Creator of 130+ patents, entrepreneur, pioneer of industrial-scale synthesis of human hormones, renowned expert on making drugs from plants, and first African-American chemist to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences, Chicagoan Dr. Percy Lavon Julian caps off our celebration of #blackhistor...

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Dr. Anthony Toussaint is the current leader of the Chicagoland chemistry community, as Chair of the Chicago Section of the American Chemical Society. With many years of industrial experience, he is currently Leader of Research and Development for ICL - Performance Products. #blackhistorymonth #chemi...

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Dr. Charles Cannon rocks! Chicago ACS Board Member and Councilor, American Chemical Society Fellow, Chemistry Professor of Distinction and former Chair of the Science and Math Dept at Columbia College Chicago, Cannon is a celebrated Chicago Chemistry fixture, recommending: “Pursue your interes...

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What a pioneer of chemical manufacture! Entrepreneur Samuel B. Fuller (1905-1988) founded the Fuller Products Company and was the first African-American to be inducted into the National Association of Manufacturers. #blackhistorymonth #entrepreneur#chemicalmanufacture Impoverished in Louisiana, 9-y...

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Sarah Breedlove, aka Madam CJ Walker (1867-1919), is celebrated as the first self-made female millionaire in the U.S., regardless of race or ethnicity. Primarily an entrepreneur, she made her fortune in hair care products designed for African-American women, founding the Madame C.J. Walker Manufactu...

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Chicago ACS member Dr. LeRoy Jones II, an Assoc. Professor and the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Chicago State University, has a remarkable range of research interests: self-healing bone cement, lightweight fuel cells, mechanistic studies of organometallic catalysts, and other applicat...

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Prof. Valerie Gloss is our Nanotech expert at Chicago State University ! Alum of CSU, and PhD graduate of University of Notre Dame, she's awesome! ACS member and author of several academic papers, Gloss focuses on "understanding binding and structural properties of nanostructures". She's proficient ...

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Born in 1940 Chicago, biochemist Dr. John Watson earned his BS from Illinois Institute of Technology and his PhD from University of Illinois at Chicago (NAVY PIER CAMPUS). At the U. of California San Francisco (UCSF), he became a Biochemistry Professor specializing in regulation of metabolic pathway...

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Chicago ACS member, expert in Alzheimer's Disease, Biochem Prof, and Assoc Dean at Chicago State University, Dr. Aida Abraha came from Ethiopia and earned her BS at CSU, her PhD at Loyola University Chicago, and did postdocs at Johns Hopkins University and Northwestern University. #blackhistorymonth...

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Dr. Jean-Luc Ayitou is just starting his professorial career at the Illinois Institute of Technology, but he just won the Chem Dept's FIRST National Science Foundation (NSF) Early CAREER Award! #blackhistorymonth . His research blends synthesis, photochem, and photophysics in the fields of Energy, M...

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As an astronaut, M.D., chemical engineer, ACS member, and dancer, Chicago native Dr. Mae Jemison is out of this world! #blackhistorymonth At 16, she graduated CPS' Morgan Park High School and went to Stanford University, earning a BS in Chemical Engineering in 1977 while also pursuing Afro-American...

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P-chem PhD alumnus of The University of Chicago, former Associate Provost of Chicago State University, Dr. Grant Venerable also worked at Argonne National Laboratory' Radiation Chemistry section. As postdoc, he was awarded the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Fellowship to study nuclear medicine at UCL...

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?????? Chicago ACS ??'s Dr. Joe Francisco!! "I saw patterns in what others considered noise." With ~500 peer-reviewed papers and decades of service, Dr. F. became global American Chemical Society President and visited Chicago to present the prestigious Willard Gibbs Medal in 2009. Now the the Dean a...

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BANG!! Dr. Henry Cecil McBay (1914-1995), 1945 PhD graduate of The University of Chicago, specialized in the chemistry of explosive materials derived from hydrogen peroxide. His work was deemed sufficiently important that he did not have to serve in the military in WWII. In both 1944 and '45, he rec...

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Next time you see antioxidants used to keep food fresh, give a nod to Lloyd Hall (1894-1971). As a fresh graduate of Northwestern UniversityAND The University of Chicago in pharmaceutical chemistry, Hall was hired over the phone by Western Electric Company. But once they found he was black, they res...

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Celebrating United Nations' Int'l Women in Science Day AND #blackhistorymonth, we recognize Chicago ACS' own Dr. Cherlyn Bradley (1951-2014). Named a prestigious American Chemical Society Fellow in 2012, Dr. Bradley's career combined excellent contributions to analytical chemistry (primarily during ...

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Recipient of The University of Chicago's Alumni Citation Award, Dr. Albert Stewart worked 35 years in the Nuclear Division at Union Carbide, eventually becoming Assistant Director of Research. Early on, he was drafted into the U.S. Navy, but was trained to be an officer, and became Second Lieutenant...

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Dr. Reatha Clark King earned her PhD from The University of Chicago and was the first female African American chemist employed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. At York College / CUNY, she was Assoc. Prof., then Associate Dean. After earneing her MBA from Columbia University in ...

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Dr. Fillmore Freeman, a graduate of John Marshall Metropolitan High School (Chicago Public Schools), made his name as a Prof. at University of California, Irvine) doing physical organic chemistry, including computational chemistry. His research synthesizing anti-viral and anti-tumor compounds includ...

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Prof. Billie Joe Evans went from Coordinator for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters to full Professor at the University of Michigan (after getting his Chemistry PhD in 1968 from The University of Chicago). Specializing in solid state chemistry that "directly affects human environments", he also...

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Dr. Lilia Abron is a chemical engineer who spent time at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Abron founded Peer Africa with the mission of building energy-efficient homes in post-apartheid South Africa, earning her the ...

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Dr. Gloria Long Anderson earned her PhD in Organic Chemistry from The University of Chicago in 1968. Born to Arkansas sharecroppers, she became Chair of the Chemistry Department of Morris Brown College in Atlanta, GA...then earned the distinguished endowed Fuller E. Calloway professorship several ti...

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Prof. William Lester, Jr. was born in 1937 Chicago, where he had to attend segregated schools. He earned his M.S. from The University of Chicago, went on to get a Ph.D., and became a Distinguished Professor at U.Cal.-Berkeley (after working at IBM and the United States National Bureau of Standards),...

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Our own Dr. Jim Shoffner is our kickoff for celebrating #blackhistorymonth this year. Jim grew up on a rural plantation, then earned his PhD at UIC and had long, celebrated career as an organic chemist with UOP in Des Plaines, Illinois. He's served the Chicago ACS for decades, and was Section Chair ...

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