George
Washington
Carver
Agricultural
Innovator
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Mark
Dean and his co-inventor Dennis Moeller created a microcomputer
system with bus control means for peripheral processing devices. Their
invention paved the way for the growth in the information technology industry.
We can plug into our computers peripherals like disk drives, video gear,
speakers, and scanners.
Dean was born in Jefferson City,
Tennessee, on March 2, 1957. He received his undergraduate degree in electrical
engineering from the University of Tennessee, his MSEE from Florida Atlantic
University, and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
Early in his career at IBM, Dean was chief engineer working with IBM personal
computers. The IBM PS/2 Models 70 and 80 and the Color Graphic Adapter
are among his early work. He holds three of IBM’s original nine PC patents.
Currently, Dean is vice president
of performance for the RS/6000 Division. He was named an IBM fellow in
1996 and in 1997, received the Black Engineer of the Year President’s Award.
Dean holds more than 20 patents. He was inducted into the National Inventors
Hall of Fame in 1997.
When you can do the common things
in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.
- George
Washington Carver.
"He could have added fortune to fame,
but, caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful
to the world." George Washington Carver’s epitaph sums up a life-time of
innovative discovery. Born into slavery, freed as a child, curious throughout
life, Carver profoundly affected the lives of people throughout the nation.
He successfully shifted Southern farming away from risky cotton, which
depletes soil of its nutrients, to nitrate-producing crops such as peanuts,
peas, sweet potatoes, pecans, and soybeans. Farmers began rotating crops
of cotton one year with peanuts the next.
Carver spent his early childhood
with a German couple who encouraged his education and early interest in
plants. He received his early education in Missouri and Kansas. He was
accepted into Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, in 1877 and in 1891,
transferred to Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) where
he earned a B.S. in 1894 and an M.S. in 1897. Later that year Booker T.
Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute, convinced Carver to serve
as the school’s director of agriculture. From his laboratory at Tuskegee,
Carver developed 325 different uses for peanuts--until then considered
lowly food fit for hogs--and 118 products from the sweet potato. Other
Carver innovations include synthetic marble from sawdust, plastics from
woodshavings, and writing paper from wisteria vines.
Carver only patented three of his
many discoveries. "God gave them to me," he said, "How can I sell them
to someone else?" Upon his death, Carver contributed his life savings to
establish a research institute at Tuskegee. His birthplace was declared
a national monument in 1953, and he was inducted into the National Inventors
Hall of Fame in 1990.
Charles Drew,
a Washington, D.C. native, excelled in academics and sports during his
graduate studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts. He was also a honor
student at McGill University Medical School in Montreal, where he specialized
in physiological anatomy.
It was during his work at Columbia
University in New York City where he made his discoveries relating to the
preservation of blood. By separating the liquid red blood cells from the
near solid plasma and freezing the two separately, he found that blood
could be preserved and reconstituted at a later date.
The British military used his process
extensively during World War II, establishing mobile blood banks to aid
in the treatment of wounded soldiers at the front lines. After the war,
Drew was appointed the first director of the American Red Cross Blood Bank.
He received the Spingarn Medal in 1944 for his contributions. He died at
the early age of 46 from injuries suffered in a car accident in North Carolina.
Percy
Lavon Julian synthesized physostigmine for treatment of glaucoma
and cortisone for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. He is also noted
for a fire-extinguishing foam for gasoline and oil fires. Born in Montgomery,
Alabama, Julian had little schooling because Montgomery provided limited
public education for Blacks. However, he entered DePauw University as a
"sub-freshman" and graduated in 1920 as class valedictorian. He then taught
chemistry at Fisk University, and in 1923, earned a master’s degree from
Harvard University. In 1931, Julian received his Ph.D. from the University
of Vienna.
He returned to DePauw University,
where his reputation was established in 1935 by synthesizing physostigmine
from the calabar bean. Julian went on to become director of research at
the Glidden Company, a paint and varnish manufacturer. He developed a process
for isolating and preparing soy bean protein, which could be used to coat
and size paper, to create cold water paints, and to size textiles. During
World War II, Julian used a soy protein to produce AeroFoam, which suffocates
gasoline and oil fires.
Julian was noted most for his synthesis
of cortisone from soy beans, used in treating rheumatoid arthritis and
other inflammatory conditions. His synthesis reduced the price of cortisone.
Julian was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1990.
Next
page > African American Innovators
- The Real McCoy
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