Dr. Ruth Ella Moore (May 19, 1903 – July 19, 1994) was an African-American bacteriologist and the first African-American woman to receive a PhD in natural sciences. Born in Ohio, Dr. Moore was raised by parents who both held secondary degrees. She obtained a BA (1926), and MS (1927), and PhD in Bacteriology (1933) from Ohio State University. Her PhD was titled ”Studies on Dissociation of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis: A New Method of Concentration on the Tubercule Bacilli as Applied to Sputum and Urine Examination”. Research that she conducted was to characterize tuberculosis before there were treatments. She was a Professor at Tennessee State University until she went back to obtain her PhD.
She was recruited to Howard University as a Professor in 1940, and became the first woman to head any department there when she was appointed Department Chair of Microbiology in 1952. She led the charge to change the department from Bacteriology to Microbiology and stayed there until she retired in 1973. She also studied immunology in dental caries, characterized gut microbes in cockroaches and their responses to antibiotics, E coli and Salmonella, and the distribution of blood groups among people with different backgrounds. She was the first black member of the American Society of Microbiology and championed for equal access education for black students.
She was also known to be an excellent seamstress, learning and observing style from her mother, and has some of her items on display. While at Howard, she was active in the community, and chair of the scholarship and loans committee and the student guidance committee. She is honored each year at Howard through the Ruth E. Moore and Lloyd H. Newman Service Award. She also was given honorary doctorates: in Literature from Oberlin College and Philosophy from Gettysburg University. She faced racism and gender bias in her career and still made a significant impact. She retired in 1973 and passed away in 1994 at the age of 91.
References:
- https://mbb.yale.edu/news/celebrating-black-history-month-ruth-ella-moore
- https://asm.org/articles/2024/february/ruth-e-moore-remarkable-achievements-in-an-invisib
- https://awis.org/historical-women/ruth-ella-moore/
- https://research.osu.edu/ruth-ella-moore
- https://microbialmenagerie.com/meet-microbiologist-ruth-ella-moore-the-first-black-woman-to-earn-a-phd-in-the-natural-sciences/
- https://medium.com/rediscover-steam/ruth-ella-moore-bacteriologist-professor-seamstress-3cc74cc698dd
- https://u.osu.edu/clotheslines/2019/02/14/black-history-month-ruth-ella-moore/
Image Source:
American Society for Microbiology
Author: Howard University
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