Scientists of Color

[Vikrant]

I started this thread to celebrate the contribution of colored folks in advancement of science and technology. This is not a political thread. To establish superiority of one race over other is not the purpose of this thread. So, PLEASE, refrain from that type of dicsussion as there are plenty of threads on this board that cater to that sort of topic.

Let me propose a format that we should stick to when posting in this thread:

a) Provide the name of the scientist
b) His/her etnicity. Keep in mind ethinicity and nationality are two different things
c) His/her claim to fame

You are also welcome to add your two cents about a given post as long as you remain on topic and civil. I am not a moderator so I cannot enforce any of the rules I laid out but I hope you guys will respect my wishes. Thanks in advance!

***

I will get this thread started by introducing a brilliant Indian American scientist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. He won Nobel prize in 1983 for his work in astrophysics which came to be known as Chandrasekhar Limit. Chandrasekhar served on the University of Chicago faculty from 1937 until his death in 1995 at the age of 84. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1953.

So what is this Chandrasekhar Limit that earned him the fame?

Chandrasekhar Limit is the maximum mass that a white dwarf can possess. His calculations were initially rejected because the only way to logically explain his calculation was to accept strange things called black holes. White dwarfs resist internal gravity induced collapse through electron degeneracy pressure as opposed to thermal pressure as is the case in the main sequence stars. The Chandrasekhar limit is the mass above which electron degeneracy pressure in the star's core is insufficient to balance the star's own gravitational self-attraction. As a result, the star transforms into neutrino star and eventually becomes the black hole.

If you want to read further on Chndrasekhar Limit, you should read this entertaining article by James Stein a noted mathematician:

The Chandrasekhar Limit: The Threshold That Makes Life Possible « NOVA's Physics Blog: The Nature of Reality

 

[Vikrant]

Damn! I had so many typos in my OP. I will run my long posts by spell checker before posting it the next time.

 

[Vikrant]

Looks like I have to carry the torch alone on this one.

I want to introduce you to another favorite scientists of mine. His name is Satyendra Nath Bose. He was born in January 1, 1894 in Calcutta, India. I am pretty sure you have heard of 'God Particles' aka Bosons. These particles were named after Satyendra Nath Bose to honor him and his work in quantum mechanics. Bosons are considered the building blocks of the universe.

Initially, no one wanted to publish Bose's paper and he faced ridicule when trying to explain what has come to be known as Bosons. After Bose lost all hopes, he wrote a letter to Einstein. Einstein validated it to be true and translated Bose's paper into German which was published by a German publication bringing Bose much deserved fame.

BTW, this whole Boson thing was predicted by Satyendra Nath Bose as a mistake but then he realized that it was not a mistake.

Here is a nice article on him by Famous Scientists:

Famous Scientists - Satyendra Nath Bose

 

[Vikrant]

Today, we will take a look at another scientist of color. His name is Jagadish Chandra Bose. He was a professor of Physics at University of Calcutta.

He is considered one of the fathers of radio wave science and microwave optics by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, New York. He was the first one to realize the disadvantages of long wavelengths and worked to bring it down in the range of 5mm. In 1894, in Calcutta, India he held a demonstration of microwave of 1mm; he was able to ring a bell at a distance without using any wired connection. He carried out bunch of experiments that pioneered the field of microwave.

Bose’s work actually predates that of Guglielmo Marconi who is most often associated with the development of radio. Unlike Marconi who sought to commercialize his work with radio waves, Bose was purely interested in radio waves as a scientific endeavor.

He also did considerable work in plant science. He is credited for the invention of Chrestograph. He used Chrestograph to demonstrate parallelism between animal and plant tissues.

Actually, I forgot to mention two great books written by him that are classic in the field of plant science:

The Nervous Mechanism of Plants
Response in the Living and Non-living

You can get more information on him from the links below:

http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Jagadish_Chandra_Bose

Jagadish Chandra Bose - Biography, Facts and Pictures

 

[Alfalfa]

Once you introduce race into the question you have lost the argument.

 

[Asclepias]

Good thread Vikrant. Let me see if I can help you out.

Mark Dean. African-American

Owns 3 of IBMs original 9 PC patents. Led the team that developed the first gigahertz processing chip.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Dean_(computer_scientist)

 

[Tank]

These inventions of colored folks are only a big deal because they are colored, the same inventions are no big deal for a white man

 

[Peterf]

These inventions of colored folks are only a big deal because they are colored, the same inventions are no big deal for a white man

Wrong. Discoveries are of identical size and importance whether they are made by 'coloured' or 'white' people.

This thread is well-intentioned but, imo, wrongheaded. Just like, eg, the MOBO - Music of Black Origin - awards in Britain. Playing the 'race' game lends support to 'racists'.

 

[Asclepias]

These inventions of colored folks are only a big deal because they are colored, the same inventions are no big deal for a white man

Actually Tank white men are the ones that are colored. When born they are pink, they turn yellow when scared, turn blue when cold, turn green when sick, turn grey when they die, turn red when you smack them!

 

[Tank]

affirmative action inventions

 

[Moonglow]

you mean that Anglo-saxon scientist have no color?

 

[Vikrant]

These inventions of colored folks are only a big deal because they are colored, the same inventions are no big deal for a white man

Wrong. Discoveries are of identical size and importance whether they are made by 'coloured' or 'white' people.

This thread is well-intentioned but, imo, wrongheaded. Just like, eg, the MOBO - Music of Black Origin - awards in Britain. Playing the 'race' game lends support to 'racists'.

The purpose of this thread is to simply celebrate the contributions of colored folks to advance science and technology. The reason for that is the colored scientists almost always face discrimination when it comes to recognition of their work. For example, Marconi is wrongly credited for pioneering Radio communication by Nobel society even though Bose's work on radio communication predates Marconi's. This is just one example. There are many many stories like that.

 

[Vikrant]

Good thread Vikrant. Let me see if I can help you out.

Mark Dean. African-American

Owns 3 of IBMs original 9 PC patents. Led the team that developed the first gigahertz processing chip.

Mark Dean (computer scientist) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thank you for your constructive contribution!

 

[Vikrant]

Let us continue the thread in a positive direction. Next, I want to introduce you to GN Ramachandran. He was an Indian physicist. He died at the age of 78 on April 7, 2001. He discovered the triple helical structure of collagen in 1955. He also analyzed the allowed conformations of protein through a plotting algorithm which has been named after him and is called Ramachandran Plot. His work ranks among the most outstanding contributions in structural biology.

If you are interested, you can read more about him here:

G.N. Ramachandran - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology

 

[BorisTheAnimal]

Oh hell. When you brought up this subject the name that comes to my mind is George Washington Carver. If you love peanut butter as I do, you'll see why.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Carver

 

[Vikrant]

It looks like this thread has been dusting for a while. So it is time to inject some life in it.

Let us take a look at an Indian born scientist who played an important part in contribution to The Quantum Theory; he was born on October 30, 1909 in Mumbai, India. His name is Homi J Bhabha. He was the first one to become the Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission of India.

What is his claim to the fame?

Well, he studied various aspects of electron and positron scattering. He came up with some formula to predict the scattering process where particles are not annihilated. He also came up with a formula to calculate the cross section, spin, etc. of scattering electrons and positrons.

To honor his work in quantum physics, scientific community refers to electron positron scattering as Bhabha Scattering and the cross section is referred to as Bhabha Cross Section.

If you want to know more about Homi J Bhabha and his work you can read these links:


http://indico.cern.ch/getFile.py/ac...Id=11&resId=0&materialId=slides&confId=108650

http://www.physics.usu.edu/Wheeler/QFT/PicsII/QFT10Mar05Bhabha.pdf

 

[Gracie]

Colored folk? I thought "colored" was a no no.

 

[ScienceRocks]

1. Granville Tailer Woods (April 23, 1856 – January 30, 1910) was an African-American inventor who held more than 50 patents
Granville Woods - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One of his notable inventions was the Multiplex Telegraph, a device that sent messages between train stations and moving trains. His work assured a safer and better public transportation system for the cities of the United States.

Look at the invention section of this man.


Next

2. Neil deGrasse Tyson (/ˈniːəl dəˈɡræs ˈtaɪsən/ born October 5, 1958) is an American astrophysicist and science communicator. He is currently the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space and a research associate in the department of astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. From 2006 to 2011 he hosted the educational science television show NOVA ScienceNow on PBS and has been a frequent guest on The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Jeopardy!. It was announced on August 5, 2011, that Tyson will be hosting a new sequel to Carl Sagan's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage television series.[2] Neil deGrasse Tyson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

3. Arlie O. Petters, MBE (born February 8, 1964) is a Belizean American mathematical physicist, who is the Benjamin Powell Professor and Professor of Mathematics, Physics, and Business Administration at Duke University.[1] Petters is a founder of mathematical astronomy, focusing on problems connected to the interplay of gravity and light and employing tools from astrophysics, cosmology, general relativity, high energy physics, differential geometry, singularities, and probability theory.[2] His monograph "Singularity Theory and Gravitational Lensing" is the first to develop a mathematical theory of gravitational lensing. He was Chairman of the Council of Science Advisers to the Prime Minister of Belize (2010-2013).[3][4] Arlie Petters - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

4. Benjamin Solomon "Ben" Carson, Sr. (born September 18, 1951) is a retired American neurosurgeon. Among other surgical innovations, Carson did pioneering work on the successful separation of conjoined twins joined at the head. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, by President George W. Bush in 2008. After delivering a widely publicized speech at the February 2013 National Prayer Breakfast, he became a popular figure in conservative media for his views on social issues and the government's role in the health care industry.

5. Dr. Samuel L. Kountz (October 30, 1930 – December 23, 1981) was an African American kidney transplantation surgeon from Lexa, Arkansas. He was most distinguished for his pioneering work in the field of kidney transplantations, and in research, discoveries, and inventions in Renal Science. In 1961, while working with Dr. Roy Cohn at the Stanford University Medical Center, he performed the first successful Kidney transplant between humans who were not identical twins. Six years later, he and a team of researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, developed the prototype for the Belzer kidney perfusion machine, a device that can preserve kidneys for up to 50 hours from the time they are taken from a donor's body. It is now standard equipment in hospitals and research laboratories around the world.[1][2][3] Samuel L. Kountz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[ScienceRocks]

6. David Harold Blackwell (April 24, 1919 – July 8, 2010) was Professor Emeritus of Statistics at the University of California, Berkeley, and is one of the eponyms of the Rao–Blackwell theorem.[2] Born in Centralia, Illinois, he was the first African American inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, and the first black tenured faculty member at UC Berkeley.[1][3] David Blackwell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

7. Otis Frank Boykin (August 29, 1920, Dallas, Texas – March 13, 1982, Chicago, Illinois) was an African-American inventor and engineer.[1]

Boykin's most famous invention was likely a control unit for the artificial heart pacemaker. The device essentially uses electrical impulses to maintain a regular heartbeat. Boykin himself died of a heart failure in Chicago in 1982.[2]
Otis Boykin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

8. Sylvester James Gates, Jr. (born December 15, 1950), known as S. James Gates, Jr, or Jim Gates, is an American theoretical physicist, known for work on supersymmetry, supergravity, and superstring theory. He is currently the Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland, College Park, a University of Maryland Regents Professor and serves on President Barack Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.[2] Sylvester James Gates - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

9. Frederick McKinley Jones (May 17, 1893 – February 21, 1961) was an African American inventor, entrepreneur, winner of the National Medal of Technology, and inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame.[1] His innovations in refrigeration brought great improvement to the long-haul transportation of perishable goods.[2] Frederick McKinley Jones - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

10. Lloyd A. Quarterman (May 31, 1918 – August 1982) was an African American chemist working mainly with fluorine. During the Second World War he worked on the Manhattan Project.[1] Lloyd Quarterman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


I wish there were two or three times as many innovations! Nothing would make me happier!

 

[ScienceRocks]

11. James J. Andrews (March 18, 1930 – July 28, 1998) was an American mathematician, a professor of mathematics at Florida State University who specialized in knot theory, topology, and group theory.[1]

Andrews is known with Morton L. Curtis for the Andrews–Curtis conjecture concerning Nielsen transformations of balanced group presentations.[1] Andrews and Curtis formulated the conjecture in a 1965 paper;[6] it remains open.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J._Andrews_(mathematician)

12. Patricia Era Bath (born November 4, 1942, Harlem, New York) is an American ophthalmologist, inventor and academic. Bath is the first African American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical purpose. Her Laserphaco Probe is used to treat cataracts. The holder of four patents, she is also the founder of the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in Washington D.C. Patricia Bath - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

13. George Washington Carver (by January 1864[1][3] – January 5, 1943), was an American scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor. The exact day and year of his birth are unknown; he is believed to have been born into slavery in Missouri in January 1864.[1]

He was recognized for his many achievements and talents. In 1941, Time magazine dubbed Carver a "Black Leonardo".[5]
George Washington Carver - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

14. Mark E. Dean (born March 2, 1957) is an American inventor and a computer engineer. He was part of the team that developed the ISA bus, and he led a design team for making a one-gigahertz computer processor chip.[1] Dean has also helped in the early development of the computer keyboard. He holds three of IBM's original nine PC patents.[2] In August 2011, writing in his blog, Dean stated that he now uses a tablet computer instead of a PC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Dean_(computer_scientist)

15. Gerald Anderson "Jerry" Lawson (December 1, 1940 – April 9, 2011)[1][2] was an American electronic engineer known for his work in designing the Fairchild Channel F video game console.[3] During development of the Channel F in the early-mid 1970s, Lawson was Chief Hardware Engineer[4] and director of engineering and marketing for Fairchild Semiconductor's video game division.[5] He also founded and ran Videosoft, a video game development company which made software for the Atari 2600 in the early 1980s, as the 2600 had displaced the Channel F as the top system in the market.[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Lawson_(engineer)[/QUOTE]