St elmo brady biography books

  • St elmo brady discoveries

    • St. Elmo Brady

    Becoming a chemist

    Brady was born on Dec. 22, 1884, in Louisville, Kentucky, the eldest of three children of Thomas Alexander Brady and Celester (Parker) Brady. He graduated from Louisville Colored High School in 1903 and at the age of 20 left home to attend Fisk, an all-black college in Nashville, Tennessee, founded in 1866. There, his chemistry teacher, Thomas W. Talley, encouraged him to study chemistry.

    Brady graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1908 and took a teaching position at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Alabama. After four years teaching at Tuskegee, Brady was offered a scholarship to study at the University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign. He took a leave of absence from Tuskegee and began at Illinois in the summer session of 1913. He completed his M.S. in chemistry in 1914 and continued his graduate studies under Professor Clarence G. Derick.

    Brady published three scholarly abstracts with Derick in Science between 1914 and 1915 and also collaborated with Professor George Beal on a paper titled “The Hydrochloride Method for the Determination of Alkaloids,” published in the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry.

    Brady’s main focus for his Ph.D. research was settling a scientific disagreement between his advisor and the eminent Harvard chemist Arthur Michael. Derick and Michael disagreed on how the acidity of carboxylic acids was affected by replacing hydrogen atoms on the carbon chain with other chemical groups. In his Ph.D. research, Brady investigated the acidity of straight- chain carboxylic acids in which a pair of hydrogen atoms was replaced with an oxygen atom to give a keto acid.

    Brady’s research resulted in a number of firsts, including new methods for preparing and purifying certain compounds and clarifying the influence of carbonyl groups on the acidity of carboxylic acids, an early contribution to the nascent field of physical organic chemistry. Brady’s studies sup

  • How did st elmo brady die

    • In 1916 St. Elmo Brady (1884–1966) graduated from the University of Illinois with a PhD in chemistry, the first African American ever to earn this degree. He went on to become highly regarded for his impressive teaching career at four historically Black colleges, where he energized the chemistry curricula and established new programs for young African American scientists.

    Early Years and Education

    Brady was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the eldest of three children. At the age of 20, he left home to attend Fisk University, an all-Black college in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was encouraged by his chemistry teacher, Thomas Talley.

    When Brady graduated with his bachelor’s degree in 1908, he took a teaching position at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Alabama, which was established by Booker T. Washington. Both Washington and the agricultural chemist George Washington Carver were mentors to the young Brady.

    After four years at Tuskegee he received a graduate scholarship to the University of Illinois, where he earned a master’s degree in chemistry in 1914 and his doctorate in 1916. He conducted his doctoral research in the respected Noyes Laboratory at the University of Illinois, writing his thesis on the divalent oxygen atom. While at Illinois, Brady became the first African American admitted to Phi Lambda Upsilon, the national chemistry honor society.

    Career

    Brady returned to teaching at Tuskegee in 1916, this time heading up the science division. Four years later, seeking better research facilities, he headed north to Howard University in the nation’s capital, where he was appointed chemistry department chair.

    Meanwhile, back at Fisk, Talley was ready to retire, and in 1927 Brady took up the reins, becoming chair of the chemistry department. Brady remained at Fisk for 25 years, developing the undergraduate curricula and founding the first-ever graduate chemistry program at a Black college. Talley-Brady Hal

    Brady, St. Elmo (1884-1966)

    In 1916, St. Elmo Brady became the first African American in the United States to obtain a PhD in Chemistry at the University of Illinois, where he conducted research in Noyes Laboratory.

    Born on Dec. 22, 1884, in Louisville, Kentucky, Brady graduated from Louisville Colored High School in 1903 and went on to Fisk University, an all-black college in Nashville, Tennessee. There he was encouraged to study chemistry by his teacher, Thomas W. Talley, a pioneer in the teaching of science.

    Brady graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1908 and took a teaching position at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Alabama. After four years teaching at Tuskegee, he took a leave of absence and began at Illinois in the summer session of 1913.

    Many years later, Brady told his students that when he went to graduate school, "they began with 20 whites and one other and ended, in 1916 with six whites and one other." The documentary, "Twenty Whites & One 'Other,'" tells the life story of Brady and won a Silver Telly Award for 2020 in the category, “Non-broadcast—General History.”

    Watch the award-winning documentary, "Twenty Whites & One 'Other'"

    At Illinois, Brady completed his Master of Science in Chemistry in 1914 and continued his studies under Professor Clarence G. Derick, completing his PhD two years later, with a dissertation titled "The Divalent Oxygen Atom." The primary focus of Brady's research was to settle a scientific disagreement between his advisor and Harvard University chemist Arthur Michael, who disagreed on how the acidity of carboxylic acids was affected by replacing hydrogen atoms on the carbon chain with other chemical groups. Brady’s research resulted in a number of firsts and supported Derick’s view. 

    Brady published three scholarly abstracts with Derick in Science between 1914 and 1915 and also collaborated with Professor George Beal on a p

    St. Elmo Brady

    American chemist (1884–1966)

    St. Elmo Brady (December 22, 1884 – December 26, 1966) was an American chemist who was the first African American to obtain a Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States. He received his doctorate at the University of Illinois in 1916.

    Early life and education

    St. Elmo Brady was born on December 22, 1884, in Louisville, Kentucky. Greatly influenced by Thomas W. Talley, a pioneer in the teaching of science, Brady received his bachelor's degree from Fisk University in 1908 at the age of 24, and immediately began teaching at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Brady also had a close relationship with and was mentored by Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver. In 1912, after his time at Tuskegee University, he was offered a scholarship to the University of Illinois to engage in graduate studies. St Elmo Brady was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity

    Brady published three scholarly abstracts in Science in 1914–15 on his work with Professor Clarence Derick. He also collaborated with Professor George Beal on a paper published in Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry titled, "The Hydrochloride Method for the Determination of Alkaloids." Professor Brady also authored monographs entitled Household Chemistry for Girls (1916) and Elements of Metallurgy for Dental Students (1924).

    Brady completed a M.S. in chemistry in 1914 and carried out his Ph.D. thesis work at Noyes Laboratory under the direction of Derick, writing a dissertation in 1916 titled "The Divalent Oxygen Atom."

    Many years later, he told his students that when he went to graduate school, "they began with 20 whites and one other, and ended in 1916 with six whites and one other."

    Legacy

    Brady was the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States, which he received from the University of Illinois in 1916.[5]