Harvard, Howard, and Gradual Incorporation: 1923

Let's start with the centenary! In 1923, Cecilia Payne (later Gaposchkin) arrived at Harvard, where she became the first astronomy PhD recipient, via Radcliffe, for a thesis that, we now recognize, demonstrated that stars are made mostly of hydrogen and helium, a discovery that had to be confirmed by more senior (male) colleagues before winning general acceptance. It was also the birth year of Harvey Washington Banks, the first African-American astronomy PhD. And Marcelle Bernice Brown earned a 1923 MS at Howard, an historically black university, the first in a STEM subject there, having worked on a topic in materials science, with St. Elmo Brady, who published a now very rare book on Metallurgy for Dentists the same year. Let me slip a year from 1973 to 1972 to rejoice for the first Black woman to earn a physics PhD, Willie Hobbs Moore, at the University of Michigan (whom you will hear about in a moment). Nobelists none, though Physics in 1923 was Millikan, the first US-born winner, but all outstanding scientists in their own ways, about whom we should know more. Mexican-American Mario Jose Molina (Nobel 1995) would have celebrated his 80th birthday in 2023 and began his work on ozone depletion by chlorine compounds here at UCI in 1973. My hearty thanks to Ron Mickens (concerning Dr. Moore), David DeVorkin (concerning Dr. Banks), ACS colleagues Dean Martin, Vera Mainz, and Gregory Girolami (concerning Dr. Brady and Ms. Brown). Dr. Payne Gaposchking was my own friend, and Dr. Molina at least an acquaintance.