Elijah McCoy
Elijah McCoy (May 2, 1844 – October 10, 1929) was an inventor of Canadian but of African American descent. His creation of the lubricating cup changed the efficiency of steam engines in the 19th century. Born in 1844 in Colchester, Ontario, he was one of 11 siblings of runaway slave parents who fled from Kentucky […]
Annie Jean Easley
Annie Jean Easley (April 23, 1933 – June 25, 2011) was an African American computer scientist from Birmingham, Alabama. Considering the nursing and pharmacy profession, Easley moved to New Orleans where she attended Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) for two years before moving back home. Eventually landing in Ohio, she found a job at the […]
Dr. Euphemia Lofton Haynes
Dr. Euphemia Lofton Haynes (September 11, 1890- July 25, 1980) was a mathematician, educator, and the first African-American woman to earn a PhD in Mathematics. Born and raised in Washington D.C, Haynes grew up in a well-educated and affluent family as the daughter of a dentist and schoolteacher. She obtained a BA (1914) in Mathematics […]
Dr. Luis von Ahn
Dr. Luis von Ahn is a Guatemalan entrepreneur and software developer and is currently serving as the CEO of the language learning company, Duolingo.
Ellen Lauri Ochoa, PhD
Dr. Ellen Ochoa was the first Hispanic woman to go in space and first Hispanic Director at the Johson Space Center.
Alberto Pedro Calderón, PhD
Dr. Alberto Pedro Calderón was born in Mendoza, Argentina, 9/14/1920, where, at a young age, he showed an immediate aptitude for the field of Mathematics. Pressured by his father, he graduated from the University of Bueno Aires with a BS (1947) in Civil Engineering. He began working at the state-owned oil company Yacimenotos Petroliferos Fiscalas […]
Luiz Walter Alvarez, PhD
Dr. Luiz Walter Alvarez was an inventor, American physicist, and professor who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968 for the discovery of resonance particles. Alvarez was born in San Francisco on June 13, 1911. His grandfather and father were doctors. His father took a post at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, […]
France A Córdova, PhD
On August 5th, 1947, France Anne-Dominic Córdova was born in Paris to an Irish mother and Mexican-American father who was Chief of the Cooperative for American Remittance to Europe (CARE) Program stationed in France before settling in West Covina, California. She received her bachelor’s degree in English Literature at Stanford University, where she conducted anthropological […]
Franklin Ramón Chang-Díaz, PhD
On April 5th, 1950, Franklin Ramón Chang-Díaz was born in San José, Costa Rica, to a Costa Rican mother and Chinese immigrant father. Franklin immigrated to the US during high school and went on to attend the University of Connecticut, where he earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1973. He then received a PhD […]
Mary Winston Jackson
Mary Winston Jackson was a mathematician and aerospace engineer, and the first African American Female engineer to work at NASA. Born in Hampton, Virginia, she always had a gift for arithmetic.