000 grant from IBM to set up an electronic digital computer
center. This was one of the first of its kind at a minority college.
Marjorie Lee Browne con nued to teach and research for thirty years
and even gave lectures on mathema cs.

Did you know...?

The Google search engine is a term that is derived from the word
googol, which is a mathema cal term for the number 1 followed by 100
zeros, which reflects the infinite amount of searches possible on the
internet.
 BESSIE BLOUNT GRIFFIN

B
essie Blount Griffin never met a problem she couldn’t solve—or at
least, one she didn’t try to solve. As a young girl, she taught herself
to write with her right hand, in spite of being a le y. She also taught herself
to write with her feet and hold a pencil between her teeth! That was just
the kind of problem-solver Bessie was.
Bessie a ended class in a one-room school that was built a er the Civil
War so African American children could be educated. But her school was
small and did not teach beyond sixth grade, so her family moved to New
Jersey for her studies. Bessie studied hard and eventually took a nurse’s
training program to become a qualified physical therapist!
A er World War II broke out, Bessie took the opportunity to work with
injured veterans. During this me, Bessie saw that injured veterans o en
lost the use of their arms or legs, and some had to get their limbs
amputated. Bessie invented a handy feeding apparatus. Veterans simply bit
down on a tube, and they were fed. Unfortunately, the US Veterans
Administra on was not interested in Bessie’s inven on, so she sold it to the
French government instead.

What does a physical therapist do?

Physical therapists work to decrease pain, improve movement using a
variety of treatments to help build strength, and strengthen skills
needed to complete daily ac vi es.

For some people, a single inven on is an accomplishment. But not

Bessie. She no ced that the medical field had nothing to catch fluids that
fell from someone’s body, so she created a disposable basin—a kidney-
shaped container that hospitals s ll use to this day. But again, the United
States didn’t want her inven on, so she sold it to a Belgian company.
 Then, in 1969, Bessie’s career took a drama c turn when she began
working in law enforcement, conduc ng forensic research for police
departments in New Jersey and Virginia. She moved up quickly, and in
1977, she was sent to train and work at Scotland Yard, the famous
headquarters of the police force in England. She was the first African
American woman to be honored with such an opportunity.
Bessie Blount Griffin was an out-of-the box thinker who never gave up
and who reminds us that every problem has a solu on.

Did you know...?

Forensic science is used to solve crimes. A forensic scien st collects
evidence and performs different types of tests to reach a conclusion.
Forensic science is only the second-best method of iden fying criminals.
What’s number one? Eyewitnesses!
 SINAH ESTELLE KELLEY

U
nlike many of the women in this book, an interest in science did
not come to Sinah Estelle Kelley young. In fact, her family was
more literary—her father was the managing editor of the New York
Amsterdam News, and her younger brother would go on to become a
published author! It was not un l she graduated high school and began
studying science at Radcliffe College under a great organic chemistry
professor that Sinah truly found her passion.
Having come late to science, Sinah took every opportunity she could to
learn. While other students enjoyed their summers off, Sinah interned at
Harlem Hospital Center to learn as much as she could.
A er gradua ng from Radcliffe in 1938, Sinah took some graduate
courses at New York University. Then, during World War II, she worked at
federal laboratories in Pennsylvania and Illinois.

What is penicillin used for?

Penicillin is an an bio c used to treat bacterial infec ons. It was one
of the first an bio cs to be discovered and worked well for many years,
but many strains of bacteria have now become resistant to it. Chemists
keep changing part of its structure in an effort to keep it working against
the bacteria.

When the war finally ended, Sinah decided to stay in Illinois. She teamed
up with a group of scien sts who were working on the mass produc on of
penicillin for the US Department of Agriculture.
Sinah’s me in Illinois was frui ul. Although she did not hold an
advanced degree, she was listed as an author on several scien fic papers
from this group.
 In 1958, Sinah returned to New York to work on the effects of stron um-
90 at an Atomic Energy Commission laboratory. Stron um-90 is a
radioac ve isotope of stron um, produced by nuclear fission. Stron um-90
is considered a cancer-causing substance because it damages the gene c
material (DNA) in cells.
Even though Sinah Estelle Kelley took tons of courses, she never had an
advanced degree. S ll, she didn’t let that get in the way of her advanced
science work. Sinah is proof that you don’t have to find your passion as a
young child to have a successful career.

Did you know...?

An bio cs kill bacteria by stopping their growth and reproduc on.
An bio cs fight bacterial infec ons, but they won’t work against viral
infec ons. That means they are not effec ve against the flu or the
common cold. This is why you need to visit your doctor to figure out
whether a bacteria or a virus is the cause of your symptoms.
 MAMIE PHIPPS CLARK

M
amie Phipps Clark began her career at Howard University as a
physics and math major. That soon changed, however, when she
met her future husband, Kenneth Clark, who convinced her to switch
majors to psychology. Mamie did so, gradua ng with highest honors.
Following gradua on, Mamie spent some me working in a law office.
There, she saw the damaging effects of segrega on.
Mamie returned to school, and in 1943, she earned her PhD in
experimental psychology from Columbia University, becoming the second
African American to earn a doctorate from Columbia. The first was her
husband!
Mamie and Kenneth put their degrees to good use in their famous “doll
experiment,” in which black children were shown two dolls that were
iden cal in nearly every way. The only difference was that one doll was
white and one was black. The children were then asked a series of
ques ons, including which doll they preferred to play with, which doll was
a “nice” doll, which one was a “bad” doll, and which one looked most like
the child.

What is experimental psychology?

Experimental psychology examines rela onships between human
behavior and the mind. It explores basic concepts, such as memory and
mo va on. Experimental psychology solely focuses on controlled
experiments with designated variables, test subjects, and sta s cal
results.

The researchers discovered that not only did many of the children
iden fy the black doll as the “bad” one, nearly 50 percent selected the
white doll as the one they most resembled. When black students from
segregated schools were compared to those from integrated school
districts, the results revealed that kids from segregated schools were more
likely to describe the white doll as the “nice” one.
The experiment played an important role in the landmark Supreme
Court case known as Brown vs. the Board of Educa on, in which the
Supreme Court ruled that racial segrega on in US schools was
uncons tu onal. This was in part due to the “doll experiment,” which
demonstrated the harmful effects of segrega on on children.
Mamie Phipps Clark also played an important role in the Civil Rights
movement. Her inves ga ons into self-concept among minori es inspired
further research on the subject and opened up new areas of research
within the field of developmental psychology.

Did you know...?

Intellectual humility enables people to listen to a person’s argument
by the facts, without judging that person’s personality based on their
views. It also makes a person more intelligent by being able to weigh
unbiased evidence when making a decision.
 KATHERINE JOHNSON

F
rom a very early age, Katherine Johnson was known as the girl who
loved to count. She counted church steps, sidewalk slabs, dishes,
cutlery, even her pairs of underwear. Katherine loved mathema cs like no
one else. It was this love of numbers that helped her finish high school and
begin college at only fourteen years old.
In college, Katherine focused on her studies, taking all the mathema cs
courses the college offered. When there were none le , her mentors
invented some to keep her learning. Katherine graduated college at the top
of her class, and a few years later, she managed to get her dream job as a
human computer at NASA.
Katherine started low but quickly rose through the ranks. She went on to
work with the greatest minds in the country. With her reputa on for
precise calcula ons, astronauts began asking for Katherine specifically,
because they knew there would be no mistakes. Before she knew it,
Katherine was working to put Apollo 11 and the first man on the moon. It
was her job to sync Project Apollo’s Lunar Lander with the moon-orbi ng
Command and Service Module.

How do rocket engines work?

Rockets burn fuel, which turns into hot gas. The engine pushes the gas
out its back, which makes the rocket move forward. A rocket works in
space, where there is no air, so the engine has to work without air. The
rocket carries with it everything it needs. On the side of the space shu le
are two white, solid rocket boosters, which use solid fuels. Fireworks and
model rockets also fly using solid fuels.

Later in her career, Katherine also worked on Apollo 13, calcula ng a

flight plan to get the crew back to Earth safely while the whole world
watched.
Katherine Johnson is a role model not just for women or African
Americans but for all people around the world. Katherine received many
awards for her service and contribu ons to science, including a Presiden al
Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.

Did you know...?

Apollo engineering influenced a lot of technologies and products,
such as freeze-dried backpacking meals, Dustbuster cordless vacuums,
Nike Air running shoes, an fog ski goggles, and studless winter res.
The Apollo Guidance Computer weighed 70 pounds yet was less
powerful than today’s smartphones. Upon returning to Earth, Apollo 11
astronauts were quaran ned for two weeks in case they had been
contaminated with dangerous pathogens.
 JANE COOKE WRIGHT

J
ane Cooke Wright was born into a family that had already made
history—her father was one of the first African American graduates
of Harvard Medical School.
Jane decided early that she wanted to honor her father by becoming a
physician. She took her schooling seriously and graduated from medical
school with honors. Jane began as an assistant resident at Harlem Hospital
Center and went on to work as a staff physician for public schools. Later,
she partnered with her father to conduct research at the Harlem Hospital
Cancer Research Center—a center founded by her father.
Back then, chemotherapy wasn’t a common method of trea ng cancer.
Jane’s father made sure the center focused its a en on on researching
different drugs and their impact on tumors, and it was Jane who was one
of the first to uncover an important chemotherapy drug. Jane realized that
changing dosages and using different drugs helped to make chemotherapy
more successful and not as painful. Using her method, some of Jane’s
pa ents with leukemia even saw remission!

What is chemotherapy?
Chemotherapy is the use of potent drugs in combina ons or intervals
to kill or damage cancer cells that are in the process of spli ng into two
new cells in the body, but it can also affect some fast-growing healthy
cells, like those of the skin, hair, intes nes, and bone marrow.

A er her father passed away, Jane took over as director of the center. In
recogni on of all she had done for the medical field, President Lyndon B.
Johnson appointed Jane to the President’s Commission on Heart Disease,
Cancer, and Stroke. Not long a er, Jane was appointed as a professor of
surgery and head of the Cancer Chemotherapy Department at New York
Medical College.
Jane worked there for many years before returning to private research
on an innova ve program that tackled heart disease and cancer. She also
developed a program that helped doctors be er understand
chemotherapy and became the first African American woman to be
president of the New York Cancer Society.
With a career spanning forty years, Jane C. Wright made groundbreaking
achievements in the medical field. She proved that just because something
was uncommon didn’t mean it wasn’t worth researching further.

Did you know...?

Surgery is the oldest form of treatment for cancer. During surgery, the
doctor tries to take out as many cancer cells as possible. Some healthy
cells or ssue may also be removed to make sure that all the cancer is
gone.
 JANE HINTON

G
rowing up, Jane Hinton dreamed of working in the laboratory at
Harvard, where her father used to be a professor. The son of
former slaves, Jane’s father had been the first African American professor
at Harvard University and the first African American author of a textbook.
He had entered laboratory medicine because racism in Boston prevented
him from gaining an internship in medicine. He later created a course on
medical laboratory techniques and happily allowed women to take it.
With the development of drugs, it was possible to cure certain
infec ons. But treatment by the correct medica on requires a correct
diagnosis, which mean successfully culturing the bacterium that caused the
disease. Jane worked as a laboratory technician at Harvard, codeveloping
the Mueller-Hinton agar, a culture medium that is now commonly used to
test bacterial suscep bility to an bio cs. This crea on was instrumental in
the development of detec on methods and vaccines for gonorrhea and
meningi s.
Jane was following in her father’s footsteps, but she found that lab work
wasn’t her passion. It was then that she decided to return to school to
study veterinary medicine. Jane enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania
and became one of the first African American women veterinarians.

What are a veterinarian’s

responsibilities?
Veterinarians are doctors for pets, zoo animals, horses, livestock, and
other animals. Vets are responsible for the animal’s preventa ve care—
like giving checkups and administering vaccina ons—and for taking care
of animals when they are sick. Veterinarians may also perform surgery
and prescribe medica ons to animals that require it.
 Jane began her second career as a small animal veterinarian, which
meant she treated pets like cats and dogs. She found the work very
rewarding and loved going to bed knowing she had made the world a li le
be er for an animal that needed medical help.
Jane Hinton’s work was central to basic microbiology, and she succeeded
in this field in an age when her ability to pursue it to the utmost was
severely limited. Jane Hinton’s journey shows that no ma er your color
and background, if you put your heart and mind to something, you will
achieve it.

Did you know...?

Adult cats rarely meow to communicate with each other. Ki ens will
meow at their mothers, but once they’re grown, cats mostly only meow
at humans.
Cats today live about twice as long as they did fi y years ago.
Pe ng a dog lowers your blood pressure and reduces stress.
Bathing a dog too o en strips away natural oils, which can cause
dryness, dandruff, and itching.
 DOROTHY LAVINIA BROWN

W
hen Dorothy Lavinia Brown was only five months old, her
mother le her in the care of an orphanage. Life in the
orphanage was hard, and Dorothy soon learned she had a choice: give up
and spend the rest of her life being pushed around, or fight for what she
wanted.
As a teen, Dorothy worked as a maid. Determined to get an educa on,
she finally ran away at age fi een to enroll in Troy High School. When the
principal realized that she did not have anywhere to stay, he arranged for a
foster home. This was a turning point for Dorothy. Her foster parents
became a major influence in her life, offering a source of security, support,
and enduring values.
A er high school, Dorothy earned a scholarship to Benne College,
where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree. She then enrolled at
Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, where she graduated in
the top third of her class. Dorothy started as an intern at Harlem Hospital
Center in New York but was denied a surgical residency due to a strong
opposi on to female surgeons.

What does a surgeon do?

A surgeon is a physician who cuts into the human body for the
purpose of repairing things that are wrong, removing diseased organs
or ssue, or replacing diseased organs with new ones.

Dorothy had learned to fight for what she wanted early and wasn’t going
to let New York’s sexist beliefs hold her back. She went back to Meharry,
where she got a residency and became the first African American female
surgeon in the South.
 Becoming a surgeon was just one of many firsts for Dorothy. She also
became the first single woman in Tennessee to adopt a child. Brown
named her new daughter Lola Brown, in honor of her foster mother. Then,
in 1966, she became the first African American woman to be elected to the
Tennessee State Legislature
Dorothy Brown was a doctor, a poli cian, an ac vist, and a teacher. She
saved lives and taught others how to do so as well. But most importantly,
she taught us to stand up and fight for what we want!

Did you know...?

At the me of the Civil War, obtaining a medical degree was rela vely
easy. One only had to take a few courses at a medical college and
appren ce with a local physician.
 MARY WINSTON JACKSON

T
hroughout the 1960s, the United States was in a heated race with
Russia to be the first to put a man on the moon. In 1969, as Neil
Armstrong took his first steps on the moon, all eyes were on the
astronauts. But behind the scenes were many people who worked hard to
make the mission a success. One of them was the first female African
American engineer at NASA, Mary Jackson.
Like the other women at NASA, Mary excelled in mathema cs and
physics. But unlike them, she didn’t have the same opportuni es. Being an
African American woman in her me, Mary was denied access to a proper
educa on, working environment, facili es, and many other things.
When she started working as a mathema cian, Mary almost quit her job
because of the discrimina on against blacks she experienced. Luckily, a
supervisor no ced how talented she was. He told Mary to con nue
learning and become an engineer.

What is gravity force?

Gravity is the invisible force that keeps us from flying off the earth. So
when it comes to designing an airplane, it’s all about defying this heavy
force. One of the things that helps an airplane fly is the shape and
length of the wings. These are specially designed to give the airplane li .
They are called airfoil.

Mary went to the local university to apply for the night classes but was
turned away because it was an all-white school and she wasn’t allowed in.
Mary wrote a lengthy le er to the mayor of the town, and they let her
a end the school and get a degree in aerospace engineering.
Mary worked as an engineer for many years and reached the highest
level in the engineering department at NASA. She analyzed data from wind
tunnel experiments and aircra flight experiments in order to improve
United States planes.
Mary Winston Jackson’s pa ence was o en tested, and she was knocked
down more mes than she could count. But she got back up, did her job as
best she could, and carried on.

Did you know...?

Ancient astronomers once believed the earth was at the center of the
universe and that the sun orbited around the earth. We now know that
the sun is at the center of our solar system and our planets orbit the
sun.
Comets are le over objects from the crea on of our solar system.
They consist of sand, ice, and carbon dioxide. Comets only have tails
when they are mel ng.
 MARIE MAYNARD DALY

M
arie Maynard Daly grew up in a family that prided themselves on
educa on. She loved visi ng her grandparents because they had
a large library. She o en spent hours reading books about scien sts and
learning about their accomplishments. It was this special bond with her
grandfather’s library that sparked Marie’s decision to become a scien st.
Marie’s father had immigrated to the United States from the West Indies
when he was a young man. He had enrolled at Cornell University to study
chemistry but had been forced to quit school because he had no money.
Marie decided to follow in her father’s footsteps and turned to chemistry
as her career.
In 1947, she graduated from Columbia University, becoming the first
African American woman in the United States to earn a PhD in chemistry.

What is cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a type of fat found in your blood. Your liver makes
cholesterol for your body. You can also get cholesterol from the foods
you eat. You need cholesterol to help your brain, skin, and other organs
do their jobs, but ea ng too much fat and cholesterol is bad for your
health.

Marie spent several years spli ng her me between teaching and her
research, un l the American Cancer Society offered to fund her research so
that she could focus on it more fully.
Marie and another colleague focused their efforts on determining what
caused people to have heart a acks. She studied the effects of diet on
hypertension—high blood pressure that makes the heart pump harder—
and found that both cholesterol and sugar were related to hypertension.
 Marie later did research into what smoking cigare es did to the lungs.
Although Marie was focused on her research, she never fully gave up
teaching. She taught chemistry for many years, and when she re red, she
turned her focus to helping minority students get into the medical field.
She even created a scholarship for African American students determined
to learn chemistry and physics.
Marie Maynard Daly taught the younger genera on that determina on
was key to success and they should stop at nothing to achieve their goals.

Did you know...?

Biochemistry largely deals with the four main classes of molecules
that are present in living things: carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and
nucleic acids. Through biochemistry, scien sts have been able to
determine that 99 percent of the human body’s mass is made up of only
six elements: hydrogen, carbon, calcium, nitrogen, oxygen, and
phosphorus.
 MARGARET J. S. COLLINS

A
s a young girl, Margaret Collins went to school with hundreds of
children, but she was not like them. A li le brown girl with a big
afro, she could point to any animal she saw and cite its English name, its
scien fic name, and where in the world it could be found.
Margaret wasn’t interested in playing games or going outside that much,
because books were her biggest passion and she always had something to
read. She knew what her passion was: she enjoyed going to school and
learning new things, but she mostly liked to read about animals.
Margaret advanced very fast, so to keep up with her abili es, she kept
skipping grades. Year a er year, she went to school with kids who were
older and older than her, but she didn’t mind it. Margaret focused on her
studies and went to college at only fourteen years old! She was a child
prodigy that knew everything there was to know about science.

What is a zoologist?
A zoologist is a person who studies the behavior, physiology, and
classifica on of animals, living and ex nct. This is usually done by
observing animals in their natural habitat. One big job of zoologists is to
help with conserva on—protec ng endangered animals and their
habitats. A zoologist that specializes in ex nct animals is known as a
paleozoologist.

In college, Margaret became an ac ve civil rights advocate. She faced

many difficul es and challenges, but her love of animals, books, and
learning helped her endure all of them.
She went on to complete her PhD in zoology in Chicago, and she became
the first African American female entomologist and the third African
American female zoologist. Margaret dedicated her life to studying
termites and even discovered a species of her own in Florida.
Margaret J. S. Collins knew what she wanted and focused only on that.
She found her passion early on, and that is why she was able to find such
huge success in her long career. That passion for animals—and termites, in
par cular—drove Margaret forward. She used her passion as a rudder to
guide her in the right direc on.

Did you know...?

Termites never sleep. They build their colonies for twenty-four hours
a day, every day, un l they die. The largest termite colony ever recorded
contained over three million termites. Occasionally, termite and ant
colonies near each other will go to war over territory and access to
food.
 DOROTHY MCCLENDON

D
orothy McClendon loved school. Even from a young age, she loved
her teachers and knew how important they were in a child’s life.
She, too, wanted to shape young minds. But ge ng a high-quality
educa on for herself in Louisiana was not easy. And so, when she was in
her teens, Dorothy and her family moved to Detroit. There, Dorothy
finished high school and went on to earned her bachelor’s degree and
complete postgraduate studies.
Finally, Dorothy was ready to fulfill her dream and teach. For several
years, she traveled around the country, teaching at a variety of schools and
be ering the lives of hundreds of children.
But Dorothy was des ned for more. In 1962, Dorothy chose to join the
TACOM branch of the military. These were the people responsible for
technological improvements of America’s armed forces. Here, Dorothy
used her biology degree to research microorganisms.

Are microorganisms living things?

Microorganisms are living things too ny to be seen by the naked eye.
Some microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, are harmful to the
body and can cause disease. Others can contaminate their surroundings
and cause them to spoil or decay.

Dorothy was interested in the fact that the military’s fuel for tanks,
planes, and other vehicles o en degraded and became unusable. She
developed complex methods to store the fuel and preserve it for a much
longer me. She also developed a fungicide, a chemical that protected
storage materials without harming the people who used them. Thanks to
Dorothy, the military was able to be er store, protect, and take care of
their arms and other goods.
 Dorothy joined the military at a me when few women—and even fewer
African Americans—did so. She did not let it bother her that all of her
superiors were men. She simply did her job to the best of her ability,
regardless of the circumstances.
Dorothy McClendon showed African Americans and women everywhere
that even though some jobs were considered “men’s jobs,” there was
nothing wrong with being the first to not play by the rules and sha er
gender stereotypes.

Did you know...?

Before the inven on of microscopes, people believed that illnesses
were the result of poisonous gases or evil spirits. Once the microscope
was created and people could see viruses and bacteria, these beliefs
began to change. The very first microscopes were used to study insects,
and they were nicknamed “flea glasses.”
 EVELYN BOYD GRANVILLE

W
hen Evelyn Boyd Granville was very young, her father le the
family. For many, such an event may have caused them to doubt
themselves. But Evelyn was not one to let anything stand in the way of her
success. She was determined to do something important with her life.
Evelyn went to college to study mathema cs and physics and then
enrolled in the graduate program in mathema cs at Yale University, where
she became only the second African American woman ever to obtain a PhD
in mathema cs.
When Evelyn finished school, she went on to teach and do research on
the subject she loved so much. But the world had much in store for Evelyn,
and she went from being a teacher to a researcher to a computer
programmer. She even created computer so ware that analyzed satellite
orbits for the Project Vanguard and Project Mercury space programs. Do
you know that the moon orbits Earth, and Earth orbits the sun?

What is an orbit?
An orbit is a regular, repea ng path that one object in space takes
around another object. An object in orbit is called a satellite. A satellite
can be natural or man-made. Objects like Earth and the moon are
natural satellites. In fact, many planets have moons that orbit them.
Other satellites, like the Interna onal Space Sta on, are man-made.

Evelyn enjoyed programming, but teaching called to her. She found

herself shi ing jobs again. This me she became a mathema cs professor.
Evelyn believed that more women needed to be educated in technology,
and this new role helped her to achieve that. As a professor, she was able
to create be er math programs for elementary schools, giving women
access to math from the earliest ages.
 Evelyn Boyd Granville won many awards for her work. A er re ring, she
con nued to promote the importance of mathema cs in academics and
inspire others as a public speaker.

Did you know...?

An object in mo on will stay in mo on unless something pushes or
pulls on it. This statement is called Newton’s First Law of Mo on.
Without gravity, an Earth-orbi ng satellite would go off into space along
a straight line. With gravity, it is pulled back toward Earth. The
Interna onal Space Sta on is in low Earth orbit—the easiest orbit to get
to and stay in. The Interna onal Space Sta on takes about ninety
minutes to make a complete orbit.
 ALBERTA JONES SEATON

G
rowing up, Alberta Jones Seaton worked hard in school. She was
ambi ous and had high hopes for her future. But the older she
grew, the more she realized that opportuni es for African Americans were
very hard to come by.
Alberta graduated from Howard University with bachelor’s and master’s
degrees in zoology and chemistry. Wan ng to further her educa on,
Alberta sought a PhD, but acquiring one would not be easy. The barriers for
African Americans in the United States were simply too high. So she and
her husband went to Europe to con nue their studies. There, Alberta
earned her PhD at the University of Brussels in Belgium.
Having finally earned the degree she so desired, Alberta turned to a
career in the field of embryology.

What is embryology?
Embryology is the study of embryos (unborn babies) and their
development. Maybe you’ve heard of embryos? Did you know that you
started as an embryo? Embryology follows the embryo from fer liza on
of an egg through the various steps necessary for the correct and
complete forma on of the body of a living organism.

Alberta’s research took her all over the world. In her quest to study
embryo development across mul ple species of animals, she traveled to
Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, England, Bermuda, The Seychelles, and all over
the United States, even briefly working as a researcher at the California
Ins tute of Technology, or Caltech.
Alberta was a member of many prominent scien fic organiza ons,
including the American Society of Zoologists, the American Associa on for
the Advancement of Science, and several sorori es and organiza ons for
the advancement of women.
Alberta Jones Seaton was a fighter and never let stereotypes or other
people’s bias toward African Americans affect her. Alberta set an example
for African Americans to think outside of the box, work hard, and never
give up on their future.

Did you know...?

An embryo takes the shape of a ny baby by the me it reaches the
age of two months. By the me the embryo reaches the seventh week,
it develops all organs and features that an adult will have, even though
the embryo at this stage is only an inch long. A er birth, some cells
within the body con nue to grow and mul ply, while others do not and
remain as they are or are lost in the aging process. Aging results from
the inability of cells to maintain or replace themselves.
 JEWEL PLUMMER COBB

A
s a child, Jewel Plummer Cobb read about successful African
Americans. Reading about all of them, she saw that they all had
one thing in common: their persistence. No ma er what life threw at
them, they kept their head high and kept going. Jewel wanted to be just
like them and dedicated herself to her work, breaking stereotypes and
never giving up.
Jewel was fascinated with microscopes and slides and cells. When Jewel
was young, she’d run around the house collec ng hair and nail and skin
samples from everyone in the family. Her father was a doctor and would
have liked her to become one too, but he could see her interest lay
elsewhere. He never tried to change her mind but instead bought Jewel
her first microscope.
In college, Jewel applied for a fellowship but was rejected at first
because of her race. Persistent as ever, she went to the school to request
an in-person interview. Seeing her brilliance, the school granted the
interview immediately, and she was admi ed for her fellowship. She later
earned a master’s degree and a PhD in biology.

What does a cellular biologist do?

A cellular biologist looks at slides of cells of body organs like the heart,
the liver, the kidneys, and even your skin. The most important molecules
in cell biology are DNA, RNA, and proteins.

Jewel was a cellular biologist. Her area of study was skin cancer, its
causes and treatment. Jewel’s research focused in par cular on the ability
of melanin to protect skin from damage. She also examined how
hormones, ultraviolet light, and chemotherapeu c drugs could cause
changes in cell division. She was the one who found that we should protect
our skin from the sun, because it contributes to the development of skin
cancer.
Jewel Plummer Cobb established scholarships for African Americans to
take advantage of and get the educa on they deserved. She also fought for
equality among men and women and was a member of several
organiza ons that strived to make the world a be er, more equal, and
more just place.

Did you know...?

Groups of cells of the same type are called ssue. Each kind of cell has
a different job to help your body move or your blood flow. The red
blood cells present in the human body can live up to 120 days, but
different types of cells in the human body have a different lifespan. Skin
cells, for instance, can live only a few weeks.
 ESTHER A. H. HOPKINS

S
ince she was young, Esther Hopkins craved knowledge. Although
she grew up in a poor family, her parents always made sure she
had everything she needed. They wanted Esther and her siblings to believe
they could do anything they wanted in life. When Esther expressed interest
in the piano, her parents made sure she had lessons. And when she
realized that playing piano was less enjoyable than reading every book the
library had to offer on chemistry, her parents advised her to go to college
and study science.
Esther took her parents’ advice. Although she enjoyed all science, her
passion was chemistry, and Esther ended up receiving two degrees in the
subject.
Upon comple ng school, Esther taught chemistry for a li le while, but
she realized teaching wasn’t what she wanted to do with her me. She was
too curious—too hungry for informa on—and so she switched to
researching.

How does a film camera capture an

image?
The basic idea of film is to capture pa erns of light using special
chemicals. The camera briefly exposes the film to the light coming from
a scene, and where the light hits the film, it starts a chemical reac on.

Esther took a posi on as a research chemist at the American Cyanamid’s

Stamford Research Laboratory, which she loved. But her heart and mind
s ll wanted to learn, so she went back to school, all the while keeping her
posi on at the lab. When she finished school, she decided she needed a
change and went to work at Polaroid Corpora on, where she checked
chemicals in film strips. Have you ever looked at camera film or wondered
how pictures are transferred from a camera to a print?
Esther A. H. Hopkins enjoyed her work at Polaroid, but her drive for
knowledge was not sa sfied, and she soon became interested in law. Law
was very different than anything she had studied before, but she went back
to school to become a patent a orney, proving that it’s never too late to
find a new passion.

Did you know...?

The first personal camera was a small box and had a single shu er
speed. Shu er speed is the speed with which the shu er closes on a
camera lens. Each me the shu er closes, a picture is taken. The camera
was able to take one hundred pictures and had to be sent to a special
factory in order for the pictures to be developed and sent back.
 NORMA MERRICK SKLAREK

A
s a young girl, Norma Merrick Sklarek’s parents told her, “The
valuable things which make us feel good and happy are never easy.
They require determina on and hard work.” Norma took these words to
heart and never forgot them. Whenever she felt sad or discouraged, she
would remember what her parents had told her and would get back up on
her feet.
Even as a child, Norma was different from other girls. She had a wit and
ability to see the good in everything that set her apart. She also had an
interest in building things. From a young age, Norma did carpentry work
with her dad. How things came together interested her, and when she
grew up, she went to Columbia University and got a degree in architecture.
Norma was one of only two women in her architecture program and only
the third African American woman architect in the country, as well as the
first one in New York and California. Norma began her career working for
smaller companies, but she knew that she was des ned for something
greater. Slowly, she built her por olio. She designed buildings all over
America, including parts of the Los Angeles Interna onal Airport, and even
has buildings in Japan.

What is architecture, and why is it

important?
Architecture is the art and science of designing buildings and
structures. Properly designing a building requires a good knowledge of
math, while working to actually build one requires great interpersonal
skills. Buildings are complex, and construc ng one takes a lot of
teamwork. Construc on workers, architects, clients, city building
departments, and product representa ves all have their own role to play
in making the plan for a building a reality.
 Norma Merrick Sklarek loved her job and always wanted to do more. Her
parents’ words were always ringing in her ears, guiding her through any
hardships or misfortunes she encountered along the way. Norma got
everything she wanted and enjoyed unbelievable success, all due to her
willingness to work hard for what she loved.
Did you know...?
For forty-one years, between 1931 and 1972, the Empire State
Building was the tallest building in the world. The building contains ten
million bricks. It took roughly 3,400 workers just 410 days to build it.
During a severe wind or rainstorm, the building may sway several feet to
either side. Its upper tower was originally designed as a mooring mast
for airships—an aircra or dirigible that floats in the air.
 CECILE HOOVER EDWARDS

T
o say that Cecile Hoover Edwards was bright would be an
understatement. Cecile finished high school at fi een and received
a master’s degree in chemistry from Tuskegee University before she turned
twenty-one!
Cecile enjoyed chemistry, but her true passion was nutri on. One topic
that Cecile studied was that of pica. Pica is a dangerous disorder in which
people want to eat strange things, such as paste, clay, and glue. This can
cause damage to the person’s body.
But Cecile was most interested in nutri on in regard to the African
American community. She wanted to help African American women stay
healthy during pregnancy and did research on ways to help them do just
that. Cecile’s studies on nutri on in African American communi es did a
great deal of good in helping people ensure that their children got the food
they needed to develop to their full poten al.

What is nutrition?
Nutri on is the study of food and how it works in your body. Nutri on
includes all the stuff that’s in your food, such as vitamins, protein, fat,
and more. It’s important to eat a variety of foods, including fruits,
vegetables, and grains, so you have what you need to grow and be
healthy. And it’s not just what you eat that ma ers, but how much!

Cecile knew that understanding nutri on was the key to helping people
eat be er, and so she set up a PhD program in nutri on at Howard
University. She also founded a new department at Howard University and
called it the School of Human Ecology.
Cecile Hoover Edwards was a brilliant academic and educator. She was
instrumental in figh ng unfair ideas that African Americans were less
intelligent than other people, using her research to change people’s ideas
and percep ons. She never lost pa ence with people who would treat her
unfairly and always stood up for what she knew to be right.

Did you know...?

Calories are a measure of how much energy is in food. When we eat,
we gain calories, which gives us energy to run around and do stuff. If we
eat more calories than we use moving around, our body stores up the
calories as fat. If we use more calories than we eat, our body will start
to burn up the fat that was stored earlier. Empty calories are foods that
have calories but li le nutri onal value. These include solid fats and
added sugars.
 YVONNE YOUNG CLARK

A
s a child, Yvonne Young Clark became interested in mechanics and
how things worked. She enjoyed taking broken things and trying to
repair them. Her mother, a journalist and librarian, and her father, a
surgeon, encouraged her interests and bought her toys that helped her
prac ce her skills.
When Yvonne was in high school, she tried to take mechanical drawing
classes but was told she was not allowed to because she was female.
Yvonne did not let this setback stop her. When she finished high school,
she went on to Howard University, where she became the first woman to
earn a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering.
Building on her success at Howard, Yvonne went on to become the first
woman to earn a master’s degree in engineering management at
Vanderbilt University and the first woman to be a professor at Tennessee
State University’s College of Engineering and Technology.

What does a mechanical engineer do?

Mechanical engineering is a field that deals with how things are
made, how machines operate, and other elements of forces and mo on.
The basic task of mechanical engineers is to design and develop new
systems and technologies that can be used to extend our physical
abili es and simplify our lives. The word engineer comes from a La n
word meaning “cleverness.”

Yvonne’s first job a er comple ng her engineering qualifica ons was at a

US Army ammuni on plant called Frankford Arsenal Gauge Lab in
Philadelphia. A er that, she accepted a job designing factory equipment at
a company called RCA Camden.
 Yvonne knew that being a female mechanical engineer was rare, and she
involved herself in efforts to encourage other women to pursue a career in
engineering. By 1997, a quarter of the students in the mechanical
engineering department at Tennessee State University were female. This
was a wonderful sign of change.
We can all learn from Yvonne Young Clark’s success and determina on to
help other women have the same opportuni es as her.

Did you know...?

Mechanical engineering has been around since the mes of ancient
Greece and China. The first machines created were the screw, the wheel
and axle, and the inclined plane and pulley system. Without mechanical
engineers, we would not have elevators, trains, cars, planes, buses,
televisions, refrigerators, spoons, forks, boats, and more. All of the
things around us are made by mechanical engineers. That’s why we
have to say thanks to them!
 GLORIA TWINE CHISUM

L
ike so many women before her, Gloria Twine Chisum faced an uphill
ba le to achieve her dreams. She, too, was insulted and deprived of
her basic human rights. But her fascina on with the human mind got her
through all of that and pushed her forward toward a bachelor’s degree,
master’s degree, and PhD in psychology.
Gloria was interested in experimental psychology, an area of the field
that tries to understand many complex processes in the human brain and
body. As an experimental psychologist, Gloria created and tested
hypotheses about human behavior.
Gloria’s experience as a researcher served her well as the head of the
Vision Laboratory of the US Navy, where she researched ways for pilots to
see be er while they flew high among the clouds. At that me, the goggles
worn by pilots didn’t offer much protec on to their eyes. If they made a
sharp turn, were caught in a lightning storm, or had to see the blast of a
powerful nuclear bomb, their vision could be obstructed or even damaged.
Gloria worked to remedy this, developing goggles that would allow the
pilots to see be er in many different condi ons and protect their eyes.

Why do we study human behavior?

By studying ques ons such as, “Why do people do the things they
do?” and, “How do our behaviors and experiences shape our
character?” researchers can develop theories that enable them to
describe, explain, predict, and even change human behavior.

Gloria also researched night vision goggles and further eye protec ons
of flight personnel. Her work has been presented at a NATO conference
and recognized by many scholars, relevant organiza ons, and prominent
na onal associa ons. She became the first African American woman to join
the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania.
Gloria Twine Chisum’s outstanding work has enabled pilots to do an even
be er job defending their country and has probably saved lives in the
process.

Did you know...?

You see with your brain, not your eyes. Our eyes func on like a
camera, capturing light and sending data back to the brain. Out of all
the muscles in your body, the muscles that control your eyes are the
most ac ve. In fact, the eye has over two million moving parts. Seeing is
such a big part of everyday life that it requires about half of the brain to
get involved. Keep that in mind the next me you look at something
that makes you smile!
 DOLORES COOPER SHOCKLEY

D
olores Cooper Shockley grew up in a segregated community. She
realized from an early age that while the white community had a
pharmacist, the black community did not.
Dolores had always been interested in science, a passion that her
parents supported by purchasing chemistry sets for her. Seeing the need in
her own community for someone to help African Americans, Dolores
decided that one day, she would be a pharmacist.
Dolores earned an undergraduate degree in pharmacy from Xavier
University of Louisiana in New Orleans and then went on to Purdue
University, where she became the first African American woman to earn a
PhD in pharmacology.

Is pharmacology the same as pharmacy?

Pharmacology is not exactly the same as pharmacy, and a
pharmacologist is not exactly the same as a pharmacist. Pharmacology
is the study of how medicine and other things affect living organisms
and change how they func on. Pharmacology could also be defined as
the study of how medicine actually works. A pharmacologist is a
scien st who studies how medicine works. Pharmacologists usually work
in labs.

A er finishing her PhD at Purdue University, Dolores was awarded a

Fulbright Fellowship, which she used to do research overseas at the
University of Copenhagen. Fulbright Fellowships are awarded only to
brilliant and dedicated academics like Dolores. Dolores’s research focused
on chemical compounds that could be used to treat s mulant dependency
and overdose. She also conducted research on how the brain responds to
cocaine. Upon her return to the United States, Dolores began work as a
professor at Meharry Medical College in Tennessee, where she eventually
rose to be the first African American woman to chair any pharmacology
department in the United States.
Over the course of her career, Dolores Cooper Shockley not only did
important research, she also mentored and taught doctoral students,
college students, and high school students. She enjoyed teaching and
received numerous teaching awards.

Did you know...?

According to Chinese legend, the benefits of acupuncture were
discovered when a soldier who had suffered from a s ff shoulder for
many years was hit in the leg by an enemy arrow and cured of his
shoulder pain!
 GLADYS MAE WEST

G
ladys Mae West was born years before the first programmable
modern computer was created. Her mother worked in the
tobacco fields, and her father was a farmer who also worked on the
railroad. Gladys could have followed in her parents’ footsteps, but she
wanted more for herself. She didn’t want to spend her life picking tobacco,
corn, or co on like the people she saw around her. And she didn’t want to
work in a nearby factory, bea ng tobacco leaves into pieces small enough
for cigare es and pipes. Gladys wanted to get an educa on, and she
worked hard to ensure that she could.
A er high school, Gladys enrolled at Virginia State College and got a
degree in mathema cs. From there, she got a job as a programmer in the
Navy. Gladys’s job was to collect data from satellites in space and analyze
that data to study the oceans.
Gladys went on to work with large-scale computers, eventually becoming
a project manager for developing analysis tools for satellite data. Some of
her findings led to the start of an enormous and very useful project known
as the Global Posi oning System—or, as we know it, GPS. The system
assists people all over the world; it can find addresses, construct routes,
and even locate where people or objects are at a given me. You may have
seen it used on a phone to get direc ons or for your parents to find out
where you are!

What is an artificial satellite?

An ar ficial satellite is an object that is launched into orbit in space in
order to send, receive, or bounce back informa on to different areas of
Earth. The two main components of an ar ficial satellite are an antenna
to send and receive informa on and a power source, such as a solar
panel or ba ery.
 Gladys Mae West had no idea when she took her posi on with the Navy
how much her work would affect the modern world, but it is because of
her that today we can find anything anywhere in the world.

Did you know...?

When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik (the world’s first ar ficial
satellite) into orbit in 1957, two American physicists started monitoring
the satellite’s transmissions. They quickly realized that because of the
Doppler Effect (the change in distance between a thing crea ng a wave
and the person observing the wave), they could iden fy where the
satellite was in orbit. This would later become a key principle in GPS
opera on.
 JUNE BACON-BERCEY

I
f not for a par cularly percep ve teacher, June Bacon-Bercey may not
have found her passion. In high school, a physics teacher no ced June’s
interest in water displacement and buoyancy and encouraged her to
consider a career in meteorology. June listened. She a ended the
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she majored in math
and meteorology, fields where women were tradi onally looked down on.
June was the only African American woman to earn a degree in
meteorology in the 1950s. She went on to become the first female
television meteorologist in the country by assuming the posi on of
weathercaster.
June loved her work and was passionate about ge ng more African
American women involved in the sciences and meteorology. She knew it
was tough for African American women to take part in science because
they were rarely given the chance, and she was determined to change that.
That’s why June was delighted to be part of the Commi ee on Women and
Minori es in Atmospheric Sciences at the American Geophysical Union.
She also cofounded the American Meteorological Society’s Board on
Women in Minori es.

What does a meteorologist do?

Meteorology is the study of weather and the atmosphere. A
meteorologist is a person who studies wind, water vapor, air pressure,
and temperature changes to help make weather predic ons.
Meteorology means “in the sky” and “study,” coming from the Greek
words meteoros and logia.

June Bacon-Bercey believed that anyone who wanted to learn about the
sciences should be given the chance. And she wanted to give a chance to
anyone with a passion who was willing to put in the me and effort.
June found the best opportunity to help when she won a top prize from
a quiz show that was aired on television! Instead of was ng all her money,
June decided to create a scholarship to help young women who were
interested in the earth’s atmosphere and the science behind it.
June Bacon-Bercey’s generosity helped give young girls the chance to
grow careers in science when they most likely couldn’t have before.

Did you know...?

Global warming (climate change) is the process of our planet hea ng
up. The earth has warmed by an average of 34°F in the last century.
Eventually, rising temperatures will make our weather more extreme
and unpredictable. A lot of animals and humans could find they’re not
able to adapt to the climate change.
 JOYCELYN ELDERS

T
he eldest of eight children, Joycelyn Elders was born on a small
farm in Arkansas. Growing up in poverty, Joycelyn determined to
make the most of herself.
Following college gradua on, Joycelyn served in the Army for three
years, where she was trained to be a physical therapist. Helping all the
soldiers inspired her, and she decided to pursue a career in medicine.
Joycelyn completed medical school, along with her internship and
residency, and then went on to earn a master’s degree in biochemistry.
Early on in her career, Joycelyn worked as a pediatric endocrinologist.
Have you ever met someone with type 1 diabetes? Someone with
diabetes would visit an endocrinologist for help. Joycelyn was trea ng
children with juvenile diabetes when she began to take no ce of the
extreme dangers of early pregnancy for diabe c girls. It was then that she
began teaching her young pa ents about the importance of pregnancy
preven on.

What does a pediatric endocrinologist

do?
A pediatric endocrinologist is a doctor who treats children who may
have problems with growth, puberty, diabetes, or other disorders
related to hormones and the glands that produce them. Hormones are
especially important when you begin puberty, as this is the me when
you begin developing into an adult.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Joycelyn to be surgeon general

of the United States. She was the first African American and only the
second woman to hold the posi on. As the na on’s head doctor, the
surgeon general provides Americans with the best scien fic informa on
available on how to improve their health and reduce the risk of illness and
injury.
Joycelyn Elders took this role seriously. She fought for what was right and
wasn’t afraid to voice her opinions, no ma er how controversial. Among
the causes Joycelyn felt most passionate about was women’s rights; she
spoke of solu ons for tackling major issues like teen pregnancy and illegal
drugs.

Did you know...?

Hormones are special chemicals your body makes to help you grow
properly. They act like messenger molecules in the body. A er being
made in one part of the body, they travel to other parts of the body,
where they help control how cells and organs do their work. For
example, insulin is a hormone that’s made by the beta cells in the
pancreas. When it’s released into the blood, insulin helps regulate how
the cells of the body use glucose (a type of sugar) for energy.
 JOAN MURRELL OWENS

L
ooking at the Atlan c Ocean from her childhood home in Florida,
young Joan Murrell Owens wondered what lay below the surface.
She imagined all the animals swimming through the depths of the ocean
and the colorful plants growing at the bo om of it.
As Joan grew up, her fascina on with the ocean only became stronger.
She knew the ocean was where she was meant to be and determined to
become a marine biologist.
When Joan reached college, she found that there wasn’t a program for
marine biology. Unable to pursue her passion, she instead received her
Bachelor of Arts degree and majored in mathema cs.

What does a marine biologist do?

Marine biology is the study of marine organisms, their behavior, and
how they interact with their environments. The planet’s oceans hold an
incredible variety of marine life. In fact, the oceans hold so much life
that many species are s ll wai ng to be discovered. Marine biologists
study these creatures, from the smallest organisms, like plankton, to the
largest, like whales. A marine biologist may collect and analyze
biological data, study plant life and iden fy animal species.

Joan went on to teach children with disabili es. A er several years of

this, she realized that even though she loved teaching, the ocean was her
true calling. She enrolled at a second university, which also didn’t offer a
program in the field she wanted to study—so she made one. Joan
combined aspects of two similar fields to be able to study marine biology
and graduated with a bachelor’s degree. Not long a er, she got her
master’s degree and her PhD.
 Joan Murrell Owens was ready to begin the work, but she was at a
disadvantage compared to other researchers. A rare medical condi on
prevented Joan from diving deep underwater, which restricted her
research. But that didn’t stop her. Instead, she did lab research at the
Smithsonian Ins tu on. There, she discovered and named a new species of
her own!

Did you know...?

Since the architecture and chemistry of coral are very close to that of
human bone, coral has been used to help human bones heal quickly and
cleanly.
Lobsters communicate by peeing at each other! They have urine
nozzles just under their eyes, and they spread pheromones—a chemical
produced by a living organism that transmits a message to other
members of the same species—by peeing in the direc on of other
lobsters.
 ETTA ZUBER FALCONER

E
a Zuber Falconer went to college at the age of only fi een! She
studied mathema cs and chemistry at Fisk University, a historically
black university, where she was taught by Evelyn Granville, the second
African American woman to earn a PhD in mathema cs.
A er gradua ng with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathema cs, E a
began working toward her master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin.
Can you imagine what it was like for a nineteen-year-old black girl from
Tupelo, Mississippi—who had been immersed in segrega on for her whole
life—to a end the racially integrated University of Wisconsin? For E a, it
was a whole new world and her first experience living in a racially
integrated society. For some, the integra on may have been freeing, but
E a found it academically isola ng, with her social interac ons limited to
students from Asia and Africa.
A er earning a Master of Science degree in mathema cs, E a went on
to teach at Spelman College, the first-ever liberal arts college for African
American women. There she became the head of the mathema cs
department.

Why is algebra important?

Algebra is a division of mathema cs designed to help solve problems
quicker and easier. Algebra is important because it simplifies the
solu on of problems. Unlike arithme c, which is based en rely on
known number values, algebra is based on the concept of unknown
values called variables. Physics, engineering, and computer
programming are areas that use algebra all the me. The rules of
algebra work in real life too!
 In 1969, E a became the tenth African American woman to earn a PhD
in mathema cs from Emory University, with a focus on abstract algebra.
E a is recognized by her peers as being one of the most influen al and
respected leaders in mathema cs and science educa on. E a believed that
science programs were very important to the modern world.
E a Zuber Falconer’s biggest goal in life was to get more women
involved in science, math, and engineering, and she fought to do so,
dedica ng her career to increasing the number of African American
women in mathema cs and math-related careers.

Did you know...?

Every odd number has an e in it. Two and five are the only prime
numbers that end in 2 or 5. Zero is not represented in Roman numerals.
Forty is the only number that is spelled with le ers arranged in
alphabe cal order. The word hundred is derived from the word
hundrath, which actually means 120 and not 100.
 ANNIE EASLEY

W
hen Annie Easley was growing up, her mother told her that she
could be anything she wanted, but she would have to work at it.
Annie took that advice to heart. She studied hard and finished high school
as the valedictorian of her class before going on to study pharmacy for two
years. Unfortunately, the university, in New Orleans, she a ended ended
its pharmacy program a short me before Annie was set to graduate, and
no nearby alterna ve existed.
Luckily, Annie read a story in a local newspaper about twin sisters who
worked for the Na onal Advisory Commi ee for Aeronau cs (NACA) as
human computers. She applied for a job the next day and was hired two
weeks later!
Annie began in the computer services division, performing complex
mathema cal calcula ons for the engineers. One of the earliest projects
she worked on was running simula ons for a planned nuclear reactor and
working on nuclear-powered rocket systems.

How does a nuclear-powered rocket

work?
A nuclear-powered rocket engine would use a small nuclear reactor to
generate heat from uranium fuel. That thermal energy would then be
transferred to a liquid propellant—liquid hydrogen—which expands into
a gas and is shot out through a nozzle to produce thrust.

Meanwhile, Annie decided to go back to school. Alongside her full- me

work at NACA, she took a full load of classes. In 1977, she earned her
Bachelor of Science degree in mathema cs from Cleveland State
University.
 When human computers started being replaced by machines, Annie
learned computer programming. She developed computer code for
analyzing alterna ve energy technologies for electric vehicles. Some of her
work later led to ba ery development for hybrid cars.
She also helped develop so ware for Centaur, a booster rocket that
launched spacecra . Annie was literally a rocket scien st. How exci ng it
must have been to become the first African American woman rocket
scien st!
Annie Easley is an American hero, and it’s all thanks to her hard work
and resilience. She is proof that anyone who dares to dream big enough
and work hard enough can be anything and anyone they want to be.

Did you know...?

Launch rockets are actually several rockets linked together. When one
rocket uses all of its fuel, it breaks off and falls away, making the unit
lighter and therefore able to travel faster. Rockets use enormous
parachutes to slow their descent when they come back to Earth. Some
are hundreds of feet wide! Rocket boosters fall into the ocean when
they return to Earth.
 BETTYE WASHINGTON GREENE

B
e ye Washington Greene loved to learn, so she went to college to
study chemistry. It was a magical me for Be ye, because the
same year she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry, she
found the love of her life, William Miller Greene. He was a captain in the
US Air Force, and they loved each other with all their hearts.
Having earned her bachelor’s degree, Be ye then con nued her studies
and earned her PhD in physical chemistry.

What is the study of physical chemistry?

Physical chemistry uses physics to study chemical problems and to
provide a deeper understanding of chemistry. Some physical chemists
are concerned primarily with measuring the physical and chemical
proper es of compounds before, during, and a er a chemical reac on.

In 1965, Be ye joined the Dow Chemical Company’s E. C. Bri on

Research Laboratory. She was the first African American woman to join the
company in a professional posi on. At Dow, she researched latex
chemistry, including interac ons between latex and paper.
Be ye was later promoted to senior research chemist at Dow Chemical,
and in 1973, she joined Dow Chemical’s Designed Polymers Research
Division, working to find polymers that could improve latex. Be ye
developed numerous products through her research, including a latex
adhesive, and held a number of patents.

What is latex?
Latex is the milky sap of the rubber tree. It is used to make rubber
products such as balloons, balls and other toys, pacifiers, and many
medical products. Although there are roughly two hundred kinds of
plants in the world that produce latex, over 99 percent of the world’s
natural rubber is made from the latex that comes from a tree species
called Hevea brasiliensis, widely known as the rubber tree

In addi on to her work at Dow, Be ye Washington Greene was ac ve in

community service and was a founding member of the Delta Sigma Theta
Sorority, Inc., a na onal service group for African American women.

Did you know...?

What’s the difference between a chemical change and a physical
change? Physical changes usually concern physical states of ma er.
Chemical changes happen when atomic bonds are broken or created
during chemical reac ons. This occurs on a molecular level, when two
or more molecules interact.
 JOHNNETTA BETSCH COLE

E
ver since Johnne a Betsch Cole was a li le girl, she was fascinated
by how people interacted with one another and the groups people
created. Johnne a had a strong role model—her grandfather was Florida’s
first black millionaire—and she knew she would have to work hard to
achieve her dreams.
Johnne a graduated with a degree in sociology, then went right back to
school, earning her master’s and PhD in anthropology with a focus on
African studies from Northwestern University. As part of her final
coursework, Johnne a traveled to Liberia in West Africa, where she was
able to study the local culture.
In 1987, Johnne a was appointed to the presidency of Spelman College,
becoming the first African American woman to hold that posi on. During
her presidency, Spelman was named the top liberal arts college in the
South. In 2002, she was appointed to the presidency of Benne College. As
president, Johnne a oversaw the crea on of an African women’s studies
program.

What is anthropology?
Anthropology is the study of humanity through the applica on of
biology, cultural studies, archaeology, linguis cs, and other social
sciences. Anthropologists study the origins and development of human
beings and their cultures. Modern anthropology is o en divided into
four dis nct subdisciplines: biological anthropology, cultural
anthropology, linguis c anthropology, and archaeology.

Johnne a is the only individual to have served as the president of both

of the only two historically black colleges for women. She was also named
director of the Smithsonian Na onal Museum of African Art and was the
first African American to be chair of the board of United Way of America.
But Johnne a’s talents didn’t just lie in academia. She also served on the
corporate boards of Home Depot, Merck, and Na on’s Bank South and was
the first woman to serve on the board of Coca-Cola Enterprises.
Johnne a Betsch Cole was such a hardworking woman that she received
forty honorary degrees! She didn’t believe in hiding issues from the world.
Instead, she focused on revealing problems in culture, races, and genders.
For that, she received the Candace Award, an award only given to
wonderful African American role models.

Did you know...?

Many global companies hire anthropologists. For example, Google
hires anthropologists to understand internet search pa erns, Intel
employs anthropology graduates to study how culture shapes
customers’ technology habits, and “industrial anthropologists” at
General Motors study the company’s corporate culture.
 BETTY WRIGHT HARRIS

O
ne of eleven children, Be y Wright Harris grew up on a farm.
When she wasn’t doing chores, Be y spent her me reading and
studying everything she could find. Even from a young age, she was
fascinated by chemistry.
Be y did excep onally well in school and began college at the age of
sixteen. She received her bachelor’s degree in science at only nineteen and
then enrolled in a master’s program. When she finished school, Be y
began a career teaching mathema cs and chemistry. Later on, she
returned to school, earning a PhD in chemistry from the University of New
Mexico.
A er she received her PhD, Be y worked in labs, studying explosive
materials. She even developed a test that easily detected a dangerous
explosive in the field. Outside of her work in the lab, Be y also worked in
big companies, managing teams and working with complex chemical
technology.

What is an explosive material made of?

An explosive material is made of reac ve ma er that contains a great
amount of poten al energy that can produce an explosion if released
suddenly, usually accompanied by the produc on of light, heat, sound,
and pressure. A chemist studies the proper es of ma er and how
ma er interacts with energy. Ma er is anything that you can touch,
see, feel, or smell. Everything on Earth is made of ma er. Ma er is
made of ny building blocks called atoms. An atom represents a specific
element, like hydrogen or oxygen or carbon. All ma er in the universe is
made of different combina ons of atoms.
 Be y Harris has received several awards for her contribu ons to
chemistry and has been a member of the American Chemical Society for
five decades. As an African American woman, she didn’t want the next
genera on of female scien sts of color to face the challenges she faced
throughout her career.
An inventor and a prominent chemist, Be y Wright Harris knew it was
important to give back. She worked with small children and Girl Scouts,
inspiring them and teaching them about chemistry and its uses.

Did you know...?

The human body contains enough carbon to provide lead (which is
really graphite) for about nine thousand pencils.
One bucket full of water contains more atoms than there are buckets
of water in the Atlan c Ocean.
If you pour a handful of salt into a full glass of water, the water level
will actually go down rather than overflowing the glass.
 RUBY PURYEAR HEARN

R
uby Puryear Hearn was born in North Carolina. She earned an
undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Skidmore College and
completed a master’s degree and PhD in biophysics from Yale University.
She was an excellent student, regularly appearing on the dean’s list.
Ruby appreciated all the opportuni es she was given in life and wanted
other African Americans to have the same opportuni es. As a student at
Skidmore College, she wrote a le er to the college newspaper. In it, she
cri cized the editor’s failure to support the an discrimina on protests
African American students held at Woolworth’s stores.
Although her degrees were in biophysics, the bulk of Ruby’s career was
spent on improving the well-being and health of at-risk children and
ge ng them those same opportuni es she was afforded. She worked for
many years at the Robert Wood Johnson Founda on, a philanthropical
health care organiza on, where she focused on infant, child, and maternal
health.

What does a biophysicist do?

Biophysics is a branch of science in which the laws of physics are used
to study biology—the science of life and living things. Biophysicists
examine pa erns in biology and establish principles that describe them.
Biophysics has been cri cal to understanding the mechanics of how the
molecules of life are made, how different parts of a cell move and
func on, and how complex systems in our bodies—the brain, circula on,
immune system, and others—work.

She also focused on minority medical educa on, substance abuse, and
AIDS and created several programs devoted to helping at-risk youth. Ruby
eventually became senior vice president at the founda on. She was such a
wonderful scien st that they didn’t want her to go!
Ruby also served as a member of the Science Board of the Food and
Drug Administra on (FDA). The FDA is an agency within the US Department
of Health and Human Services. They are responsible for protec ng the
public.
It is important that we celebrate the achievements of women like Ruby
Puryear Hearn so that society finally sees the edifice of scien fic
knowledge being built by all of these black women who contributed.

Did you know...?

Our bodies are very smart. Some mes we need to move so fast that
our brains don’t have me to think, so our body just bypasses the brain.
For example, when we touch something hot, our hand actually moves
before the brain tells it to.
 CHRISTINE DARDEN

W
hile other li le girls were having tea par es with their dolls,
Chris ne Darden was taking her toys apart to see how they
worked. She even loved helping her dad fix his car! It was this interest in
knowing how things worked that led Chris ne to math and science.
Chris ne graduated high school as valedictorian and got a scholarship to
Hampton University. She graduated with a degree in mathema cs and
received a teaching cer ficate so she could teach the subject in high
school. She then returned to school to be a research assistant, where she
mainly studied aerosol physics—the suspension of solid or liquid par cles
in a gas.
Then, in 1967, NASA hired Chris ne to be a data analyst at their Langley
Research Center. She began her career with NASA as a human computer
before slipping into aeronau cal research. Aeronau cs is the science of
construc ng aircra .

What is aerodynamics?
Aerodynamics is the branch of physics that deals with the dynamics of
air as it interacts with solid objects, such as airplane wings. Anything
that flies, such as airplanes, helicopters, and birds, u lizes the principles
of aerodynamics to move through the air.
Chris ne was soon promoted to be an engineer in the field, where she
became a leader of the Sonic Boom Team. A sonic boom is the sound
associated with the shock waves created whenever an object traveling
through the air travels faster than the speed of sound. Chris ne’s team
focused on making designs that lowered the bad side effects of sonic
booms.
Chris ne’s career spanned 40 years, and nearly all of it was spent
working on aerodynamics for NASA. The planes that fly through our skies
today owe much to Chris ne’s dedicated work.
Chris ne Darden demonstrated to the younger genera on that you
should never hide your intelligence. If a young man or woman enjoyed
mathema cs or any of the STEM careers, they should work hard to follow
their dreams. Some mes you have to go out of your way and leave your
best things behind to achieve something big in life. That’s exactly what
Chris ne did!

Did you know...?

Turbulence is caused by several factors, including jet streams and
masses of rising hot air. Other causes include currents from storms,
other planes, or air passing over mountains. Turbulence can occur in
clear, cloudless weather as well as in bad weather. It is the number-one
cause of in-flight injuries.
 PATRICIA BATH

W
hen she was just a young girl, Patricia Bath’s mother bought her
a chemistry set that gave her the inspira on to become a
doctor. Although neither of Patricia’s parents had much in the way of
school learning, they both believed in the importance of an educa on. As
she struggled through issues of racism, sexism, and poverty, her parents
were there to support her. They mo vated her to read about all sorts of
cultures and gain a good educa on.
Patricia worked so hard that she graduated high school in two and a half
years. She graduated with honors from college and earned a medical
degree before moving on to study ophthalmology.
Patricia was the first African American to specialize in ophthalmology.
Her research uncovered that African Americans have much higher chances
of suffering from blindness than other races. Patricia didn’t like those odds.
She believed technology should be used to bring medical help to isolated
areas, so she created community ophthalmology, where volunteers
brought be er eye care to the underprivileged.

What do ophthalmologists do?

An ophthalmologist is a medical doctor who specializes in eye and
vision care. Ophthalmologists differ from optometrists and op cians in
their levels of training and in what they can diagnose and treat.

Patricia later traveled to California, where she became the first woman
member of UCLA’s Department of Ophthalmology. A year later, Patricia
cofounded the American Ins tute for the Preven on of Blindness, and later
UCLA-Drew’s Ophthalmology Residency Training Program. She was the first
woman in the country to be chair of such a program.
 One of Patricia’s biggest accomplishments was her inven on of the
Laserphaco Probe. By using lasers, Patricia created a treatment to repair
cataracts that wasn’t painful and was more accurate than what had
previously existed. Gaining her patent was another first, as she became the
first African American woman to hold a patent for a medical device. Her
device helped people regain their sight.
Patricia Bath believed that everyone had “the right to sight.” She
dedicated her career to helping people gain this right, enabling them to
once again see the beau ful world we live in.

Did you know...?

When people are myopic, or short-sighted, the muscles in their eyes
don’t relax enough, so the natural lens is slightly too fat and too strong.
When people are hyperopic, or far-sighted, they have the opposite
problem. Their eye muscles can’t make the lens fat and strong enough.
 VALERIE L. THOMAS

V
alerie L. Thomas’s interest in technology started in childhood. One
of the first technology books she read was called The Boy’s First
Book on Electronics. Back then, most people thought that only boys could
have technology- and science-related careers. Girls weren’t even
encouraged to learn about technology.
Valerie went to an all-girls school, where she and the other students
really weren’t taught about technology. But Valerie didn’t allow that to
discourage her. She decided to study physics at Morgan State University,
where she found that she was gi ed in math and science.
When she finished her educa on, she began a career at NASA as a
mathema cal/data analyst. NASA was thrilled with Valerie’s work, and
eventually she was given the job of managing development of a very
important image processing system—the first satellite designed to send
back images from outer space.

What is optics?
Op cs is the study of the behavior and proper es of light. It is a
scien fic branch of physics describing how light behaves and interacts
with ma er. Op cs is the science of light. The power and special
proper es of light can be used to explore the universe.

Curious about how light and concave mirrors could be used in her work
at NASA, Valerie created an experiment in which she observed how the
posi on of a concave mirror would affect the real object that it reflected.
The result of Valerie’s research was the inven on of the illusion
transmi er, a device she later obtained the patent for. An illusion is
something that tricks the senses into seeing something differently than it
exists in reality. The illusion transmi er produces op cal illusion images via
two concave mirrors. Unlike flat mirrors, which produce images that
appear to be inside or behind the mirror, concave mirrors create images
that appear to be real, or in front of the mirror itself. The illusion
transmi er is s ll used by NASA, as well as by scien sts who are trying to
use it in other technologies.
A brilliant scien st who enjoyed a memorable career, Valerie L. Thomas
didn’t let unfair social a tudes stop her from developing and using her
talents.

Did you know...?

Light travels in a completely straight line called light waves un l it hits
an object that will bend it. A light wave is made up of energy in the form
of magne c and electric fields. We can see things in space due to light
bouncing off of the objects in space.
 GEORGIA MAE DUNSTON

S
ince she was li le, Georgia Mae Dunston loved learning about the
biology of race. She found it interes ng to see similar traits in
people from all over the world, but she was also curious about the traits
that make us all different. It wasn’t long before Georgia realized she was
des ned to learn more about the subject.
Georgia went to college, where she received her degrees in biology. In
1972, Georgia earned a PhD in human gene cs at the University of
Michigan.
A er earning her PhD, Georgia spent several years as an assistant
professor at the Howard University Cancer Center before joining the
Na onal Cancer Ins tute, where she worked in an immunodiagnos cs lab
that focused on tes ng for cancer. Here, Georgia researched the different
diseases that hurt African American people and the unique genes that only
appeared in their community.

What is genetics?
Gene cs is the study of how living things inherit features like eye color,
nose shape, height, and even behavior from their parents. For example,
gene cs can tell you how likely a baby is to have green, blue, or brown
eyes. Gene cists are biologists who study genes, heredity, and varia on
in living things. The study of gene cs can be applied to all living things,
whether they be bacteria, plants, animals, or human beings.

Georgia’s work resulted in the founding of the Na onal Human Genome

Center at Howard University in 2001. She raised funds to build labs and
recruit other inves gators to head various gene c research departments
focusing on African Americans, Africans, and other African diaspora
popula ons. Georgia saw the gene c heritage of the African diaspora as
especially rich due to the fact that Africa is believed to be the birthplace of
humankind and of the human genome itself.
Georgia Mae Dunston received many awards for the work she did
throughout the course of her career. She has spent a career performing
cu ng edge research in the field of human gene cs, and she has
established programs for research scien sts at minority ins tu ons of
higher learning. Her contribu on was groundbreaking and will never be
forgo en.

Did you know...?

Genes are the basic units of heredity. They consist of DNA and are
part of a larger structure called the chromosome. Chromosomes are
ny structures inside cells made from DNA and protein. The informa on
inside chromosomes acts like a recipe that tells cells how to func on.
The actual instruc ons inside the chromosome are stored in a long
molecule called DNA. DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid.
 LILIA ANN ABRON

L
ilia Ann Abron grew up surrounded by school. Her father was a
school principal, and her mother was a school teacher. Her parents
recognized the importance of school and encouraged her to get a good
educa on.
Lilia went to LeMoyne College and graduated with a degree in sanitary
engineering—also known as public health engineering or wastewater
engineering. Lilia wanted to learn how to help poorer communi es by
keeping them cleaner, primarily by properly ge ng rid of human waste
and making water cleaner to drink. She knew it was important to take care
of the environment for future genera ons.
Lilia loved what she was learning, but it wasn’t enough. She decided to
con nue with her studies and soon added a degree in chemical
engineering from the University of Iowa to her resume. Lilia made history
at the university by becoming the first African American woman to earn a
PhD in chemical engineering.

What does an environmental engineer

do?
Environmental engineering can help provide clean water, minimize
pollu on, and improve the environment. Environmental engineers work
in a number of areas that can relate to air pollu on, waste disposal,
recycling, global warming, water pollu on, and other environmental
issues. Part of the role of an environmental engineer is to guide people
toward reducing the environmental dangers created by past
genera ons.

S ll, Lilia’s love of science wasn’t sa sfied, and she created the company
PEER Consultants, which focuses on finding ways to help the environment.
Again, she made history by becoming the first-ever African American to
found an environmental engineering company.
Through her company, Lilia created PEER Africa, which built be er, more
energy-efficient homes in South Africa. Her work in South Africa allowed
her to merge her two passions: helping others in need and helping the
environment become healthier. In 2004, she was welcomed into the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences for all her hard work.
Lilia Ann Abron used her business acumen and engineering exper se to
promote science educa on in primary and secondary schools.

Did you know...?

Twenty-seven thousand trees are cut down each day so that we can
have toilet paper. We could save seventy-five thousand trees if we
recycled the paper used on the daily run of The New York Times alone! If
the en re world lived like the average American, we’d need five planets
to provide enough resources.
 SHIRLEY ANN JACKSON

S
hirley Ann Jackson loved science, so it was no surprise when she
graduated high school at the top of her class and moved on to MIT
—the Massachuse s Ins tute of Technology. This was quite the
accomplishment, as entry to MIT for African Americans was rare, and it
was even rarer for women. Many people—from other students to
professors—tried to discourage Shirley’s studies, but she persevered and
received her PhD degree in nuclear physics, becoming only the second
African American woman in the United States to earn such a degree—and
the first from MIT.
Upon gradua on, Shirley was hired to be a research associate at Fermi
Na onal Accelerator Laboratory. Her focus there was theore cal physics.
Theore cal physics is a branch of physics that uses mathema cal models
to explain and predict natural events like earthquakes.
She later joined Bell Telephone Laboratories as a member of the
technical staff for theore cal physics. There, Shirley researched the
connec on between ceramic materials and electric currents.

What is nuclear physics?

While atomic physics deals with atoms as a whole, nuclear physics
deals specifically with the nucleus of the atom. Although physicists are
s ll working to understand the area around the nucleus, they are more
concerned with the forces at work keeping that nucleus together.
Discoveries in nuclear physics have led to applica ons in nuclear power,
nuclear weapons, nuclear medicine, and magne c resonance imaging.

In 1991, Shirley was honored to be hired as a professor of physics at

Rutgers University. A few years later, Shirley was chosen as the president of
the Na onal Society of Black Physicists. Shirley con nued in her high
posi on in the field when President Bill Clinton chose her as the chair of
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. One year later, she was accepted into
the Na onal Women’s Hall of Fame.
Shirley Ann Jackson was also the first African American woman to be
president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Ins tute. She always took the
opportunity to speak up for minority groups and women who were in the
science field.

Did you know...?

Einstein’s Theory of Special Rela vity states that the faster you go, the
slower me passes for you rela ve to your surroundings.
Special rela vity also says that space and me are connected. Time
can actually speed up if you’re moving slowly through space or slow
down if you’re moving quickly. Together, space and me are called
space- me. Space- me is like a giant trampoline that can “bend”
around big things like planets and stars.
 PATRICIA S. COWINGS

P
atricia S. Cowings grew up knowing that a good educa on was the
only way out of poverty. Luckily for her, Patricia loved to learn. Her
favorite subject was science, although she also enjoyed psychology and
psychophysiology. These are the study of how a person’s mind and body
interact with each other.
Patricia decided to par cipate in an engineering class, where she had the
opportunity to design a real space shu le! It was at that moment Patricia
knew she wanted to work in space technology. She earned a psychology
degree and began working for NASA, where she conducted research at
NASA’s Ames Research Center and created a training system named
Autogenic-Feedback Training Exercise (AFTE). Patricia’s program was meant
to help create be er self-control over a person’s body, especially when it
came to space mo on sickness.
Patricia worked with four cosmonauts—Russian astronauts—to help
them control their mo on sickness and con nued to offer AFTE training to
other astronauts to be er prepare them for what they would eventually
experience on their missions and upon their return to Earth.

What causes motion sickness?

Mo on sickness occurs due to a difference between actual and
expected mo on. Symptoms commonly include nausea and vomi ng. It
is caused by repeated mo on from a vehicle or any other movements
that disturb the inner ear.

Patricia was the first African American woman scien st on NASA’s team
to be trained to be an astronaut. In 1979, she was selected as an alternate
astronaut to go into space, but unfortunately she never had the
opportunity to do so.
 Later, she became the principal inves gator of the Psychophysiological
Research Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center. She has also held
adjunct professorships in psychiatry at UCLA and in both medical and
clinical psychology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health
Sciences.
Patricia S. Cowings began her career at NASA more than thirty years ago
as the first black female scien st to be trained as an astronaut payload
specialist. She went on to become the recipient of a variety of awards for
her incredible and inspiring work.

Did you know...?

The low gravity in space allows astronauts to float around, which
looks very fun, but it can cause space sickness. Space sickness is the
nausea and disorienta on felt by many astronauts. NASA uses the term
space adapta on syndrome instead of space sickness. It more closely
describes the problem, because it is an issue of the astronaut struggling
to adapt to weightlessness in space. The cause of space adapta on
syndrome is s ll not fully understood.
 EVELYN J. FIELDS

G
rowing up in a coastal city, Evelyn J. Fields never had much
interest in ge ng a job around water. She saw too much of it on a
daily basis, and she wanted something different, so she went to college
and received a mathema cs degree.
Following gradua on, some friends men oned that she would be the
perfect fit at the city’s Atlan c Marine Center, which was part of the
Na onal Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra on (NOAA). Suddenly, the
woman who wanted nothing to do with the water found herself working
for the Atlan c Marine Center as a civilian cartographer. Have you ever
wondered who creates maps? That’s the job of a cartographer!
In 1973, when the NOAA Corps—a uniformed service separate from the
other military branches—began recrui ng women, Evelyn became the first
African American woman to join. Evelyn worked aboard a fisheries
research vessel, measuring and char ng the waters. The science of
surveying and char ng bodies of water is called hydrography. Evelyn was in
charge of measuring physical features of the ocean and predic ng how
they would change.

What is sonar, and how does it work?

Sonar—short for Sound Naviga on and Ranging—is a machine that
uses underwater sound waves to find other objects in the sea, making
use of an echo. It is also used to measure precise water depth on the
ocean floor and find any obstruc ons on the floor.
Evelyn did excellent work and was soon promoted to be a commanding
officer on the NOAA Ship McArthur. She was the first woman ever chosen
as a commanding officer!
Through Evelyn’s hard work, she was picked to be the second US
Exchange hydrographer with Canada. It was a big honor. When she finished
with the exchange program, Evelyn was put to work cri quing and deciding
whether the hydrographic survey data submi ed was good enough to be
accepted. Hydrographic survey data uses sonar technology.
In 1999, President Bill Clinton appointed Evelyn J. Fields as the director
of the NOAA Corps, which came with a simultaneous promo on to rear
admiral of the NOAA Corps. She was the first woman and the first African
American to serve as director of NOAA and the first to hold the rank of rear
admiral.

Did you know...?

Three-quarters of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, with the
biggest bodies of water being the Atlan c, Pacific, Southern, Indian, and
Arc c Oceans. Only two-thirds of marine life have been documented
and studied. There are millions more species that remain to be
discovered!
 MARY STYLES HARRIS

M
ary Styles Harris always knew she wanted to go to medical
school. But unlike most people who become doctors, Mary did
not want to treat pa ents. She wanted to research ways to help people.
Mary worked hard and earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from
Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, followed by a PhD in gene cs from
Cornell University. Once she completed her schooling, Mary was awarded a
Na onal Cancer Research postdoctoral fellowship. Although she loved
research, she eventually decided to leave lab work and accept a job with
the Sickle Cell Founda on of Georgia as its execu ve director.
As the execu ve director of the Sickle Cell Founda on, Mary worked
hard to make people understand and recognize the symptoms and effects
of sickle-cell anemia. Sickle-cell anemia can cause many different
dangerous and life-changing illnesses. It needs to be diagnosed and treated
as quickly as possible.

What is sickle-cell anemia?

Within your body, you have red blood cells and white blood cells. Red
blood cells have the important job of carrying oxygen through the body.
Each me your heart beats, blood is pumped through your veins, and
oxygen is carried to your cells. Not having enough red blood cells means
that certain areas of the body don’t get enough oxygen. People who
have sickle-cell anemia have s cky, rigid, and strangely shaped red
blood cells instead of round and flexible ones, which makes it difficult for
them to carry oxygen to all parts of the body

Mary Styles Harris has also worked to improve awareness of breast

cancer. Her life shows that we ought to share our knowledge with others to
help them live healthier lives. We also need to be ambi ous and make use
of our talents, as Mary made use of her talent for science to change many
people’s lives for the be er.

Did you know...?

Blood is made up of blood cells and plasma. Plasma is a yellowish
fluid that has nutrients, proteins, hormones, and waste products.
There are several different types of blood cells. Each has a different
job.
Red blood cells are made in the inside part of bones called the bone
marrow.
White blood cells are a key part of the immune system. The immune
system helps the body defend itself against infec on.
Platelets are ny, oval-shaped cells that help in the clo ng process.
When a blood vessel breaks, platelets gather in the area and help seal
off the leak.
 ALEXA CANADY

A
s teenagers, Alexa Canady and her brother were the only black
students in their school. In spite of the hardship this caused, Alexa
stayed at the top of her class, gradua ng with honors. When she began
college, however, things didn’t go as well. Alexa had trouble adjus ng to
college and almost dropped out of school. Then a lucky thing happened.
Alexa a ended a gene cs lab. Suddenly, she felt inspired. She realized she
wanted to go into medicine.
Being an African American woman, Alexa faced great adversity every
step of the way. People all around her pushed back, telling her she could
not be a doctor. But Alexa did not listen. She completed medical school and
her internship and then went on to become the first African American
woman in the United States to become a neurosurgery resident.
Alexa worked her way up through the department, ul mately being
promoted to chief of neurosurgery in a pediatric hospital, a posi on she
held un l her re rement. For her work, Canady was inducted into the
Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 1989 and received the American
Medical Women’s Associa on President’s Award in 1993.

What is neurosurgery?
Neurosurgery is the surgical specialty that focuses on diseases and
injuries involving the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system. The
nervous system is a complex network of threadlike nerves and cells that
carry messages from the brain and spinal cord to various parts of the body,
including the sensory organs, arms, hands, legs, and feet. A neurosurgeon’s
areas of responsibility include the treatment of strokes and brain tumors,
epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease, chronic back pain, and even carpal tunnel
syndrome.
 Alexa Canady’s career and vast accomplishments echoed throughout the
world and showed children everywhere that no dream is too big.

Did you know...?

There are around 100 billion neurons in the human brain—to
illustrate just how many that is, it’s about the same number of stars that
exist in our galaxy! Humans con nue to make new neurons throughout
life in response to mental ac vity.
Alcohol interferes with brain processes by weakening connec ons
between the neurons.
The le side of your brain (le hemisphere) controls the right side of
your body; the right side of your brain (right hemisphere) controls the
le side of your body.
While awake, your brain generates between ten and twenty-three
wa s of power—enough energy to power a light bulb.
 CHERYL L. SHAVERS

C
heryl Shavers had a difficult childhood. Her mother was a house
cleaner and struggled to earn much money. Luckily, Cheryl won a
scholarship to a end Mesa Community College. There, she earned an
associate’s degree in chemistry, a er which she went to Arizona State
University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry.
Cheryl worked in a data processing center at night to pay for her tui on.
A er gradua ng and gaining some career experience in the technology
industry and with the US government, she returned to school to get her
PhD degree in solid state chemistry. Cheryl become an expert in
semiconductors.
In 1999, President Bill Clinton nominated Cheryl to be the under
secretary of commerce for technology. Being under secretary of commerce
for technology meant that Cheryl had to oversee government technology
programs and take part in policy development. Her work helped to allow
for the further development of web commerce, which means buying things
online.

What are semiconductors?

A semiconductor is a material that, under certain condi ons, will
conduct electricity. The flowing of electric current through a wire can
some mes be thought of like the flowing of water through a pipe. The
electrical conduc vity of a material is a measurement of the ability of
the material to allow for the flow of electrical current. The material’s
conduc vity can be controlled by adding impuri es—a specific amount
of other materials—to the semiconductor. Silicon is the most important
commercial semiconductor, although many others are used.
Semiconductors are the founda on of modern electronics.
 Cheryl held this posi on un l 2001, a er which she set up Global
Smarts, a consultancy and business strategy company.
In addi on to all her other impressive accomplishments, Cheryl L.
Shavers has also been involved in radio, producing and hos ng radio talk
programs. In 1996, she was honored in the Women in Technology
Interna onal Hall of Fame!

Did you know...?

All of the things in our home or car that are plugged in use energy,
even when not in use or turned off. This is called phantom energy. The
devices keep using energy in this state because all of those electronics
are standing by, ready to jump back to life when you need them.
Phantom energy can account for 15 percent or more of the total
electricity used by these gadgets. The best way to avoid this wasted
energy is by unplugging these electronics when they’re not in use.
 DALE BROWN EMEAGWALI

F
rom the me she was very li le, Dale Brown Emeagwali had a big
dream: she wanted to be a scien st. As a child, Dale experimented
with anything she could find. She even read books and tried to recreate
chemical experiments in her kitchen.
Dale’s parents encouraged her, but the world around her was not as
kind. Other people told Dale that African Americans couldn’t be scien sts.
She was told that black people weren’t good at math and that they
couldn’t be successful. But Dale refused to believe the doubters. She
con nued studying and working toward her goal.
A er she earned her PhD in microbiology from Georgetown, Dale earned
postdoctoral fellowships at the Na onal Ins tutes of Health and the
Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences.

What is microbiology?
Microbiology is the study of ny creatures called microbes that are
invisible to the eye. Microbes are one-celled organisms that can only be
seen with a microscope. They include the different bacteria and viruses
that are all around us.

Dale’s findings in the field of biochemistry have been groundbreaking.

She developed a system for the analysis of a significant cellular protein, the
results of which would affect the current understanding of how some
proteins work. And in the field of virology, Dale worked with a DNA virus
and found the existence of overlapping genes. This discovery shed light on
how organisms may be able to more efficiently use limited gene c
material.
Dale has won many awards for her work, including a Scien st of the Year
award and a few Fellowship Awards for her cancer research. But perhaps
her most important contribu on has been her con nued fight for the
rights of African Americans. Dale never wanted anyone else to feel as put-
down as she was, and she even went so far as to create an African
American Science Day—a day when students learn about black scien sts
and their work.
Dale Brown Emeagwali’s work has inspired young girls and African
Americans all over the country. She wants children to know that anyone,
regardless of their race or gender, can be anything they want to be.

Did you know...?

The human mouth is home to more than five hundred species of
bacteria. Each square inch of your skin averages about one hundred
thousand bacteria. There are more bacteria in a person’s mouth than
there are people in the world.
Newborn babies do not have any bacteria on their body.
Microbes generate at least 50 percent of the oxygen we breathe.
 WANDA AUSTIN

F
or Wanda Aus n, all it took was one day to change her life forever.
Being one of few African American students in her school, Wanda
usually didn’t get much a en on from her teachers. Then one day, when
she was in seventh grade, her math teacher had the class do a difficult
algebra problem. When he handed back the papers, he said, loud enough
for the class to hear, “Hey, you’re good at math; don’t let anyone tell you
you’re not.” This praise inspired Wanda. She doubled down on math,
skipped eighth grade, and was accepted into the elite The Bronx High
School of Science.
Following high school, Wanda went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from
Franklin and Marshall College, a master’s degree in systems engineering
and mathema cs from the University of Pi sburgh, and a PhD in systems
engineering from the University of Southern California (USC).
From there, Wanda pursued a career in aerospace engineering. In 2008,
Wanda made history as the first woman and first African American to lead
The Aerospace Corpora on—a company that designs the United States’
na onal security space programs.

What is systems engineering?

Systems engineering enables the building, analyzing, and managing of
a system—it can be electrical, mechanical, chemical, biological, or one
involving business processes and logis cs. Systems engineering deals
with complex engineering projects that should be designed and
managed over the life cycle of the project.

Wanda also served on the Review of US Human Space Flight Plans

Commi ee, and in 2015, President Barack Obama appointed her to the
Defense Science Board. In 2018, she broke ground again as the first woman
and first African American to lead USC as its president with her
appointment by the USC Board of Trustees. She also won the Na onal
Reconnaissance Office Gold Medal, the Air Force Scroll of Apprecia on,
and the Na onal Intelligence Medal for Meritorious Service.
Above all, Wanda Aus n wants to encourage young people to enter
science and engineering careers. She has been involved in programs and
ini a ves to help achieve this, including Change the Equa on, US FIRST
Robo cs, and MATHCOUNTS.

Did you know...?

Footprints and re tracks le behind by astronauts on the moon will
stay there forever, as there is no wind to blow them away.
Due to lower gravity, a person who weighs two hundred pounds on
earth would only weigh seventy-six pounds on the surface of Mars.
Venus is the ho est planet in our solar system, with a surface
temperature of over 842 degrees Fahrenheit.
 SPECIOZA WANDIRA KAZIBWE

S
pecioza Wandira Kazibwe was born and raised in Uganda. Even
from a young age, she knew she wanted to make an impact on the
world, so she went to college. It wasn’t long before she graduated with
degrees in medicine and surgery. She later returned to school to get a
higher degree so she could specialize in general surgery.
Specioza could have had a brilliant career as a surgeon, but her heart
was elsewhere, in helping her country. Following gradua on, Specioza
joined the Ugandan Democra c Party as a member of the youth and
women’s wings. In 1987, she won her first elec on, becoming a village
leader. As a poli cian, Specioza had one goal: to speak out in favor of
women gaining higher posi ons in Africa. One of her key accomplishments
was the crea on of the African Women Commi ee on Peace and
Development, which helped women to be part of African processes that
encouraged development and peace.
A er her beginning as a village leader, she went on to hold many
important posi ons, including minister for gender and community
development. Then, in 1994, she was elected Uganda’s vice president!

What does a general surgeon do?

A general surgeon does not focus on one area of the body, like the
brain or the heart, but on the whole body. Areas of the body treated by
general surgery include the stomach, liver, and other internal organs,
skin, so ssue, and endocrine system.

As impressive as becoming vice president is, Specioza wasn’t done

standing up for women. In 2002, she publicly announced a decision to
divorce her husband, revealing that she had suffered from domes c
violence for far too long. Unfortunately, domes c abuse is quite normal in
Uganda, and divorce is quite rare, so Specioza’s act of filing for divorce was
almost unheard of. But she knew she had to show women that it was okay
to stand up for themselves.
Specioza Wandira Kazibwe had an impressive career, and she never
stopped figh ng for the empowerment of women. In her own words, “Men
have tried to resolve conflicts with poor results. It’s now me that women
took their place at the peace table.”

Did you know...?

The liver helps us to break down food and rid our bodies of toxins.
The stomach secretes enzymes that help to break down our food before
it goes to the small intes ne. The kidneys help to keep our bodies clean
from toxins and other waste products. Without our kidneys, our blood
would quickly become poisoned.
 A. OVETA FULLER

A
s a child, Oveta Fuller spent a lot of me with her grandmother,
who had several issues with her health. Oveta didn’t understand
why some of her grandmother’s condi ons could be treated while others
couldn’t. It was then she realized that more scien fic research needed to
be done to help people with problems like her grandmother’s.
Oveta was determined to find out how viruses got into human cells.
Following high school, she got a scholarship to the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she chose biology as her major and later
went on to earn a PhD degree in microbiology and immunology.
Immunology is the study of immunity to certain illnesses, a subject
Oveta held dear, as her grandmother’s illnesses s ll stayed in her mind.
Focusing on this area, Oveta and her research team dove into HIV and
herpes, discovering a B5 receptor that has helped scien sts be er
understand herpes. Oveta also worked with African na ons to help in the
preven on and early detec on of such diseases as HIV and Ebola.

What is a cell?
Human beings are made up of cells that fit together like bricks in a
wall. The cell is the basic unit of life. Some organisms are made up of a
single cell, like bacteria, while others are made up of trillions of cells.
Within the cell membrane are two major compartments, the cytoplasm
and the nucleus. The cytoplasm contains structures that consume and
transform energy and perform the cell’s func ons. The nucleus contains
the cell’s gene c material and the structures that control cell division
and reproduc on.
Over the course of her career, Oveta held many different academic
posi ons and won many awards, including the Na onal Ins tutes of Health
Postdoctoral Research Award, the Thornton Professional Achievement
Award, and the Na onal Technical Associa on Service Award.
 A. Oveta Fuller devoted herself to important studies that can make a real
difference in the lives of people just like her grandmother. And we are all
be er off for it!

Did you know...?

The word cell comes from the La n word cellula, which means “small
compartment.” Your body contains more than two hundred types of
cells that do different jobs. The longest cells in the human body are the
motor neurons—they can be up to four and a half feet long. Viruses
inject their gene c material right into a cell and take over—they then
use the cell to make more viruses and take over more cells.
 MAE JEMISON

T
he youngest of three children, Mae Jemison was introduced to the
world of science by her uncle. At a very early age, Mae developed
interests in anthropology, archaeology, and astronomy, all of which she
pursued throughout her childhood.
At the age of sixteen, Mae Jemison enrolled at Stanford University. She
graduated with degrees in both chemical engineering and Afro-American
studies, and she later received a Doctor of Medicine degree from Cornell
University.
Mae Jemison went on to prac ce medicine as a volunteer in a
Cambodian refugee camp and as a medical officer with the Peace Corps in
West Africa. She was working as a general prac oner in Los Angeles,
California, when NASA selected her and fourteen others for astronaut
training.

What is space made of?

Outer space begins about one hundred kilometers above Earth. Space
is usually regarded as being completely empty, but this is not true. The
vast gaps between the stars and planets are filled with huge amounts of
thinly spread gas and dust. It is also filled with many forms of radia on
that are dangerous to astronauts. Much of this infrared and ultraviolet
radia on comes from the sun.

Mae Jemison completed her training as a mission specialist with NASA in

1988 and went on to join the crew of the space shu le Endeavour. In 1992,
as a mission specialist aboard the Endeavour, Mae Jemison became the
first African American woman to enter space!
In choosing what she would carry into space, Mae was though ul. She
brought with her pieces of art from West African cultures and a photo of
Bessie Coleman, the first African American woman to fly a plane. These
were meant to show the world that those items belonged not just to
African Americans but to everyone.
Mae Jemison is a member of the Na onal Academy of Sciences’ Ins tute
of Medicine, and she has been inducted into the Na onal Women’s Hall of
Fame, Na onal Medical Associa on Hall of Fame, and Texas Science Hall of
Fame. She has received mul ple awards and honorary degrees. As a
doctor, engineer, and NASA astronaut, Mae Jemison has always reached for
the stars!

Did you know...?

To prac ce space walks, astronauts go underwater—they use a huge
swimming pool. Astronauts float in the water while they prac ce on full-
sized models of space vehicles. They may spend up to seven hours at a
me under water.
 REGINA MARCIA BENJAMIN

R
egina Marcia Benjamin had a challenging childhood. Her parents
split up, and she was raised by her mother, who worked as a
cosmetologist and domes c worker to earn enough for the family.
Although life wasn’t easy, what Regina saw was her mother figh ng every
day to make it be er. Realizing how strong her mother was inspired
Regina.
Following high school, Regina enrolled in Xavier University of Louisiana.
She then went on to Morehouse School of Medicine, joining the school’s
second gradua ng class, and received her medical degree from the
University of Alabama at Birmingham.
When she completed medical school, Regina established a rural health
clinic on the Gulf Coast called the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic. This
clinic provides medical care for members of a fishing community who
cannot access medical care because of financial problems, a lack of
insurance, or problems related to loca on.

What is the role of the surgeon general?

The surgeon general, o en called “The Na on’s Doctor,” is tasked with
diagnosing the na on’s health problems and sugges ng ways to fix
them. The surgeon general is also in charge of the US Public Health
Service Commissioned Corps, a uniformed service of the United States
that responds to health emergencies and promotes public health.
 When Regina had difficulty raising enough money to maintain the clinic,
she completed an MBA degree—Master of Business Administra on—in
order to gain the skills needed to more effec vely fundraise. Regina knew
the community needed her clinic; she even went so far as to personally pay
for pa ent treatment when the money wasn’t available otherwise.
An accomplished physician, Regina has received awards recognizing her
achievements, including the MacArthur Founda on Fellowship, and the
Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights. She was named by
TIME magazine one of the “Na on’s 50 Future Leaders Age 40 and Under,”
was featured on the December 1999 cover of Clarity magazine, and
received the 2000 Na onal Caring Award, which was inspired by Mother
Teresa.
In 2006, Regina Marcia Benjamin was awarded the papal medal Pro
Ecclesia et Pon fice by Pope Benedict XVI, and in 2009, President Barack
Obama nominated Regina to be US surgeon general, a posi on she held for
five years.

Did you know...?

It’s fun to play video games or spend me on the computer, but our
bodies need to be ac ve. Running, biking, swimming, or playing a sport
each day makes our hearts strong, builds muscle, and keeps our bones
sturdy.
 URSULA BURNS

U
rsula Burns grew up in a tough neighborhood. She lived in one of
the “housing projects”—subsidized apartment buildings inhabited
by low-income families. Growing up there was challenging, and Ursula
grew up poor. She could have let that hold her down, but instead she
followed her mother’s guidance: “This is where you’re going to grow up,
but this is not what defines you.” Following high school, Ursula enrolled at
Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Ins tute, from which she graduated
with a degree in mechanical engineering. She was on her way!
Ursula worked as a summer intern for Xerox and was soon promoted to a
posi on in product development. She con nued to rise through the ranks,
eventually becoming the senior vice president of their corporate strategic
services.
But Ursula’s me at Xerox was not over. In 2007, she was named the
president of Xerox, and later she became the CEO. She was the first African
American woman chosen as their CEO and the first African American CEO
of any Fortune 500 company. (The Fortune 500 is a list compiled every year
by Fortune magazine of the five hundred largest companies in the United
States.) What an accomplishment! Women presidents or CEOs of large
global companies were nonexistent at that me. Black women presidents
of large global companies were unimaginable.

What is the difference between

mechanical and industrial engineering?
Industrial engineering combines engineering principles with business
concepts to improve profitability, while mechanical engineering focuses
on designing and construc ng mechanical devices that solve
manufacturing problems.
 The a en on focused on Ursula reached the highest levels. In 2009,
President Barack Obama chose her to lead the STEM Educa on Coali on—
a group that believes the na on must improve the way our students learn
STEM and that the business, educa on, and STEM communi es must work
together to achieve this goal. Then, in 2014, she was ranked the twenty-
second most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine.

Did you know...?

The snowboard was invented by a mechanical engineer named
Sherman Poppen as a toy for his daughter. He ed two skis together and
a ached a rope to one end. The snowboard has become quite popular
and is a marvel of geometry and biomechanics.
 LATANYA A. SWEENEY

A
ll her life, Latanya loved mathema cs. Upon comple ng high
school, she headed to MIT, where she was usually the only black or
the only female in her classes. At the me, personal computers were just
coming out. Computer science was new, and Latanya couldn’t wait to learn
more about it.
Latanya earned her bachelor’s degree in engineering and computer
science and then received another in the same field from Harvard. A er
that, she returned to MIT, where she earned a master’s degree and
became the first African American woman to earn a PhD in computer
science from the school.
Throughout her studies, Latanya expressed great interest in
cybersecurity and the privacy of people’s digital informa on. She began
developing advanced models for data disclosure to prevent misuse or the
of personal informa on.

What do you learn in computer science?

Computer science is the study of how to manipulate, manage,
transform, and encode informa on. Although knowing how to program
is essen al to the study of computer science, it is only one element of
the field. Computer scien sts design and analyze algorithms to solve
programs and study the performance of computer hardware and
so ware.

A er she received her doctorate, Latanya went to Carnegie Mellon

University and founded the Data Privacy Lab to study and raise awareness
of data security in the modern, digital world. Her research on data security
found some alarming results. She was able to connect names and
addresses and find many private details about regular people by using only
public records. It seemed that people’s informa on wasn’t at all secure and
that they could be easily exposed
Latanya A. Sweeney’s work raised awareness of the problem and helped
the government deal with it. Even though she was denied the opportunity
to publish her results over twenty mes, it’s thanks to her exemplary work
that people all over the world have become more aware of their cyber
footprint, and the government has included policy on data handling to
ensure that personal informa on is more secure.

Did you know...?

The Dark Web is a collec on of thousands of websites that use
anonymity tools to hide their IP address. An IP address is a long number
wri en in binary code—a label that is used to iden fy one or more
devices on a computer network such as the internet. It is comparable to
a postal address.
 DAWN WRIGHT

D
awn Wright grew up on an island in Hawaii. Dawn loved the water
and the exci ng stories she had always heard of the sea that
surrounded her island. The adventurous stories made her want to
experience some of the same excitement in her own life, so she went to
school to learn all that she could. Dawn graduated from college with
degrees in geology and oceanography.
Following school, Dawn worked as both a graduate research assistant
and a marine laboratory specialist. Dawn loved mapping the seafloor and
coral reefs. In 1986, she joined the Ocean Drilling Program, where she
spent extended me on ships as a marine technician. Dawn proudly
became the first African American woman to dive down to the ocean floor
in a submersible.
As much as Dawn loved working with the water, she wanted to
encourage other young kids to have careers in the sciences if that was their
passion. She took all her knowledge and began a career as a professor in
the Department of Geosciences at Oregon State University. Dawn was
pleased to teach others about earth sciences, like geology.

What does an oceanographer do?

Oceanographers explore Earth’s oceans, including marine life and
ecosystems, ocean circula on, plate tectonics and the geology of the
seafloor, and the chemical and physical proper es of the ocean.
Oceanographers work in different areas, from climate change, declining
fisheries, and eroding coastlines to the development of new drugs from
marine resources and the inven on of new technologies to explore the
sea.
 Her main focus was minori es and female students, because she knew
they didn’t get the a en on they deserved. She wanted to see every
young person who wanted to learn be in school.
Dawn Wright was a one-of-a-kind researcher and coedited one of the
first books focused on marine geographic informa on systems. She wrote
papers and gained many awards for her work as a teacher and scien st.
Dawn even won the United States Professor of the Year award in 2007.

Did you know...?

Tsunamis—a series of waves—are caused by a large displacement of
water. Once the water is moved by an earthquake or other event, large
waves spread like ripples from the point where the water first moved.
As the waves travel through the deep parts of the ocean, their crests are
usually short, only a few feet tall. This makes it difficult to detect a
tsunami, as they are not necessarily visible in the deep ocean.
 LISA D. WHITE

E
ven as a young girl, Lisa D. White was drawn to landscapes. She
dreamed of becoming “the black female Ansel Adams.” In college,
Lisa’s first choice for a major was photography. Interested in understanding
the landscapes that had always called to her, she decided to take a course
in geology. Suddenly, a new world opened up for Lisa. She shi ed her focus
of study and went on to earn a PhD in geoscience from the University of
California in Santa Cruz.
As a geoscien st, Lisa found that the only students who had heard about
her field were ones whose close rela ves were geoscien sts. Wan ng to
bring more curious minds into the field, she set out to inform children
about the different professions they could choose from and developed
informal learning methods like museum tours, summer workshops, and
outdoor retreats to inspire children to find their passion. It was a love of
the outdoors and beau ful landscapes that drew Lisa into geoscience, and
she hoped that sharing the wonders of nature with children would similarly
inspire them.

What is geoscience?
Geoscience is the study of the earth—its oceans, atmosphere, rivers
and lakes, ice sheets and glaciers, soils, complex surface, rocky interior,
and metallic core. This includes many aspects of how living things,
including humans, interact with the earth.

But Lisa went one step further. As assistant director of the Educa on and
Public Programs at the University of California Museum of Paleontology,
she made it her goal not just to inform children about geosciences but to
educate them.

What is paleontology?
 Paleontology is the study of the history of life on Earth based on
fossils. Fossils are the remains of plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, and
single-celled living things. Some are actual remains, like bones, while
others are impressions of organisms preserved in rock or amber.

Lisa D. White is a member of several scien fic socie es and has received

awards for her work in gender and race inclusion in science. She strives to
share her immense knowledge and hopes to shape young minds to be the
next genera on of scien sts.

Did you know...?

Complete dinosaur skeletons are rare. It is more usual to find just a
few teeth or bones. Paleontologists iden fy isolated fossils by
comparing and matching them with bones from be er-preserved
specimens. Paleontologists calculate the size and posi on of muscles
from the marks le where they a ached to the bones.
 APRILLE ERICSSON-JACKSON

G
rowing up, Aprille Ericsson-Jackson par cularly liked math and
science, but she felt that it was important for people to have lots
of interests and hobbies so that they could become well-rounded. In order
to make herself well-rounded, she also par cipated in the basketball team,
the honors club, the science club, and the school band!
Following high school, Aprille went to MIT, where she studied
aeronau cal-astronau cal engineering. She also earned a master’s degree
in engineering and a PhD in mechanical engineering, aerospace op on, at
Howard University. This was an historic accomplishment, as she was the
first woman ever to do so. Aprille was also the first African American to
earn a PhD from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).
Have you ever dreamed of traveling in space? How about working on
items that go into space? With all of her degrees in hand, Aprille went on
to work at NASA, where she helped manage science instruments set to
take flight, such as the Advanced Topographic Laser Al meter System
(ATLAS), which will observe changes to the earth’s topography, in par cular
to quan fy changes in ice-sheet mass and its drivers and the impact of
these changes on future global sea levels.

What is topography?
Topography studies the eleva on and loca on of landforms. It
describes the physical features of an area of land, such as mountains,
rivers, lakes, and valleys. Data from topography can help to conserve the
environment. By understanding the contour of the land, scien sts can
determine how water and wind may cause erosion.

Aprille also worked as an aerospace engineer at NASA GSFC and as an

instrument manager for a proposed mission to bring dust back to Earth
from the lower Mar an atmosphere.
With all that she accomplished, Aprille s ll made it a priority to
encourage women and minori es to study subjects like math, science, and
engineering. She gave inspira onal public speeches and even spoke to the
Na onal School Boards Associa on, giving a talk called “Bridging the Digital
Divide” about helping more people have access to technology.
Aprille Ericsson-Jackson is an excellent role-model, especially in showing
that it’s okay to have interests in more than one area so that you can grow
as a person!

Did you know...?

In space, no one can hear you scream. This is because there is no air
in space—it is a vacuum. Sound waves cannot travel through a vacuum.
 VALERIE E. TAYLOR

A
s a young girl growing up in Chicago, Valerie Taylor didn’t have to
look far to find a scien st role model—her father had his own
scien fic company and brought her into work with him on weekends. As
she watched her father work, Valerie decided that she wanted to be a
scien st too. In grade school she realized her ini als were VET, so she
thought maybe she should be a veterinarian, but she decided medicine
wasn’t for her.
Valerie’s determina on carried her through school, and in 1991, Valerie
received her PhD in electrical engineering and computer science.
A er finishing school, Valerie worked as a professor of electrical and
computer engineering at Northwestern University. Although Valerie wasn’t
sure she would like teaching, she felt the weight of being a role model for
women. She wanted to encourage minority groups and people with
disabili es to ac vely take part in informa on technology (IT). Valerie
understood that there were many people out there who wanted to
contribute but either didn’t know how or were discriminated against. She
wanted to stand up for them and show the country that everyone had the
right to work in IT.

What does an electrical engineer do?

Electrical engineers develop and design electrical equipment, systems
that are used in cars and aircra , communica on systems, motors, and
radar and naviga on systems. They also supervise the manufacturing of
this equipment and perform tests to make sure it is func oning properly.

Although busy with teaching, Valerie also spent significant me on her

research. She worked on a database manager called Prophesy, which
gathers and analyzes data. Her impressive research was funded by the
Na onal Science Founda on and won her many awards, including the
Pathbreaker Award and the Young Outstanding Leader award from the
University of California. Valerie also won an important award for her
ac ons in encouraging minority groups to get involved in compu ng
research.
In 2003, Valerie E. Taylor was named director of the Mathema cs and
Computer Science Division at the Argonne Na onal Lab. She has also
served as execu ve director for the Center for Minori es and People with
Disabili es in Informa on Technology.

Did you know...?

An incandescent light bulb works by hea ng up a wire filament to
produce light, but it also produces a lot of heat. Only 10 percent of the
energy used by a tradi onal light bulb generates actual light. The other
90 percent of the energy creates heat.
A refrigerator uses less energy than a PlaySta on.
 JENNIFER LYNN EBERHARDT

O
ver the years, Jennifer Eberhardt witnessed many moments
where a person’s race decided the end result of a situa on.
Seeing these events unfold, Jennifer decided that she wanted to
understand the psychology behind those moments and a empt to make a
posi ve change in the world. And so Jennifer went to school to study
psychology.
A er gradua ng, Jennifer became an associate professor in Stanford
University’s Department of Psychology. Her main focus was on the ways in
which people judge others based on their race, even without knowing
them. Jennifer’s research revealed that there was a lot of inequality as a
result of a person’s race when it came to punishment for commi ng a
crime. Her findings were insigh ul to many, and she was honored with a
MacArthur Founda on Fellowship award.
During this me, Jennifer also worked alongside police departments,
helping to shape their policies. Jennifer used many different techniques to
gather informa on for the research, like lab experiments and field work,
and discovered that officers would more o en pick an African American
face than a Caucasian face out of a lineup. She also revealed to police
departments and law students that juries looked differently at white and
African American defendants.

What is social psychology?

Social psychology is the scien fic study of how people’s thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or
implied presence of others. It includes the study of social cogni on,
a ribu on theory, social influence, prejudice and discrimina on,
interpersonal processes, aggression, and a tudes and stereotypes.
 Throughout her career, Jennifer’s goal was to blend social psychology
ideas with modern-day technology to make our courts and criminal jus ce
system fairer. She strongly believed many people hadn’t no ced they were
being racially harmful, which was part of the overall problem. Realizing
there was a big gap between police officers and minority groups, Jennifer
dedicated her me to bringing the groups together. She wanted both
groups to trust one another more so they could work together to end the
racial issues.
Jennifer Lynn Eberhardt thrived on teaching others that people should
never be targeted simply because of the color of their skin.

Did you know...?

People with low self-esteem tend to try to humiliate others. Seeing
others posi vely reveals our posi ve traits, while seeing others
nega vely reveals our nega ve traits.
It’s interes ng to note that we a ribute outside forces to our own
failures but blame others for their misfortunes.
 MAJORA CARTER

U
nlike many young women who become scien sts, Majora Carter
did not set out to change the world. Rather, she studied film at
Wesleyan University and then went on to earn her Master of Fine Arts at
New York University. Then one day, on a walk with her dog through a
deserted lot in very bad condi on, Majora no ced that the riverbank was
blocked and the land was completely uncared for. In that moment, her life
changed.
Majora is now a real estate developer and urban revitaliza on strategist.
That means that she works to improve low-income communi es so that
the residents can have a be er life without having to leave their homes.
Majora worked hard to secure a grant from the United States Forest
Service for a river access restora on project. From there, she teamed up
with local community members and the Na onal Park Service to secure
more money for parks and other urban planning projects.

What is a green job?

A green job is any job that contributes to a more sustainable world,
such as solar engineer, environmental educator, or organic gardener.

Majora Carter also founded an organiza on called Sustainable South

Bronx that advocates healthier lifestyles and environmental protec on. She
served as its director for nearly a decade before cofounding another
organiza on, Green for All, which advocates government and corporate
spending in sustainable energy and the crea on of green jobs.
Majora has given speeches and appeared on camera numerous mes,
filming commercials for many mul million-dollar corpora ons and calling
for environmental jus ce. She was even chosen to give a TED talk, and it
was one of the first six TED talks to be publicly released. For her work,
Majora has received dozens of awards and honors, as well as an honorary
PhD from Mercy College.
Majora Carter works constantly with organiza ons and companies to
protect the environment and raise awareness about reducing the human
footprint on our increasingly fragile environment. Because of people like
Majora Carter, our planet s ll has a figh ng chance, and the process of
preserving our natural resources is brought one step closer every day.

Did you know...?

More glaciers are mel ng into the ocean, and the global sea level is
rising. Sea-level rise is another clue that tells us Earth’s climate is ge ng
warmer. But mel ng ice is not the only cause of rising sea levels. As the
ocean gets warmer, the water actually expands! Scien sts have
observed that the sea level has risen seven inches in the last one
hundred years.
 KIMBERLY BRYANT

K
imberly Bryant began her path to technology via a somewhat
tradi onal path: a degree in electrical engineering from Vanderbilt
University. Following gradua on, Kimberly worked in the pharmaceu cal
and biotechnology industries.
One day, Kimberly’s daughter told her that she was interested in
computer programming. There was just one problem: most groups that
taught coding were only for boys. Then everything changed!
Kimberly recalled being the only girl in her computer class and being
teased or ignored by the other children. She wanted be er for her
daughter. With nowhere for her daughter to prac ce and learn about
computer programming, Kimberly came up with a brilliant plan!

What is biotechnology used for?

Biotechnology is used in agriculture, food science, and medicine. It
involves the use of living organisms to make useful chemicals and
products or to perform an industrial task.

She created Black Girls Code, an organiza on that helps young girls of
color learn helpful skills in technology and computer programming. Black
Girls Code offered programs a er school and during the summer, so there
was always me to learn! With a class full of their peers, girls didn’t have
to feel all alone doing the thing they loved. And it made sense to have a
program for girls. A er all, the first computer programmer was a woman
named Ada Lovelace, a Bri sh mathema cian.

What is coding used for?

Code is a set of instruc ons that computers can understand. Think of
code as a recipe. We use coding to give computers and other machines
instruc ons on what ac ons to perform and how to program websites,
apps, and other technologies we interact with every day.

Kimberly’s hard work in ge ng young girls involved in computers and

other important subjects made her one of the 25 Most Influen al African
Americans in Technology, according to Business Insider. By then, Black Girls
Code had already helped thousands of girls across the United States. There
was even one loca on in South Africa!

Did you know...?

Some programs are designed to steal your data or damage your
computer. These programs are called malware. Viruses, worms, and
trojans are all types of malware. You should be careful online and avoid
accidentally downloading malware! Coders who study and write
malware are known as hackers.
 LORETTA H. CHEEKS

L
ore a Cheeks knew early on that she wanted to work with
technology. A er spending two decades engineering solu ons to
technical struggles for Fortune 500 companies, Lore a finally decided to
follow her dreams. She had worked as an engineer for many companies in
industries like radio, controls, and communica ons, but it wasn’t exactly
what she wanted to do. She was excited to go back to college to study
computer science.
While earning a PhD in computer science at Arizona State University,
Lore a used a combina on of data mining and network theory to research
how news travels across social media sites.
Lore a demonstrated a unique ability to integrate communica on
theory and computer science methods to inform the fields of machine
learning, psychology, and mass communica on. Lore a’s research was so
helpful that she won the 2014 GEM Fellow of the Year award. The award
was only given to graduate students who did something highly important
in their field.

What is data mining?

Data mining means finding new informa on in a lot of data in order
to discover pa erns or to try to predict future outcomes. For example
retailers use data mining to be er understand their customers and offer
customized promo ons that are important to them.

On top of her research, Lore a chose to ac vely par cipate in her

community. She was a big supporter of women and people with disabili es
and wanted to be an ac ve voice for them. She also strongly believed in
encouraging young children to enter STEM jobs if they were interested in
doing so. She wanted to mo vate young people to follow their dreams no
ma er what people were telling them. Lore a especially enjoyed helping
underprivileged students enter programs that steered them into one of
these careers.
To make sure she was doing everything in her power to help these
students, Lore a created the Strong TIES program. Through Strong TIES,
she was be er able to help get young children to enter the STEM field.
Lore a H. Cheeks believed that although it may take a while to achieve
your dreams, hard work and dedica on would eventually make you
succeed.

Did you know...?

The first-ever email was sent in 1971. The email was sent by Ray
Tomlinson, a programmer who invented the email system. The @
symbol was used to signify that the email was sent to a person and not
a computer. Almost 2.7 million emails are sent per second. A er twenty-
four hours, the chance of an email being opened is only 1 percent.
 YASMIN HURD

Y
asmin Hurd was always interested in how the human brain worked.
When she was young and needed to pay for college, she took a job
caring for research animals in a lab. It was during this me that she realized
a career in research was for her, and she earned a PhD at the Karolinska
Ins tute in Stockholm.
Following gradua on, Yasmin worked as a professor at the Icahn School
of Medicine, and later she was the director of the Center for Addic ve
Disorders at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. There she studied
addic on and the effects of certain drugs on the brain, especially the
teenage brain. In order to complete her research, Yasmin collaborated with
a full research team. That means she worked with other scien sts to
conduct research and achieve a mutually agreed upon goal.
Some of the areas Yasmin researched include addic on, developmental
biology, gene cs, gene regula on and expressions, neurotransmi ers, and
neurobiology.
One area that was of par cular interest to Yasmin was the neurobiology
that underlies addic on disorders, as well as related psychiatric concerns.
From her work, she learned that adolescent and adult brains respond to
and are affected by substances differently. One reason for this is the fact
that the area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, which is in charge of
decision-making and cogni on (thinking), doesn’t finish developing un l a
person is in their mid-twen es. This means that teenagers tend to be more
vulnerable.

What is neurobiology?
Neurobiology is the study of cells of the nervous system—neurons—
and the organiza on of these cells into func onal circuits that process
informa on and mediate behavior. Neurotransmi ers are special
chemicals that your neurons use to talk to each other.
 Yasmin Hurd’s research was groundbreaking, and it has been published
numerous mes in scien fic journals. Scien fic journals are publica ons in
which scien sts share their research. Thanks to her work, we know more
about how brains just like yours work!

Did you know...?

The brain is the center of the human nervous system, controlling our
thoughts, movements, memories, and decisions. About 75 percent of
the brain is made up of water. This means that dehydra on, even in
small amounts, can have a nega ve effect on brain func on.
The human brain triples in size in the first year of life. It con nues to
grow un l you’re about eighteen years old.
Headaches are caused by a chemical reac on in your brain combined
with the muscles and nerves of your neck and head.
 MAGGIE ADERIN-POCOCK

W
hen Maggie Aderin-Pocock was young, she loved looking at the
stars in the sky. Maggie’s family didn’t have much money, so she
saved her money to get a telescope. Unfortunately, the telescope Maggie
bought wasn’t very good, which was a disappointment to a young girl
desperate to see into the depths of the night sky. Then Maggie spo ed an
ad for telescope-making classes. She joined on the spot.
Diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of eight, Maggie hated school. Then
she became interested in science. She read every book she could get her
hands on. Suddenly, her grades began to go up—so far up that she
graduated at the top of her class!
Maggie went to college and then on to earn a PhD in mechanical
engineering from Imperial College London. A er finishing school, she took
a job with the Ministry of Defense in the United Kingdom, working on
projects ranging from missile warning systems to landmine detectors.

How does a telescope work?

Telescopes work by using curved mirrors to gather and focus light
from the night sky. The bigger the mirrors, the more light the telescope
can gather. The op cs of a telescope have to be almost perfect. That
means the mirrors and lenses have to be just the right shape to
concentrate the light. They can’t have any spots, scratches, or other
flaws.

Maggie was the lead scien st at Astrium, where she managed

observa on instruments on a satellite, measuring wind speeds to help the
inves ga on of climate change. She also worked on and managed the
observa on instruments for the Aeolus satellite, which will measure wind
speeds to help the inves ga on of climate change.
 Maggie is a pioneering figure in communica ng science to the public,
specifically school children. She also runs her own company, Science
Innova on Ltd., which engages children and adults with the wonders of
space science.
In 2009, Maggie Aderin-Pocock was honored as a Member of the Most
Excellent Order of the Bri sh Empire (MBE) for her work as a science
communicator, breaking down complex scien fic issues into simple
informa on that everyone can understand, and for her outreach to young
people.

Did you know...?

The Hubble Space Telescope was put into orbit around the earth in
1990. Being outside the earth’s atmosphere allows the Hubble to view
outer space without background light. This has enabled it to take some
amazing pictures of faraway stars and galaxies.
 JEANETTE JO EPPS

O
ne of Jeane e Jo Epps’s childhood heroes was Sally Ride, the first
American woman to travel to space. In school, Jeane e fell in
love with science and the idea of space travel, a passion she pursued
through college. She even earned a PhD in aerospace engineering from the
University of Maryland.
Jeane e knew she wanted to go into space, but her path there wasn’t
exactly direct. Before she got her big break, Jeane e worked in research at
Ford Motor Company, and later she held a very important role at the CIA,
where she worked for seven years. Then, in 2009, she was picked as an
astronaut candidate. Jeane e was so excited! But her first mission wasn’t
to space; it was under water! Jeane e became an aquanaut in the
Aquarius undersea lab, where she stayed for nine straight days!
In 2017, Jeane e received a special surprise. She was chosen by NASA to
be a flight engineer for the Interna onal Space Sta on! Jeane e’s dreams
were coming true. She would become the first African American crew
member on the space sta on, and only the fi eenth ever to fly in space.

What training must astronauts undergo?

Astronauts have to undergo extensive training and tes ng before they
can par cipate in a spaceflight. They must show that they can handle a
variety of physical rigors, from the high gravity of launch to the
weightlessness of orbit. It includes spacewalk training, robo cs, flight
training, and wilderness survival training. They also must be technically
knowledgeable—have a bachelor’s degree in STEM-related careers—
and be able to handle stressful situa ons that may arise during the
mission.
 Jeane e completed all of her training and showed that she had all the
necessary qualifica ons, but she was replaced by another astronaut at the
last second. It broke Jeane e’s heart that she was removed from the
mission and wouldn’t be flying, par cularly as she was given no reason for
her removal.
S ll, Jeane e Jo Epps did not allow the setback to stop her. Instead, she
kept training. She would make sure she was ready to go to space when her
me came.

Did you know...?

Astronauts wear spacesuits that provide them with air, protect them
from the extreme temperatures of space, and protect them from the
radia on of the sun. Some mes the spacesuits are tethered to the
spacecra so the astronaut won’t float away. Other mes the spacesuit
is equipped with small rocket thrusters that allow the astronaut to
navigate around the spacecra .
 TREENA LIVINGSTON ARINZEH

A
s a child, Treena Livingston Arinzeh loved playing pretend in the
kitchen with her mother. Her favorite thing to pretend was that she
was a scien st. Treena was a smart girl, but she worried about having a
career in science or technology because she had never seen another
African American engineer. Luckily, one of Treena’s high school teachers
encouraged her to pursue a STEM career. Treena listened and went on to
earn a PhD in biomedical engineering.
Treena created a special lab that aimed to help scien sts learn how to fix
and replace organs and even create new ones! Treena also discovered a
way to regrow bones and fix other damage inside our bodies. Later, Treena
realized doctors could put a person’s stem cells into someone else to help
them recover from illness.

What is biomedical engineering?

Biomedical engineering is a field that mixes biology and technology to
create materials related to medicine and health care. In par cular, it
focuses on crea ng technologies that help people when they are sick or
hurt, like ar ficial limbs, dentures, x-rays, and more.

In 2004, President George W. Bush gave Treena a Presiden al Early

Career Award for Scien sts and Engineers. This was the highest na onal
award that could be given to a young researcher.

What is a stem cell?

A stem cell is a cell that has not yet transformed into a specific kind of
cell within the body. It is special because it s ll has the unique ability to
develop into specialized cell types, which makes it valuable in curing
diseases. In the future, stem cells may be used to replace cells and
ssues that have been damaged or lost due to disease.

Treena Livingston Arinzeh truly made a difference in the health care field,
but perhaps most impressive was her drive to help minority students get
into engineering. Every summer she invited about fi y minority teenagers
that didn’t have a good chance at ge ng degrees to her lab. She called her
program Project Seeds.

Did you know...?

An ar ficial heart is a pump that is surgically installed to provide
circula on and replace heart ventricles that have been damaged.
Ventricles pump blood out of the heart to the lungs and other parts of
the body. Machines outside the body control the implanted pumps,
helping blood flow to and from the heart.
 NJEMA J. FRAZIER

N
jema Frazier always loved math as a child, but she didn’t realize
she had a real ap tude for it un l her parents enrolled her in a
summer program called Engineering Experience for Kids. It was then that
she realized she wanted to be a physicist. Njema is not just a physicist but a
theore cal nuclear physicist.
Njema worked in the United States Department of Energy’s Na onal
Nuclear Security Administra on (NNSA) in Maryland. Her job involved
managing scien fic and technical projects established to ensure a safe,
secure, and effec ve nuclear weapons stockpile without nuclear explosive
tes ng.

What does a physicist study?

Physicists study ma er and energy. This means that they work with
concepts such as sound, light, electricity, heat, mechanics (movement),
the structure of atoms, and magne sm. Physics studies the smallest
elementary par cles and atoms as well as the largest stars and the
universe.

Over the course of her career, Njema has won many career awards,
including Black Engineer of the Year, the Science Spectrum Trailblazer
Award, the Award for Dis nguished Service to the Na onal Nuclear
Security Administra on, and the DOD Joint Civilian Service Commenda on
Award.

What is theoretical nuclear physics?

Theore cal nuclear physics is the development of models for
describing the nucleus and the processes that occur within it. This
includes understanding the shape of the nucleus or finding out why
nuclei with certain numbers of protons or neutrons are more stable than
others.

But Njema’s career was not just about researching and winning awards.
She also made the science classroom and workplace more inclusive. Njema
took part in programs that sought to bring more women and minori es
into the energy industry and the sciences in general. Njema has been
involved in the Department of Energy’s Minori es in Energy (MIE) ini a ve
and has been a leadership ambassador for the OneDOE Campaign. She
cofounded the Department of Energy’s POWER (Professional Opportuni es
for Women at Energy Realized) Employee Resource Group.

Did you know...?

Nuclear power uses fission (spli ng atom nuclei) to produce energy.
Nuclear fusion (joining atom nuclei) also has poten al for energy
produc on. Nuclear power provides around 20 percent of the electricity
used in the United States. Nuclear reactors produce radioac ve waste,
which can be difficult to dispose of safely.
 ASHANTI JOHNSON

A
shan Johnson ini ally became interested in the oceans by
watching Jacques Cousteau. Her interest was strengthened in fi h
grade a er interac ng with a female marine biology graduate student who
spent a day with her.
Ashan became one of the first female African American chemical
oceanographers, and she was the first African American to earn a doctoral
degree in oceanography from Texas A&M University.
Ashan ’s areas of research specializa on included aqua c radio
geochemistry, professional development of students, and science and
engineering diversity-focused ini a ves. Her aqua c radio geochemistry
research ac vi es focused on the u liza on of various biogeochemical
indicators to interpret past events that have impacted the marine,
estuarine, and freshwater environments in the Arc c, as well as in the
coastal regions of Georgia, Florida, and Puerto Rico.

What is chemical oceanography?

Chemical oceanography is the study of chemical elements’ behavior
within the earth’s oceans. Chemical elements are things like oxygen,
carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and helium. The chemistry of the ocean is
closely ed to ocean circula on, climate, the plants and animals that
live in the ocean, and the ocean’s exchange of material with the
atmosphere, cryosphere, con nents, and mantle.

NASA asked Ashan to begin a mentoring program. She agreed and

started a program called Minori es Striving and Pursuing Higher Degrees
of Success in Earth System Science. It is a program devoted to encouraging
the par cipa on of minori es in Earth system science.
 Johnson has received numerous honors and awards and has been
published in many scien fic and educa on journals. In 2010, she received a
Presiden al Award for Excellence in Science, Mathema cs, and
Engineering Mentoring in recogni on of her professional development and
diversity-related ac vi es.
Ashan Johnson is considered one of the best oceanographers of this
genera on. In March 2017, she served as the US Department of State’s
representa ve to Cambodia for several STEM-focused events and was a
keynote speaker at the Cambodia Science and Engineering Fes val and the
US Embassy, as well as at several universi es, K–12 schools, and a science
museum in Cambodia.

Did you know...?

The ocean is our greatest source of oxygen and is home to nearly 95
percent of all life on Earth. We have explored less than five percent of
Earth’s oceans. As researchers strive to discover more, we’re con nually
ge ng to know our oceans be er. Ocean des are caused by Earth
rota ng while the moon’s and sun’s gravita onal pulls act on ocean
water.
 KATHIE-ANN JOSEPH

K
athie-Ann Joseph was a public-school student with excellent
grades and a dream of becoming a doctor. She was amazed by
doctors’ abili es to care for sick pa ents and make them be er. Kathie-Ann
made sure she was one of the best students in class, but what she was
taught in school wasn’t enough for her. In addi on to her schoolbooks, she
read every book she could find about the human body and how to heal it.
In high school, Kathie-Ann even volunteered in a hospital and was part of a
premed orienta on program for high school students.
Wan ng to have a broader knowledge base, Kathie-Ann decided to get a
degree in sociology from Harvard University before going to medical
school. While Kathie-Ann was s ll in college, her mother developed
cervical cancer and passed away. That shook the ambi ous would-be
doctor like nothing before, and she decided to dedicate her life to studying
cancer and helping other African American women with the disease.
Kathie-Ann earned her Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Columbia
University. During her internship, she worked on a project screening elderly
African American women for breast and cervical cancer.

What does an oncologist do?

An oncologist is a doctor who treats cancer and provides medical care
for a person diagnosed with cancer. The field of oncology has three
major areas: medical, surgical, and radia on. A surgical oncologist like
Kathie-Ann removes tumors and nearby ssue during surgery.

During her residency, Kathie-Ann realized she wanted to be a surgeon.

When her residency was complete, she was awarded a research fellowship
to study cancer. That was followed by another fellowship with the oncology
department at Columbia.
 Kathie-Ann eventually became an assistant professor of surgery at
Columbia. She was the first African American woman to be on faculty in
the department.
Kathie-Ann Joseph has also made a point of helping poor people who
don’t have access to regular checkups or the medicine they need. She is a
firm believer in high-quality health care for everyone, and she does her
best to help the people who need it the most get it.

Did you know...?

On a gene c level, all human beings are more than 99-percent
iden cal.
 AYANNA HOWARD

E
leven-year-old Ayanna Howard loved the TV show The Bionic
Woman, in which a severely injured woman a ains extraordinary
powers through ar ficial (bionic) limbs. She found the show’s heroine to be
inspiring and decided that she wanted to create ar ficial limbs for people.
Ayanna planned to go to medical school, but she discovered early on
that she hated biology—especially dissec ng frogs. Then she heard about
robo cs and realized that if she became an electrical engineer, she could
do exactly what she wanted to do.
Although Ayanna’s passion began out of a desire to help people, it took a
turn when she landed a job at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. There, she
put her robo cs exper se to use for space explora on, developing the next
genera on of Mars rover. Through ar ficial intelligence, this robot will be
independent-minded enough to explore the Mar an terrain on its own,
without having its every move programmed by a human.
But Ayanna’s desire to help people never went away. So she founded a
company that focused on something that ma ered to her: researching and
making educa onal products for children with disabili es.

Why is robotics important?

Robo cs has the poten al to posi vely transform lives and work
prac ces and increase efficiency and safety levels. Robo cs is a branch
of technology that deals with the making, programming, and designing
of robots. Most robots are computer-controlled devices with many parts.
An industrial robot, for example, is an armlike machine that can turn at
several joints.

Ayanna has been featured in many magazines, most notably TIME

Magazine, where MIT named her one of the top one hundred innovators in
the world under the age of thirty-five. She is also a widely known and
recognized computer scien st who heads the School of Interac ve
Compu ng at the Georgia Tech College of Compu ng.
Ayanna Howard found her passion and hobby from a very early age and
dedicated herself to it fully. She channeled her love for robots into research
and helped children with disabili es all over the world. And who knows,
maybe one day her work will bring back informa on from Mars to help the
people of Earth.

Did you know...?

A nanorobot is a microscopic robot designed to fit into extremely
small spaces. Nanorobots are programmed to perform a specific
func on. The hope is that nanobots can eventually be placed in the
bloodstream to perform delicate surgical procedures that are too
difficult for standard surgery.
 LISA DYSON

W
hen Lisa Dyson was growing up, her role model was her cousin,
a space engineer who built satellites. Lisa wanted to be a
scien st like her cousin, and she did everything she could to achieve her
dream. She completed a bachelor’s degree in mathema cs at Brandeis
University. She was a Fulbright Scholar at Imperial College London, where
she received a Master of Science degree. And in 2004, she earned her PhD
at Massachuse s Ins tute of Technology (MIT). She was only the fourth
black woman to achieve a PhD in theore cal high energy physics.
A er comple ng her PhD, Lisa joined the University of California,
Berkeley and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University
and Princeton. She also worked as a consultant at Boston Consul ng Group
and worked with the chemical and energy industries.
In 2008, Lisa founded and became the CEO of Kiverdi, a company striving
to make the world more sustainable. Kiverdi’s goal is to steer companies
away from using nature-harming materials and to instead find more
crea ve solu ons that are both more profitable and be er for our planet.

What are the benefits of renewable

energy?
Renewable energy is made from resources that nature can replace,
like wind, water, and sunshine. Renewable energy is also called “clean
energy” or “green power,” because it doesn’t pollute the air or the
water. Most renewable energy sources produce li le to no global
warming emissions.

Lisa was exploring new techniques to recycle CO2 (carbon dioxide) when
she stumbled upon NASA research from the 1960s that looked at how
microbes aboard spacecra could absorb CO2 from astronauts’ breath and
be turned into food. That’s when she created Air Protein, a company that
uses a process similar to making beer or yogurt to combine air with
nutrients, microorganisms, and renewable energy to create an “air protein”
flour and a palm oil subs tute that can be used to make foods and other
materials. They also created a protein replacement for use in food and
animal feed.
Lisa Dyson has delivered several TED talks, including “Turning CO2 into
Oil,” and “A Forgo en Space Age Technology Could Change How We Grow
Food,” which has been viewed several million mes. She has also spoken
extensively about carbon recycling.

Did you know...?

Rising temperatures don’t just mean that we’ll get nicer weather! The
changing climate will actually make our weather more extreme and
unpredictable. As temperatures rise, some areas will get we er, and lots
of animals and humans could find they’re not able to adapt to their
changing climate.
 ALETHA MAYBANK

I
n 2010, there was a major earthquake in Hai . Maybe you’ve heard of
it. A erward, lots of people went to Hai to help. Aletha Maybank was
one of those people. She is a humanitarian. Aletha cares about people and
wants to help them. She cares about social jus ce. She wants everyone to
have the opportunity to achieve their dreams. Aletha has a Master of
Public Health degree from Columbia University Mailman School of Public
Health.
In addi on to her work as a humanitarian, Aletha has exper se in lots of
areas of medicine, including HIV/AIDS, community health, and cancer. She
was one of the founders of the Artemis Medical Society, a group for black
female physicians all over the world. She worked in a high-level job at the
Brooklyn District Public Health Office—where she helped establish public
health and safety programs—and worked with the Center for Health Equity
at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene—a group
that strives to help everyone in the city of New York have good access to
care.
Aletha has taught medical and public health students on topics related
to health inequi es, public health leadership and management, physician
advocacy, and community organizing in health. In 2012, she cofounded
“We Are Doc McStuffins,” a movement created by female African American
physicians who were inspired by the Disney Junior character Doc
McStuffins. Aletha has even appeared on that show!

What is public health?

Public health is the science of protec ng and improving the health of
people and their communi es. It focuses on the things that influences a
person’s health—culture, race, and social issues. Public health broadens
the conversa on around what really impacts and influences a person’s
health.
 Aletha Maybank is a highly accomplished woman. She worked very hard
and got an excellent educa on. She’s achieved her dreams, and she
encourages young African American girls to become physicians just like her.

Did you know...?

Ea ng a variety of foods keeps your meals interes ng and flavorful.
It’s also the key to a healthy and balanced diet, because each food has a
unique mix of nutrients—both macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein,
and fat) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). The more veggies
—and the greater the variety—the be er. Now the bad news: French
fries don’t count as vegetables because of their nega ve impact on
blood sugar.
 MWENDE WINDOW SNYDER

L
ike many young women, Mwende Window Snyder went through a
rebellious stage. Her mother was a Kenyan-born so ware engineer
who encouraged her interest in technology early on, but Window didn’t
want to go into computers, because it was her mother’s field. She thought
she would prefer studying the liberal arts and humani es. There was just
one problem: it was in math that she excelled!
Early on in her college career, Window tried to become more involved in
the world of computers. She wanted to learn about all the latest
technologies. But a ending her classes, she felt a bit out of place. With no
other women in sight, technology felt like an exclusive boys’ club. Window
had to break through these barriers in order to make a place for herself in
the IT industry. But she was willing to fight. Her determina on and love of
learning helped to ensure her eventual success. Window is a computer
security expert. She is one of the good guys.

What does a cybersecurity specialist do?

A computer or cybersecurity specialist deals with protec ng
informa on on computer networks, cloud servers, mobile devices, and
payment so ware. They analyze where these risks are and develop
strategies to prevent breaches. Their job is to make changes before
hackers can even make the first move on the company.

Window has served as a top security officer at Intel, Fastly, Apple,

Mozilla Corpora on, Square, and other powerful companies. She also
coauthored Threat Modeling, a standard manual on applica on security.

What are the types of hackers?

 Bad guys, or “black hat” hackers, are people who try to break into
computer systems, steal data, and install harmful so ware. “White hat”
hackers are cybersecurity heroes who develop ways to catch bad guys
and stop malicious programs from doing damage.
Yet, for all her success, Mwende Window Snyder admits she s ll faces
hurdles. It’s also just hard work—but it’s less hard when you love it.

Did you know...?

Ransomware is a type of malicious so ware that holds a vic m’s data
hostage un l a ransom is paid. Instead of selling vic ms’ informa on on
the black market, hackers have established a way to make money off
this stolen informa on directly from vic ms through ransomware. The
threat of ransomware is based on doxing (publishing of the personal
data) or blocking a vic m’s online access to their own accounts.
 KALA FLEMING

G
rowing up in a modern, thriving country, it can be easy to forget
how privileged we truly are. We are so used to all we have, we
rarely stop to be thankful for it. But there are places in the world where the
most basic needs—things like clean drinking water, enough food, or access
to medicine—aren’t met. It is the responsibility of people who have more
than they need to give back and help others who need it most.
That is where Kala Fleming comes in. Kala is a scien st who brings her
knowledge to these underprivileged places. She holds a PhD in civil and
environmental engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Kala cofounded Diaspora AI, a tech and data startup that uses next-
genera on digital technologies to make communi es more connected and
livable. Kala’s technology uses the digi za on of groundwater resources.
Residents of a community are given a water account, in which the amount
of water they are en tled to is recorded and their usage and remaining
water are stored digitally on the cloud, able to be accessed at any me. To
manage the digital system, one always has to know how much water it
contains, how much flows out, and how much flows in. Sensors record the
real water level, along with the weather, and use a trove of historical data
to produce a virtual picture of the available water.

What is civil engineering?

Civil engineers design, build, supervise, operate, construct, and
maintain infrastructure projects and systems in the public and private
sector, including roads, buildings, airports, tunnels, dams, bridges, and
systems for water supply and sewage treatment.

Kala’s TED talk in 2015 on building digital aquifers inspired a range of

forward-thinking water management projects from Kenya to California,
which seek to use more granular water ac vity data to reduce water
scarcity risks.
Kala Fleming strives to provide the neediest people with supplies to
sa sfy their basic needs and help them lead a be er life, all while
protec ng the planet and making sure future genera ons will have the
luxuries we have today.

Did you know...?

Day-to-day ac vi es, like driving cars and using air condi oners, use
energy sources such as natural gas, oil, and coal. Those energy sources
release a gas called carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. When
CO2 and other greenhouse gases trap heat that would otherwise escape
Earth’s atmosphere, the planet’s temperature rises. That’s called global
warming, which causes climate change.
 JESSICA LEE WARE

J
essica Lee Ware grew up a cheerful, curious girl who loved school.
School was a great place to learn, but even be er was her
grandparents’ house. There, she learned about different insects and
animals, which her grandparents encouraged her to collect and study.
Jessica’s passion and love of animals carried her through high school and
into college, where she started studying zoology. During this me, she
worked at the university’s Entomological Museum to support herself and
learn more about insects.
As Jessica neared the end of her undergraduate studies, she decided to
spend a semester in Costa Rica to work with other, more experienced
scien sts of color. Seeing the work these scien sts did, she realized her
true passion was in research. When she came back from Costa Rica, she
enrolled in Rutgers University’s doctoral program and began work on
ge ng her PhD. Her par cular area of study was the evolu on, behavior,
and geography of dragonflies.

What is entomology?
Entomology is the study of insects and their rela onship to humans,
the environment, and other organisms. Entomologists make great
contribu ons to such diverse fields as agriculture, chemistry, biology,
human/animal health, molecular science, criminology, and forensics.

A er she earned her PhD, Jessica worked as an associate professor. She

also held several research posi ons at some of the most popular museums
in the United States. She has received numerous awards, honors, and
acknowledgments for her work in entomology, and she became a member
of the Governing Board of the Entomological Society of America.
 Jessica wrote for numerous entomology journals and served as a
member of the board of several such journals. In 2017, at the March for
Science in Washington, DC, she was a featured speaker, shining a light on
issues such as the need for diversity in science and the importance of
entomology.
Jessica Ware is a vocal advocate for women of color in STEM fields and
tries to encourage young women from underrepresented groups to
become biologists, focusing on entomology.

Did you know...?

Dragonflies have six legs, a thorax, a head, and an abdomen. In spite
of its extra legs, the dragonfly doesn’t walk very well. It is a great flyer,
however. Dragonflies catch prey with their feet, then tear off the prey’s
wings with their sharp jaws so it can’t escape and scarf the insect down,
all without needing to land. Thankfully, dragonflies can’t bite humans!
 ERICA JOY BAKER

W
hen Erica Baker was a kid, her mom used the computer as a
virtual babysi er. For most children, so much me in front of
the computer might result in laziness. But not Erica. She was fascinated by
the computer and how it worked.
Erica was pre y sure she wanted to work with computers, but once she
a ended a two-day computer camp, she was certain. By age twelve, she
had decided that she wanted to make computers her career. And she did.
She went on to become a computer engineer.
One of Erica’s first jobs was working at Google. Working at such a large
and influen al company had been Erica’s dream ever since she started
studying engineering, but as the years passed, she saw and heard things
that she didn’t think were right. She no ced that people weren’t
appreciated enough, so she decided to take ma ers into her own hands.
Erica analyzed how people were being paid and saw that men were ge ng
paid more than women for the same jobs. Making this informa on public
put Erica’s whole career at risk, but she stood her ground, and many
women at Google were able to nego ate higher salaries.

What is inclusion in the workplace?

Inclusion creates a work environment in which all people are treated
fairly and respec ully; have equal access to opportuni es, pay, and
resources; and can contribute fully to the organiza on’s success.

Erica later published her study, which was picked up by one of the most
pres gious newspapers in the world, The New York Times. Erica’s bosses
weren’t happy about being smeared in the press, but many of her
colleagues declared her a hero and a role model for women everywhere.
 But Erica didn’t stop there. Seeing that she was able to make a change at
one company, she became very outspoken about inequali es between
men, women, and different races. Erica has been an advocate for diversity
and inclusion, even when doing so put her career at risk.
Although the fight for gender equality started centuries ago, it’s s ll not
over. And if not for the brave women who have been willing to risk their
careers for others, the world would be nowhere close to where it is today.
Thanks to brave women like Erica Joy Baker, today’s young girls can look
forward to growing up in a fairer, more equal world.

Did you know...?

The involvement of women in the field of medicine has been
recorded in several early civiliza ons. An ancient Egyp an, Merit-Ptah,
was described in an inscrip on as “chief physician.” She is the earliest
known female scien st.
 ANGELA BENTON

A
ngela Benton became a mom at a very young age. Having her
daughter gave Angela the strength and mo va on to work harder
and do more. Angela finished high school and went on to college. There,
she juggled motherhood with studying, some mes working for twelve
hours a day just to support her family. But s ll she pushed on, gradua ng
with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in visual communica ons, with a
specializa on in digital design.
Angela was s ll young at the dawn of the digital age. She watched as
important people and important stories didn’t even make the papers. She
watched as massive media publica ons moved from paper to digital
publica on. S ll, many extraordinary people didn’t appear in the internet
stories either. Angela Benton knew that these people had stories to tell.
She wanted to give them a chance and create a pla orm for African
Americans to speak their minds.
In 2007, Angela le her job in a big tech company in order to launch
Black Web 2.0. Angela gave credit to many extraordinary African Americans
and published their stories on her website. The community quickly grew to
include not only black Americans but people of all races and genders. Over
me, the small site she’d started grew into a mul na onal and mul racial
pla orm with millions of visitors.

What do digital designers do?

Digital designers use crea vity and computer skills to design visuals
associated with electronic technology. They create everything from
websites and computer game graphics to special effects for movies.
They may work in a variety of industries, including entertainment,
educa on, and adver sing.
 In June 2011, Angela launched the first NewME accelerator cohort in
Silicon Valley. The program was largely responsible for being a catalyst in
eleva ng the conversa on around diversity in the technology industry for
both ethnic minori es and women.
Angela Benton is an inspira on to girls and boys alike, everywhere in the
world. She is a breast cancer survivor and advocate for health and wellness
as it relates to entrepreneurship. Angela’s website gave African Americans
a voice. Who knows what the people she’s helped will come up with next?
Whatever it is, it’s sure to be great!

Did you know...?

A goldfish has an a en on span of just nine seconds. This seems
short, but it is longer than that of the average internet user. Digital
designers must design websites to deliver the content to their audience
in the shortest amount of me possible.
 TIMNIT GEBRU

A
lthough Timnit Gebru was born in the African state of Eritrea, she
was raised in Ethiopia. Her father died when she was five years old,
but his influence in her life remained strong—he was an electrical engineer,
and she loved math and physics.
Timnit escaped Ethiopia and eventually immigrated to the United States,
where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical
engineering and a PhD from the Stanford University Ar ficial Intelligence
Laboratory, studying computer vision.
As the cofounder of the group Black in AI, Timnit has worked hard both
to increase diversity in the field of ar ficial intelligence and to reduce the
nega ve impacts of racial bias in training data used for human-centric
machine learning models.
Timnit has become one of the most prominent researchers in ar ficial
intelligence. Through her research, Timnit learned that facial recogni on
technology does not work as it should because it is skewed against women
of color, which made her begin to ques on the use of this technology.

How does facial recognition work?

Facial recogni on technology uses a camera to pinpoint facial
features and create a map of the person’s face. The data gathered can
then be analyzed against prerecorded facial images in a database to
iden fy the person in ques on. Faces are matched based on their visual
geometry, including the rela onship between the eyes, nose, brow,
mouth, and other facial features.

In 2018, Timnit returned to Ethiopia to teach programming to young

students through AddisCoder, a programming bootcamp. The students in
this bootcamp come from a diverse background, hailing from both rural
areas and ci es, with a gender balance between male and female students.
The program even accommodates people with disabili es. Some of these
students have gone on to earn admission to Ivy League universi es. Thanks
to work like this, the next great innova on for our world may very well
come from the minds Timnit inspired and helped to mold.
Timnit Gebru knows that technology needs to be more inclusive so that
it can help improve everyone’s lives. It’s unfair if it only helps a few people
and not others, and she is determined to bring that fairness to the world.

Did you know...?

The true origins of the simplest facial recogni on technology can be
dated back to the early 1800s. Following the inven on of the camera,
law enforcement officials almost immediately began to use photos to
record images of criminals and iden fy mul ple- me offenders.
 HADIYAH-NICOLE GREEN

A
s a newborn baby, Hadiyah-Nicole Green was abandoned by her
parents. Luckily, her aunt and uncle took her in and raised her as
their own. Hadiyah worked hard to deserve the life she had been given.
She earned a full scholarship to college, where she earned her bachelor’s
degree in physics and op cs.
Hadiyah was the first member of her family to graduate from college. All
seemed to be going her way un l, suddenly, her aunt revealed that not
only did she have cancer, she had kept her illness hidden for eight years.
Hadiyah was le heartbroken when her aunt passed away. But the bad
news had only just begun. Hadiyah’s uncle had also been diagnosed with
cancer. Hadiyah watched, shocked, as her uncle suffered from the side
effects of chemotherapy and radia on. Seeing the two most important
people in her life die of cancer gave Hadiyah a purpose: she would dedicate
her life to ba ling the illness.
Hadiyah began researching the use of laser technology to a ack cancer
cells in the body. She worked for three years to build a laser capable of
a acking cancer cells with something called a nanopar cle, an ultrafine
unit. Hadiyah’s research was innova ve, and she became the first person to
treat cancer this way.

How does a laser function?

A laser is a machine that uses special gases or crystals to make an
amplified, single-color source of light. The beam of light from the laser
does not get wider or weaker, as most sources of light do. Instead, the
energy of the light stays in that one narrow beam rather than spreading
out like a flashlight. Some lasers, such as ruby lasers, emit short pulses
of light. Others, like helium–neon gas lasers or liquid dye lasers, emit
light that is con nuous.
 Hadiyah later created the Ora Lee Smith Cancer Research Founda on in
memory of her aunt. It focuses on lessening the pain cancer pa ents feel
when ge ng their chemotherapy treatments.
Hadiyah-Nicole Green has been an excellent example of how one can
turn pain and heartache into something needed and important. Hadiyah
took the pain she felt over losing her family and used it to help others
ba ling the same illness.

Did you know...?

The word laser started as an acronym for “light amplifica on by
s mulated emission of radia on.” Laser tag or Laser Quest–type games
were developed as a nonlethal training program for the US Army in the
1970s.
 JEDIDAH ISLER

W
hen Jedidah Isler was only twelve years old, her sister bought
her a telescope so she could study space. Jedidah immediately
fell in love with the stars and sky.
Jedidah went on to study astronomy in college. But her me in college
was not an easy one; her father le the family, making money so ght that
Jedidah was almost forced to leave school. S ll, she persevered, becoming
one of the first students to par cipate in a special program that focused on
helping women and minori es gain degrees in STEM careers.
Jedidah graduated with a Bachelor of Science in physics from Norfolk
State University. She earned a Master of Arts degree in physics from Fisk
University and became the first African American woman to receive a PhD
in astrophysics from Yale University. A er finishing school, Jedidah went
into the field of scien fic research—specifically, exploring the physics of
blazars.

What is astrophysics?
Astrophysics is the study of how stars and planets work and how we
can learn about them. Astrophysicists use physics to explain what
astronomers find and see.

In 2015, Jedidah was recognized as a TED Fellow for her innova ve

research and her efforts to inspire a new genera on of STEM leaders from
underrepresented backgrounds. She has worked with schools, museums,
libraries, and nonprofit organiza ons across the country to advance the
cause of inclusive STEM educa on and is the creator and host of the
monthly web series Vanguard: Conversa ons with Women of Color in
STEM.
What are blazars?
Blazars are supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies that
create par cle jets moving at nearly the speed of light. A black hole does
not have a surface, like a planet or star. Instead, it is a region of space
where ma er has collapsed in on itself. This catastrophic collapse results
in a huge amount of mass being concentrated in an incredibly small
area. The gravita onal pull of this region is so great that nothing can
escape—not even light.
Jedidah Isler worked hard to get to where she is. She is recognized for
dedica ng her career to be er understanding our universe and
championing access and empowerment in STEM fields.

Did you know...?

A star is a massive, bright sphere of very hot gas called plasma that is
held together by its own gravity. Stars radiate energy created from
nuclear fusion. The nearest star to Earth is the sun, which is classified as
a dwarf star.
 DANIELLE BELGRAVE
A few decades ago, somewhere in Trinidad and Tobago, a math teacher
inspired a li le girl named Danielle Belgrave to study math and showed
her all the amazing things that she could do with it. Danielle fell in love
with mathema cs, so much so that she dedicated her whole life to it. For
college, she moved to London, England, where she studied business
mathema cs at the London School of Economics and earned her master’s
degree at the University College London.
Even as a young child, Danielle knew that not only was an educa on a
great privilege, but it was the responsibility of the educated to share their
knowledge and let others learn from their experience.
A er earning her master’s degree, Danielle went to study at the
University of Manchester for her PhD. There, under the mentorship of
several professors, she published numerous papers and researched
whether machine learning could be used in medicine, specifically in
predic ng asthma in children.
Following gradua on, Danielle went on to work as a principal sta s cian
for GlaxoSmithKline, a leading company in tackling respiratory problems.
Sta s cs provides ways to get the data needed for a study without waste,
such as surveys and controlled experiments. Although her work there was
rewarding, she soon decided to shi her focus to research.

What is machine learning?

Machine learning is a system that teaches computers to do what
comes naturally to humans and animals: learn from experience.
Machine learning algorithms use computa onal methods to learn
informa on directly from data without relying on a fixed model. Deep
learning is an algorithm that trains itself to perform a task using
mul ple levels of machine learning.
 Danielle spent a few years as a researcher at the Imperial College London
before becoming a researcher at Microso Research Cambridge, where she
implemented complex technological models to be er understand medicine
and improve health care.
Danielle Belgrave has coauthored dozens of scien fic papers and has
received numerous awards and scholarships for her work and excep onal
research. She strives to improve human life in any way she can, and she
hopes that many young minds will choose her path and help her use
science and technology to tackle some of the world’s greatest problems.

Did you know...?

Facebook’s News Feed uses machine learning to personalize each
member’s feed.
Computer-aided detec on so ware can spot 52 percent of breast
cancer cells, a year before pa ents are diagnosed.
 MUYINATU A. LEDIJU BELL

M
uyinatu A. Lediju Bell decided at the age of six that she was going
to be a scien st, and it was a dream she pursued from that
moment on. In high school, she was even selected to take part in a math
and science program for successful women sophomores.
Although Muyinatu knew she wanted to be a scien st, she didn’t know
what kind of scien st un l she lost her mother to breast cancer. This fueled
her interest in and mo va on for studying cancer. Muyinatu had earned a
PhD in biomedical engineering, so it made sense to her to pursue research
on ultrasound imaging technology.

How does photoacoustic imaging work?

Photoacous c imaging allows the delivery of light energy that is
absorbed by ssues, causing a thermoelas c expansion. This expansion
then generates ultrasound waves that are detected by the transducer
and produce images of op cal absorp on contrast within ssues.

Muyinatu focused her studies on acous c clu er––a type of noise

ar fact in ultrasound images that can make it difficult to dis nguish
different features in the images. One of her primary projects involved
developing a method to reduce acous c clu er using spa al coherence
informa on, which measures the similarity of ultrasound echoes from
ssue when recorded from slightly different loca ons.

What is an ultrasound scan used for?

An ultrasound is a pain-free test doctors use to see inside of your
body. They use a machine that works with sound waves to take pictures
of the inside of your stomach and other body parts. The doctor can then
see what is happening inside of you and know how to help you feel
be er.

Muyinatu has also done extensive research on photoacous c imaging, as

well as on the design of medical devices and medical robo cs.
Muyinatu A. Lediju Bell has won many awards and honors for her work,
including the Na onal Science Founda on Career Award.

Did you know...?

Ultrasound waves are too high for humans to hear, but they are
within the range of what dogs and cats can hear.
One of the smallest ultrasound transducers is small enough to fit into
a blood vessel.
Ultrasound is not good at penetra ng bone. For this reason, it has
only very limited use on the brain (because the cranium is in the way).
 NYALLENG MOOROSI

N
yalleng Moorosi is a scien st with a wide range of interests.
Originally from South Africa, Nyalleng earned her undergraduate
and graduate university degrees in the United States. She started out
majoring in economics but decided to switch over to computers to learn
about machine learning (ML) and ar ficial intelligence (AI). Nyalleng is a
specialist in ML and AI.
Nyalleng worked as a senior data science researcher at the Council for
Scien fic and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria, South Africa. They have
many different projects. One of these projects is to help prevent rhinoceros
poaching in Kruger Na onal Park in South Africa. Have you ever seen a
rhinoceros? Do you know what rhinoceros poaching is? It’s very sad. The
rhinoceros is an endangered species, and rhinoceros poachers kill rhinos so
they can steal and sell their horns. It is illegal.
You might be wondering what ML and AI have to do with rhinoceros
poaching. Good ques on! The answer is that Nyalleng uses ML and AI to
collect data and build models that will predict what factors lead to
poaching, so that it can be be er prevented.

What is the difference between AI and

ML?
Machine learning (ML) and Ar ficial intelligence (AI) are not the
same thing. Machine learning is one of the technologies of AI. While the
goal of AI is to imitate and mimic human behavior, equipping machines
with the power to make their own decisions, machine learning gives us
the mathema cal tools that allow us to do that. AI is able to understand
languages, conduct conversa ons, and con nually improve itself
because of ML.
 Nyalleng strove to ensure that ML was more representa ve, remedying
some of the embedded bias in machine learning algorithms in systems
such as policing, banking, and medicine. We need to make sure that the
bias they display is removed or handled appropriately.
Nyalleng Moorosi is proof that a curious spirit and a desire to learn can
help us improve the world in many ways. Never stop learning!

Did you know...?

Deep Blue was the first AI robot, made in 1996. It was a chess-playing
computer that won its first game against a World Champion.
Nowadays, chatbots—computer programs designed to simulate
conversa on with human users, especially over the internet—power 85
percent of all customer service interac ons.
 AISHA BOWE

U
nlike many women with successful careers, Aisha Bowe was never
par cularly mo vated to do well. She never thought that she
could do anything or be anyone great, so she didn’t try. She spent her
lower educa on years unchallenged, uninterested, and poor, surrounded
by people who told her that she wouldn’t amount to much and who
encouraged her to take a job and skip higher educa on.
All of that changed when Aisha went to community college. With no real
career path in mind, Aisha enrolled in economics courses. It took very li le
me for her to decide that economics wasn’t for her. So she took a
mathema cs class and found her passion!
Mo vated by her love of science fic on movies, books, and TV shows
and her newfound love of math, Aisha went on to study aerospace
engineering at the University of Michigan. It was during the me spent
earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Michigan that Aisha
realized exactly what she wanted to do: she wanted to work for NASA!

What do aerospace engineers do?

Aerospace engineers need a strong background in science and
mathema cs. They have to give a lot of thought to the materials used in
spaceships so that they aren’t too heavy, can travel at fast speeds, and
are safe. They also need to decide how the machines will be shaped,
controlled, and powered, and they need to understand aerodynamics—
how the air moves around the plane.

It took a few years, but Aisha achieved her dream. Aisha was accepted
into NASA. She worked in the MESA School Program, taught students, and
led tours of NASA sites.
 As much as Aisha loved NASA, she had something bigger in mind. A er a
few years, she le her dream job to found her own company—STEMBoard,
a company looking to provide smart and innova ve technological solu ons
to governments and businesses.
Aisha Bowe didn’t have the privilege of quality elementary and high
school educa on, and she didn’t always know what she wanted to do. She
found her calling later in life. But her determina on and consistency
pushed her forward and helped her achieve her dream. That is why she
teaches young students everywhere to believe in themselves and never
listen to people who tell them that they can’t do something important and
be successful.

Did you know...?

Except for Earth, the planets in our solar system are named a er gods
from Roman and Greek mythology. Only eight planets have been
discovered in our solar system, but there is compelling evidence for a
ninth planet.
 ANNE-MARIE IMAFIDON

A
lmost from the me Anne-Marie Imafidon was born, everyone
knew that she was going to be someone great. The oldest of five
children, Anne-Marie was a child prodigy who spent her childhood
breaking many age records for girls in science. She loved any field of
science but par cularly enjoyed mathema cs, languages, and
programming. At the age of ten, she got a scholarship to a pres gious
private school. By the age of eleven, Anne-Marie spoke six languages
fluently and had passed exams meant for much older kids.
At thirteen, Anne-Marie received a scholarship to Johns Hopkins
University to study mathema cs. Two years later, she received a
scholarship to the oldest university and one of the best in the world—
Oxford University—from which she earned a master’s degree in computer
science. At only twenty years old, Anne-Marie became one of the youngest
people ever to earn a master’s degree.

What is the purpose of a hackathon?

A hackathon, also known as a codefest, is a social coding event that
brings computer programmers and other interested people together to
improve on or build a new so ware program. The word hackathon
comes from the words hacker, which means a clever programmer—not
its alternate meaning in reference to computer security—and marathon,
which is an event marked by endurance.

In 2013, Anne-Marie founded STEMe es, a social enterprise that runs

panel sessions and hackathons to inspire girls from five to twenty-two to
pursue careers in STEM.

What is a startup incubator?

 The main purpose of a startup incubator is to help entrepreneurs
launch and grow their business. It helps new startups succeed.
Incubators help by providing workspace, seed funding, mentoring, and
training.

Anne-Marie is o en cited in lists of the most inspira onal women in IT,

and her company is frequently called on by the European Commission and
the government of the United Kingdom to consult on ma ers related to
women in STEM. As part of this work she also cofounded Outbox Incubator,
the world’s first tech startup incubator for teenage girls.

Did you know...?

Women and girls are vastly underrepresented in STEM fields, despite
their talent and poten al to be successful in these areas. While women
make up almost half of the popula on, they account for only 24 percent
of the STEM workforce.
 BRITTNEY EXLINE

B
ri ney Exline’s mother always said that she was gi ed as a child.
She learned to walk at only eight months old and could do jigsaw
puzzles at only fi een months old! She taught herself to read at two years
old and became fluent in seven languages: English, Spanish, German,
French, Arabic, Russian, and Japanese. Bri ney loved to dance, and she
took part in several beauty pageants. She also did several summer
internships, including ones with an investment analyst firm and a nonprofit
organiza on.
Bri ney studied anthropology at Harvard University while in high school.
She went on to receive a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania in
2007 at age fi een, making her the youngest African American woman to
be accepted into an Ivy League school.
In 2011, at nineteen years old, Bri ney earned a bachelor’s degree in
computer science, gradua ng with academic dis nc on, and went on to
become the youngest-ever African American engineer. The most important
aspect of computer science is problem-solving, a skill Bri ney displayed
early with those jigsaw puzzles!

What is the difference between computer

science and software engineering?
Computer science deals with designing and developing programs and
computers. It concentrates on data, data transforma on, and
algorithms. So ware engineering deals with developing and
maintaining so ware systems. It is more so ware-oriented and has a
greater emphasis on large so ware applica ons than computer
engineering.
 Bri ney’s mother made sure she got everything she needed to succeed,
and she made sure Bri ney remained commi ed even when she wanted
to quit. Bri ney learned you can’t quit an ac vity just because it’s hard.
Some mes you need to s ck with something. That’s the only way to learn
how to persevere and overcome obstacles.
In addi on to her work as an engineer, Bri ney Exline is also an
enthusias c volunteer, and she believes in contribu ng to her community.
Have you ever thought about volunteering? It’s a good way to learn about
yourself and the world while helping others and making the world a be er
place.

Did you know...?

Because computer parts contain hazardous materials, it is important
to recycle old and outdated parts. Computer hardware contains
dangerous chemicals such as lead, mercury, nickel, and cadmium. All of
these can have a harmful effect on the environment unless they are
disposed of properly. Making hardware requires energy, and recycling
parts will reduce air pollu on and water pollu on, as well as
greenhouse gas emissions.
 VICTORIA CHIBUOGU NNEJI

U
nlike most modern children, Victoria Chibuogu Nneji didn’t have a
computer when she was growing up. But that didn’t stop her from
wan ng to learn about them! Victoria spent evenings and weekends at a
computa onal science firm, learning how to develop so ware and design
mathema cal models that she could not show off at home—un l she learn
how to build a computer for herself, that is! Victoria connected with a
mentor at the firm who taught her how to build her first home computer.
Victoria went on to study science and math at Columbia University.
During her me in New York City, Victoria worked to help young girls learn
about computers and how to build them. She and some of her classmates
sourced old computers, provided classes for learning about computer
hardware, and set up curriculum for courses.
In 2019, Victoria became the first person to earn a PhD at Duke
University in robo cs!

What are the basic components of a

computer?
Motherboard, Power supply, Central processing unit (CPU), Random-
access memory (RAM), Hard disk drive, Video card, Input and Output
devices.

One of Victoria’s goals is to help ensure that advanced technologies are

created with real human needs in mind. She wants people to have greater
access to mobility and community par cipa on. Victoria has led projects
with NASA and the U.S. Department of Transporta on on modeling remote
opera ons centers for autonomous vehicle networks in rail and air
transporta on systems.
 She also worked with Durham’s mayor on a Poverty Reduc on Ini a ve
meant to help increase access to both transporta on and educa on.
Victoria is a hardworking and generous young woman who gives back to
her community. She recognizes that people helped her access
opportuni es that she might not have had otherwise, and she wants to
help other young people in return.
Victoria Chibuogu Nneji’s life shows that you need to look for whatever
opportuni es you can find and take advantage of them whenever you can.
Don’t let yourself be discouraged by life. Believe in yourself!

Did you know...?

There are close to one billion transistors inside a CPU—about three
mes the popula on of United States!
 TIERA GUINN FLETCHER

A
t just six years old, Tiera Guinn Fletcher loved to innovate and
calculate, so she would use Legos, construc on blocks,
construc on paper, pencils, crayons, and whatever else she could put her
hands on to turn her dreams into a reality. She even took charge of the
family’s coupons—calcula ng the cost of items, factoring in the coupons,
and even figuring out the taxes! At the age of eleven, she decided to be an
aerospace engineer.
During her senior year of high school, Tiera received an internship with
NASA, followed by a research internship at the Georgia Ins tute of
Technology that involved assis ng in the research of landing performance
in aircra .
In 2017, Tiera earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from
MIT. A er gradua on, she took up a posi on at Boeing as a structural
analysis engineer, becoming one of the lead engineers and designers
working on the Space Launch System for NASA, which aims to put humans
on Mars. The area that Tiera worked on is the exploratory upper stage of
the spacecra , which helps the cra complete its ascent phase.

What is NASA’s Space Launch System?

The Space Launch System is an advanced launch vehicle that provides
the founda on for human explora on beyond Earth’s orbit. With its
unprecedented power and capabili es, it can send astronauts and large
cargo to the moon on a single mission.

For Tiera’s hard work and dedica on to her field, she won an Awesome
Women Award from Good Housekeeping magazine. These awards are only
given to women who redefine race, save lives, and perform other acts that
bring dras c changes to the world.
 Tiera was only in her twen es when she accomplished so much, and she
has made it a life goal to encourage other young people to go a er their
goals. Tiera has given many interviews to different magazines to share her
journey, to speak about STEM careers, and to encourage young people to
take part in these careers.
Tiera Guinn Fletcher knows that achieving your dreams involves lots of
hard work and me, but it is always worth it in the end..

Did you know...?

The rocket was invented by the Chinese while they were using
gunpowder. The first rockets were shaped like arrows and were not very
fast. Most rockets s ll use fire. The fire creates hot exhaust gases that
expand and shoot out the back. This makes the rocket go forward and
up.
Copyright © 2020 Mentches Inc.
Illustra ons copyright © 2020 T. Z. Nissen
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmi ed
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or by any informa on storage and retrieval
system, without wri en permission from the author.
This is a crea ve nonfic on book. It is not a complete biography of the
characters’ lives. Their life stories are a vehicle to deliver an inspiring,
posi ve and educa onal message to our children. While every cau on has
been taken to provide accurate and current informa on, it is the reader’s
responsibility to check all informa on. Neither the author nor publisher
can be held accountable for any errors or omissions.
Wri en by L. A. Amber
Illustrated by T. Z. Nissen
For informa on or comments, please email us at
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FIRST EDITION: January 2020