This month, in honor of Black History Month, we wanted to highlight 17 Black chemists you might have missed in class:

Winifred Burks-Houck was an environmental organic chemist and the first woman president of @NOBCChE. During her work at @Livermore_Lab she minimized threats to worker safety and limited the lab’s environmental impact. Learn more about her at https://t.co/XY47pzQbuU #BlackInSTEM
Charles Drew, better known as the father of the blood bank, found that blood could be preserved longer once the plasma and the red blood cells were separated. A well-timed finding, since WWII was breaking out in Europe. Read more about Drew at https://t.co/GuSZajs8OO #BlackInChem
James Andrew Harris played a key role in the discovery of two elements. During his time @BerkeleyLab in the ’60s, Harris and his team discovered two elements: 104, rutherfordium, and 105, dubnium. Learn more about Harris at https://t.co/HKjp7jaPFN #BlackInChem #BlackInSTEM
Angie Turner King was a prominent chemist educator in a period when few women—let alone Black women—were scientists. She built a successful career and mentored many accomplished scientists. Read more about King at https://t.co/pwmycraxYP #BlackInSTEM #WomenInSTEM #ChemEd
Josephine Silone Yates: In addition to being a chemist, she was a writer and a civil rights activist. She became the first Black certified teacher in Rhode Island and was the first Black woman to lead a college science department. Learn more about Yates at https://t.co/JX2wKuKDW0
Alice Ball was the first Black woman to receive a chemistry degree from the University of Hawaii. She isolated the chaulmoogra plant’s active ingredient, which became a standard treatment for leprosy. Learn more about Ball at https://t.co/EJP0tmHlnl #BlackInChem #WomenInSTEM
St. Elmo Brady in 1916 became the first Black American to earn a PhD in chemistry. He also created the first chemistry graduate program at an HBCU in the US. Read more about Brady at https://t.co/1VIX2Z1BG0 #BlackInChem #BlackInSTEM
Marie Maynard Daly was the first Black woman in the US to receive a PhD in chemistry. Her research contributed to understanding histones and how blood pressure led to clogged arteries. To learn about her other contributions, visit https://t.co/Jaa4D0pWCe #BlackInSTEM #BlackInChem
Lloyd Noel Ferguson in 1943 became the first Black person to receive a PhD from UC Berkeley. He had a chemistry set in his backyard at Oakland, where he made moth repellent a spot remover! Read more about Ferguson at https://t.co/KNBKJ7OYty #BlackInChem #BlackInSTEM
Bettye Washington Greene in 1965 earned a PhD in physical chemistry focusing on how particles distribute themselves in emulsion. Later that year she became the first Black woman to work at Dow Chemical. Learn more about Greene at https://t.co/ROhXXVSGYu #BlackInChem #BlackInSTEM
Walter Lincoln Hawkins codeveloped a cable sheath for telecommunication cables that extended their lifetime by 70 years, contributing to a worldwide telecommunication expansion. This was only one of his many patented inventions. Learn more at https://t.co/23x9is6Mg7 #BlackInSTEM
Alma Levant Hayden was one of the first scientists of color to work at a federal agency. Her research focused on using spectrometry to detect steroids. Read more about Hayden at https://t.co/eMCJDjki0h #BlackInSTEM #BlackInChem #WomenInSTEM
Mary Elliott Hill was an analytical chemist that developed tracking methods for the progress of reactions based on their solubility. Learn more about her career at https://t.co/Js1EGDC4E1 #BlackInChem #WomenInChem #BlackInSTEM
Percy Lavon Julian developed an 11-step synthesis of physostigmine, a molecule used to treat glaucoma. He also developed an efficient synthesis for steroids. Learn more about Julian’s contributions at https://t.co/m2Im9ypVyN #BlackInSTEM #BlackInChem
Robert Henry Lawrence Jr. enrolled in the US Air Force soon after graduating in chemistry, and he was selected to become the first Black American astronaut. Read more about Lawrence at https://t.co/5KyOgCLT0b #BlackInSTEM #BlackInChem
James Ellis Lu Valle was a chemist and an Olympian, winning the bronze medal in the 400 m race at the 1936 Olympics. He also led the first-year chemistry lab at Stanford University. Read more about Lu Valle at https://t.co/jjlrb2eqIK #BlackInChem #BlackInSTEM
Samuel P. Massie became the first Black person to teach at the US Naval Academy and to chair its Chemistry Department. Learn more about Massie’s contributions at https://t.co/fG6NF2wOGo #BlackInChem #BlackInSTEM

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Imagine if Christians actually had to live according to their Bibles.


Imagine if Christians actually sacrificed themselves for the good of those they considered their enemies, with no thought of any recompense or reward, but only to honor the essential humanity of all people.

Imagine if Christians sold all their possessions and gave it to the poor.

Imagine if they relentlessly stood up for the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner.

Imagine if they worshipped a God whose response to political power was to reject it.

Or cancelled all debt owed them?

Imagine if the primary orientation of Christians was what others needed, not what they deserved.

Imagine Christians with no interest in protecting what they had.

Imagine Christians who made room for other beliefs, and honored the truths they found there.

Imagine Christians who saved their forgiveness and mercy for others, rather than saving it for themselves.

Whose empathy went first to the abused, not the abuser.

Who didn't see tax as theft; who didn't need to control distribution of public good to the deserving.

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I’m torn on how to approach the idea of luck. I’m the first to admit that I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. To be born into a prosperous American family in 1960 with smart parents is to start life on third base. The odds against my very existence are astronomical.


I’ve always felt that the luckiest people I know had a talent for recognizing circumstances, not of their own making, that were conducive to a favorable outcome and their ability to quickly take advantage of them.

In other words, dumb luck was just that, it required no awareness on the person’s part, whereas “smart” luck involved awareness followed by action before the circumstances changed.

So, was I “lucky” to be born when I was—nothing I had any control over—and that I came of age just as huge databases and computers were advancing to the point where I could use those tools to write “What Works on Wall Street?” Absolutely.

Was I lucky to start my stock market investments near the peak of interest rates which allowed me to spend the majority of my adult life in a falling rate environment? Yup.