Wishing a happy 104th birthday to Rachel Robinson!
Founder of The Jackie Robinson Foundation in honor of her late husband, Rachel continues to be an inspiration for all. 💙
Alice Augusta Ball was a chemist who developed the first successful treatment for leprosy.
Her solution was the most effective treatment for more than a quarter-century.
She died young, at only 24, in 1916 but with a lasting legacy.
—Alice Augusta Ball, a pharmaceutical chemist, was born in Seattle, Washington in 1892 to Laura and James P. Ball Jr.
Alice Ball entered the University of Washington and graduated with two degrees in pharmaceutical chemistry in 1912 and pharmacy in 1914. In the fall of 1914, she entered the College of Hawaii (later the University of Hawaii) as a graduate student in chemistry. On June 1, 1915, she was the first African American and the first woman to graduate with a Master of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Hawaii. In the 1914-1915 academic year she also became the first woman to teach chemistry at the institution.
Ball’s major adviser assigned her a research project involving the effect of chaulmooga oil on patients with Hansen disease. Her research developed a successful treatment for those suffering from the disease. At the time of her research Ball became ill. She worked under extreme pressure to produce injectable chaulmooga oil and, according to some observers, became exhausted in the process. Ball returned to Seattle and died at the age of 24 on December 31, 1916. According to her obituary, she suffered injuries from inhaling chlorine gas during a class demonstration in Honolulu.
The chairman of the Chemistry Department at the University of Hawaii continued refining the research work of Ball, treating many patients successfully at Kalaupapa, a special hospital for Hansen disease patients. The “Ball method” continued to be the most effective method of treatment until the 1940s and as late as 1999 one medical journal indicated the “Ball Method” was still being used to treat Hansen disease patients in remote areas.
During her brief lifetime Ball never received the acknowledgement from the medical world for her groundbreaking work in the cure of Hansen disease. After her death the chairman of the University of Hawaii Chemistry Department received recognition. Over time, however, researchers began to learn of Ball’s crucial contribution. In 2000, the University of Hawaii acknowledged Alice A. Ball as one of its most distinguished graduates.
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Irish actor Brenda Fricker has passed away aged 81.
She was best known for her Oscar-winning role in ‘My Left Foot’ and for playing the Central Park pigeon lady in ‘Home Alone 2.’
Brenda Fricker, the Oscar-winning actress who was well-known for her role as the Pigeon Lady in “Home Alone 2,” has died. She was 81. https://t.co/Yb01U4FKr7