[bfsa] Black History Moment

[Trev Watt]

No disrespect, but learning how to cook and learning
how to manage chefs really does not impress me. What
does impress me is the following. (I found this
article on African Americans in science and
technology)

Barring a few notable exceptions, they are largely
unknown outside their own secretive inner circles.
Yet, their work is more important, more far-reaching
and more exacting than virtually anybody else's. In
fact, the future of the entire human race depends on
their ability to make sense of the many mysteries that
still confront and baffle mankind. They are the men
and women who have dedicated their lives and immense
talents to science and the pursuit of solutions to
problems ranging from how to protect humans from
deadly solar radiation to how to make cars go farther
on less gasoline.

Since the founding of this nation, African-Americans
have played a vital role in the various science
special-ties -- chemistry, physics, biology and math
-- and engineering, and have made important
contributions to scientific and technological
progress. From the break-through achievements of
mathematician Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806), America's
first Black scientist of note, who accurately
predicted a solar eclipse, to the daring explorations
of outer space by Black astronauts, Blacks have made
their mark in virtually every imaginable aspect of
science and technology. Many have made new discoveries
and published important scientific papers -- the
science equivalent of a game-winning slam dunk,
touchdown or home run. But owing to the esoteric and
arcane nature of scientific research, and the fact
that scientists communicate in a language only they
can understand, most have remained virtually unknown.

Yet, a select few have managed to escape obscurity.
Todays Black scientists whose names have transcended
their own scientific community and become household
words throughout the nation and beyond include
physicist Dr. Walter E. Massey, formerly vice
president for research at the University of Chicago's
Argonne National laboratories and former director of
the National Science Foundation and currently
president of Morehouse College; mathematician Dr.
David Blackwell, professor emeritus at the University
of California-Berkeley, who until recently had the
distinction of being the only living Black member of
the prestigious National Academy of Sciences;
theoretical physicist Dr. Shirley A. Jackson, who
chairs the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and who was
the first Black woman to earn a Ph. D. from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Dr. Benjamin F.
Peery. Jr., professor emeritus of astronomy at Howard
University, whose areas of research include the
physics of stellar structure, evolution and
nucleossynthesis; astrophysicist Dr. George
Carruthers, who developed the Far Ultraviolet Camera
that became the first astronomical instrument used on
the surface of the moon, and electrical engineers Drs.
Gary Harris and Michael Spencer of Howard University,
both known for their trailblazing research in
microelectronics and semiconductor technology. 

These science superstars head a long list of
scientific overachievers who in the laboratories of
academia, the federal government and private industry
are doing their part to assure that the country
maintains its technological edge.

Although there are far too many to mention but a few,
these largely unsung heroes are found in virtually
every area of science and technology. The following is
a small sample of topnotch Black scientists who are
active around the nation adding to the practical and
theoretical advancement of scientific and technical
knowledge:

Dr. Christine M. Darden, a NASA deputy program
manager, is helping to develop a U. S.-made supersonic
airliner scheduled for unveiling by 2005.

Physics professor Dr. Homer A. Neal, interim president
of the University of Michigan who specializes in
experimental high energy physics, conducts particle
interaction studies in hadron-hadron and electron
positron collisions" at laboratories in the U.S. and
abroad.

Dr. Neal's University of Michigan colleague, Dr. Billy
Joe Evans, professor of solid state inorganic
chemistry, lists among his research interests "low
temperature synthesis routes for high temperature
materials."

Similarly esoteric are the fields of research of
University of Maryland physics professor Dr. Sylvester
James Gates Jr. Specializing in "mathematical and
theoretical physics of supersymmetric particles," he
lists the study of "Einstein's unified field type
theories" among his primary research interests.

Meanwhile at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), tenurebound r. Paula T. Hammond, a chemical
engineer, teaches "molecular aspects of chemical
engineering" while doing research in "the molecular
design and synthesis of self-assembling polymeric
systems, and the variation of chemical structure and
processing of these systems to control their order and
function on both microscopic and macroscopic levels."

At the National Institutes of Health (NIH), biochemist
Dr. Ida Owens conducts studies in the genetics of
detoxification enzymes, research that is aimed at
shedding light on how the human body defends itself
against poison.

This is HIGHER EDUCATION!! One of the failures of
Black History Month is the regurgitation of the "We
Will Overcome" issues. These children need to know
more about the successes past and present in the
fields of science and technology. What would really
stimulate a child more? A black scientist at NASA
demonstrating a galactic robot space explorater that
he or she invented, or some guy who talks about how
cooking 10 lobsters a day saved his company millions
of dollars. 


--- Arlene Floyd <afloyd at ysu.edu> wrote:

> Another history moment for us and our children
> 
> The Higher Education of the Nation's Top
> African-American Restaurateur
> 
> Each week tens of thousands of diners eat at an
> Olive Garden or Red
> Lobster restaurant. Few of these diners know that
> the CEO heading
> these large restaurant chains is a black man.
> 
> Clarence Otis Jr. is the CEO of Darden Restaurants
> Inc., the largest
> casual dining operator in the nation. The firm
> operates nearly 1,400
> company-owned restaurants coast to coas t serving
> 300 million meals
> annually. Darden employs 150,000 workers and has
> annual revenues of $6
> billion.
> 
> Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Otis moved to Los
> Angeles when he was
> 6 years old. His father was a high school dropout
> who worked as a
> janitor. The family lived in Watts at the time of
> the 1965 riots. In the
> post-Watts period, Otis recalls being stopped and
> questioned by police
> several times a year because of the color of his
> skin.
> 
> A high school guidance counselor recommended him for
> a scholarship at
> Williams College, the highly selective liberal arts
> institution in
> Massachusetts. Otis graduated Phi Beta Kappa from
> Williams and went on
> to earn a law degree at Stanford.
> 
> Otis landed on Wall Street as a merger and
> acquisitions attorney for
> J.P. Morgan Securities. He joined Darden Restaurants
> in 1995 as
> corporate treasurer. He became CEO in 2004.
> 
> > begin:vcard
> fn:Arlene Floyd
> n:Floyd;Arlene
> org:Youngstown State University;Associate Degree &
> Tech Prep Programs
> adr;dom:;;One University Plaza, Tod
> 301;Youngstown;OH;44555
> title:Director
> tel;work:330-941-2333
> version:2.1
> end:vcard
> 
> > _______________________________________________
> bfsa mailing list
> bfsa at lists.ysu.edu
> http://lists.ysu.edu/mailman/listinfo.cgi/bfsa
> 



 
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