In January, HBSciU began featuring prominent Black scientists and inventors–alive or deceased–on their birthdays. You can find the features on the day they appear in our Facebook and Twitter feeds.
We celebrated the birthdays of Daniel Hale Williams and John McNeile Hunter. Born on 18 January 1856, Dr. Williams (shown in the feature image) was a pioneer of open-heart surgery. He also founded Chicago’s Provident Hospital (now known as Provident Hospital of Cook County) in 1891; it became the first non-segregated hospital in the US. Dr. Williams died on 4 August, 1931.
Dr. Hunter (shown above) was born on 23 January 1901. In 1937, he became the third African American to earn a PhD in physics (at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York). He later accepted a teaching position at Virginia State College (now University) and was instrumental in producing other prominent Black physicists.
Although he’s not a Black scientist, the world-renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking–whose life inspired the Hollywood blockbuster, Theory of Everything–celebrated his birthday on 8 January.
Next month we will celebrate the birthdays of Charles Henry Turner, James Bowman, and Lloyd Noel Ferguson.
If you know of other prominent Black scientists or inventors born in January or February (including those from Africa and other parts of the Diaspora), please leave a comment below or email us at hbsciu.editors(at)gmail.com.*
*We maintain a high bar for who we qualify as “prominent,” and we reserve the right to select or reject submissions accordingly.
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