First African American to earn a Ph.D. in the field of chemistry at the University of Illinois in 1916.

First African American to earn a Ph.D. in the field of chemistry at the University of Illinois in 1916. 

Saint Elmo Brady (1884-1966)


Brady studied chemistry at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee and earned his B.S. degree in 1908. After graduation he accepted a faculty position at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now known as Tuskegee University) and was mentored by George Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington, President of Tuskegee. He began graduate studies in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois in 1912, earning his M.S. degree in 1914 and completing his doctorate in 1916.

He also served as chair and faculty of the Department of Chemistry at Howard University and Fisk University. Regarding his scholarly achievements, Brady continued collaborative work with the University of Illinois and established a faculty training program focusing on a technique known as infrared spectroscopy, which is used to identify various components in compounds. Moreover, he later published an article focused on the synthesis of a halogen compound with Dr. Samuel Massie, the first African American to join the faculty at the U.S. Naval Academy. Brady's work was important because there was significant interest in halogen compounds being used as insecticides at that time. Samuel Massie, who went on to work on the Manhattan Project in World War II, was one of several students that Brady mentored while teaching at Fisk University, thus encouraging African Americans to pursue careers in the chemical sciences. 

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