Alice Ball- genius chemist❥❥❥. #STEAMqueensunday . . Overcoming harsh predjudices, Alice Augusta Ball graduated from the University of Washington in 1914 with degrees in both chemistry and pharmacy. She received a scholarship to attend the University of Hawaii for her masters where she conducted research into the chemical components of the kava root, used by leprosy patients to ease pain associated with the disease. After earning her degree , the first woman and the first African American to receive an MS from the University of Hawaii , Ball was asked to stay on as a chemistry instructor where she co-taught classes with Dean, the university’s president, and chemist who studied at Harvard and Yale. Ball was working on her master’s thesis and caught the attention of Dr. Harry Hollmann, a new treatment derived from the chaulmoogra tree oil was being developed as a possible cure for leprosy. It wasn’t too effective an ointment, and given orally, patients had nausea so terrible one told a US Public Health Service employee, “Doctor, I’d rather have leprosy than take another dose.” Yikes! Hollmann was on the hunt for an injectable form of the oil and brought Alice Ball on board in 1915. She was so good that within one year she had developed a new method to render the active agents in chaulmoogra oil water soluble, allowing for the possibility of an injectable leprosy treatment! You go girl! Before her research results could be published ,Ball died suddenly, and “Dean derivatives,” the ethyl esters which Ball had discovered, were given credit for the treatment. Soon, newspapers across the country were praising Dean for his discovery of the cure for leprosy. Crazy right? It wasn’t until Dr. Kathryn Takara, and Stan Ali, revisited the historical record and insisted that Ball’s name be given the prominence it deserved. Alice Ball was truly a hidden figure that is finally getting the recognition she deserves. #STEAMqueensundays #aliceball
