Behind every STEM breakthrough is an innovative mind able to see beyond what currently exists. Many innovators are Black, carrying on a tradition of making significant contributions to the quality of people’s lives. - BY Shaniqua Thomas

Despite a few names recognizable to the general public, most Blacks in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields are not broadly acknowledged even if they are well known within their areas of specialization. Black men and women have been making stunning innovations in STEM for over 200 years. Their innovations are familiar, but not their names, which all too often go missing from the history books. Today, it is time to make more Black innovators from the past and present as well known as innovators like Carver, Jackson, and Johnson, though those innovators also deserve to be recognized even more fully for their contributions.

Acknowledging Key Contributors From The Past

The general public broadly recognizes a few Black innovators. George Washington Carver, for example, was born into slavery but later became a botanist. In 1914, he developed an important yield-increasing crop rotation system for legumes, and also had patents on three production processes for synthetic products made from peanuts and sweet potatoes.

Another example is Mary Jackson, NASA’s first black female engineer. She worked on supersonic pressure tunnel and high-speed aerodynamics projects, authoring or co-authoring 12 technical papers. She was also a diversity leader, turning down a promotion to supervisor so she could promote the hiring and promotion of women in NASA’s STEM. Jackson worked with Katherine Johnson, a black woman who used geometry to figure out spacecraft paths for orbiting Earth and landing on the moon.

However, it took a book and movie, Hidden Figures, for her accomplishments to be recognized outside of NASA.

Modern Black Men and Women Changing and Protecting Lives

In acknowledging past STEM leaders, it is also important to raise up modern STEM innovators. The contributions contemporary Black Americans have made to STEM fields are impressive. They are also quite varied.

Mark Dean loved math as a child and eventually earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford. He began working for IBM in 1990. Dean was instrumental in developing the first IBM Personal Computer. His contributions included developing color PC monitors, interior devices enabling plug-and-play printers and monitors, and the first gigahertz chip. Dean holds the first three of IBM’s original nine PC patents and another 20 patents. Dean continues his work at IBM to this day, with the freedom to work independently on his chosen projects.

Phyllis Bolds has built a remarkable legacy of groundbreaking inventions related to military dynamics. She joined a team of physicians at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, working on a project concerning aircraft vibrations. Bolds is credited with breakthrough analyses that helped ease the adversarial effects military aircraft experience due to aeroacoustics in extreme operating conditions. This led to research on the Helicopter Vibration Test Curve “M,” which was eventually debunked as false and prevented future helicopter malfunctions.

Warren Washington is chair of the National Science Board and a climate scientist. In 1964, he became the second African American to earn a Ph.D. in meteorology. Washington has worked in research and development at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). He developed a new atmospheric computer model and was later selected as the principal investigator for utilizing climate models to analyze impacts like global warming.

Practical Innovations Still in Action

Many Black inventors are noted for their practical innovations, which see features in daily use even now. For example, the grocery store refrigerated trucks rumbling through the streets to drop off groceries bought online own their existence to Frederick McKinley Jones, an African-American inventor. One of his 60 patents was for a roof-mounted cooling system to refrigerate goods on trucks being transported in the 1930s. The patent was issued in 1940 when he co-founded the U.S. Thermo Control Company, now Thermo King, a global leader in transport refrigeration.

Here is another practical invention from 1923 that is still used today and saves lives. Garrett Morgan, a Black inventor, improved the sewing machine and gas mask, but his most influential innovation was the three-light traffic light. Morgan invented the stop light that has a “yield” element after witnessing a terrible car accident at an intersection in Cleveland, OH.

Black inventor Alexander Miles took out a patent in 1887 for a mechanism that could automatically open and close elevator doors. The basic design is still used today. James E. West co-invented a microphone while working at Bell Labs in 1960. The microphone was smaller, paving the way for using compact microphones in hearing aids, baby monitors, telephones, and tape recorders.

Black Americans have also been influential in the healthcare industry. In 1987, Dr. Ben Carson performed the first separation of twins attached at the back of the head. Dr. Jane Cooke Wright became head of the Cancer Research Foundation in 1952 at 33. Wright developed a unique method for testing the effect of drugs on cancer cells by using patient tissue instead of mice. Her work transformed chemotherapy into a cancer treatment rather than a last-resort treatment. She advanced to work at New York University Medical Center as the director of cancer chemotherapy. Dr. Gary Bennett, founding director of the Duke Digital Health Science Center, developed the interactive obesity treatment approach (iOTA). His research focuses on utilizing digital strategies to treat obesity.

An Innovative Past and Present

This is just a small sample of the amazing creativity of Black scientists, technology experts, engineers and mathematicians. Their ability to develop groundbreaking STEM solutions is impressive. Yet, the firm foundation for innovation is the ability to “see outside the box.” In the corporate world, it is frequently said that diversity, inclusion, and belonging are crucial to innovation because new perspectives and approaches are brought to the table. As Black STEM leaders grow more comfortable bringing their full selves to work, their future inventions promise to positively impact tomorrow as well as today.