1. Alice Augusta Ball 24/07/1892 – 31/12/1916
Alice’s birth and death took place in Seattle, Washington, USA.
Alice was the first African American and female to achieve a Masters in Chemistry.
She attended the College of Hawaii (now known as the University of Hawaii).
Alice was able to isolate therapeutic compounds within Chaulmoogra oil; make
them water soluble and therefore easily injectable and absorbed into the
bloodstream thus minimizing side effects and increasing reliability when treating
sufferers of Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy). This became known as the ‘Ball Method’.
Credit for her work was stolen by the college president; Dr Arthur Dean who
named it the ‘Dean Method’. Luckily Dr Harry T. Hollman published a paper give
Alice the credit she deserved.
It was only in the year 2000, the university of Hawaii officially recognised her
contribution to medicine.
A former Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii named 29 February ‘Alice Ball Day’ and
posthumously awarded her with the Regents’ Medal of Distinction.
In 2017, Paul Wermager established the Alice Augusta Ball endowed scholarship
to support students pursuing Natural Sciences like Chemistry and Biology.
“I work and I work and still
it seems that I have done
nothing”
