Boykin received his first patent for a wire precision resistor in 1959 that enabled manufacturers to accurately designate a value of resistance for an individual piece of wire in electronic equipment. Two years later, in 1961, he received a patent for an improved…

Marian Rogers Croak (born May 14, 1955) is an American engineer known for her voice over IP (VoIP) related inventions. Croak worked for three decades at Bell Labs and AT&T where she filed over 200 patents, and has worked at Google since 2014 as Vice President of…

Gerald Anderson Lawson (December 1, 1940 – April 9, 2011) was an American electronic engineer. Besides being one of the first African-American computer engineers in Silicon Valley, Lawson was also known for his work in designing the Fairchild Channel F video game…

Dr. Valerie Thomas is a physicist, data scientist, inventor, and educational leader. She demonstrated an interest in science and electronics from a young age. Although her father recommended that she should just stick to “girly things”, she did not let this discourage…

Chris Skinner is an award-winning speaker and one of the most influential people in technology, as well as a best-selling author. He is an independent commentator on the financial markets and fintech through his blog, the Finanser.com. He helped to found one of the…

The world recognizes Marie as a leading figure who broke down barriers for underrepresented groups in STEM fields and innovation through her patent achievements and recognition. Educational programs and STEM initiatives use Brown’s achievements to motivate girls and…

Dorothy Jean Johnson Vaughan (September 20, 1910 – November 10, 2008) was an American mathematician, human computer, computer programmer and schoolteacher who worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and NASA, at Langley Research Center in…

Creola Katherine Johnson (née Coleman, previously Goble; August 26, 1918 – February 24, 2020) was an American mathematician and human computer whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S….

Computer scientist Clarence “Skip” Ellis was the first African-American to earn a PhD in Computer Science (1969) and to be elected a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) (1997). The only black undergraduate at Beloit College in Wisconsin, he…

George Washington Carver (c. 1864[1] – January 5, 1943) was an American agricultural scientist and inventor who promoted alternative crops to cotton and methods to prevent soil depletion. He was one of the most prominent black scientists of the early 20th century….