Penn State Black History
The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) was founded at Purdue University in 1976. What year was Penn State's NSBE chapter founded?
What is 1989?
This 1964 Act created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and ended Jim Crow laws.
What is Civil Rights Act?
This Penn State professor is the Co-Director of the Center for Black Digital Research/#DigBlk. He has joint appointments in Engineering and African American studies.
Dr. Christopher Dancy
This Engineering Cognitive Research Lab alum (PhD '23) characterized the socialization of STEM graduate students using the context of the McNair Scholars Program as a Harding professor.
Who is Dr. Kanembe Shanachilubwa?
The "world stopped" when this artist released an album without promotion, changing the landscape of digital releases
Who is Beyoncé?
Calvin H. Waller, the first Black student at Penn State, enrolled in this decade.
What is the 1890s? (He enrolled in 1899.)
This former NAACP chief counsel won 29/32 Supreme Court cases later became the first Black Supreme Court Justice.
Who is Thurgood Marshall?
This faculty member turned a childhood dream of jumping rope freely on her own into motivation to pursue engineering and become the founder of Jump Dreams.
Who is Dr. Tahira Reid Smith?
This 2025 Mechanical Engineering graduate and postdoctoral researcher leads Build Nights at the Learning Factory.
Who is Dr. Aliaa Maar?
She created the first hinged ironing board in 1892 by creating a novel mechanism.
Sarah Boone.
On April 8, 2022, Innovation Park Building 329 was named the ________ Building after a long-time STEM advocate, Penn State graduate, and former member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
What is Malcolm? (After Dr. Shirley Malcolm)
Surgeon and medical researcher who pioneered blood plasma preservation and created large-scale blood banks during WWII. He is known as the "Father of Blood Banks."
Who is Dr. Charles Drew?
The Mathematical Modeling & Computational Physics Laboratory at Penn State earned an M.S. and Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford.
Who is Dr. David M. William?
This resercher earned a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and now excels in research within the Maritime Robotics Group at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
Who Dr. Brianne Hargrove?
In 1883, this Surinamese American inventor created a lasting machine, which greatly improved leather shoe production.
Who is Jan Matzeliger?
National Medal of Science in 2009 winner and Penn State Meteorology Ph.D. graduate.
Who is Dr. Warren Washington?
Called the "Father of Black History Month", he said "Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history."
Who is Dr. Carter G. Woodson?
Research group who has produced the most Black graduate student alumni from Penn State's Mechanical Engineering department.
What is Engineering Design & Optimization Group (EDOG)?
This former Penn State Multicultural Engineering Graduate Association (MEGA) President is now President of the Vertical Flight Society San Francisco Bay Area Chapter (SFBAC).
Who is Dr. Dorcas Kaweesa?
This National Medal of Technology and an inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame revolutionized mobile refrigeration technology.
Who is Frederick McKinley Jones?
Penn State athlete-turned-historian (1933-2023) who donated his collection of African and African diasporic art to create special collections at Penn State's and Temple's libraries.
Who is Charles L. Blockson?
Founded in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, this all-Black ambulance service pioneered new standards in paramedic training and ambulance design that reshaped emergency care.
What is the Freedom House Ambulance Service?
These two research labs currently include alumni from Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Alabama.
What are the REID Lab & ECRL?
(MS '04, PhD ’05) served as a program director in NSF's Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation.
Who is Dr. Nakhiah Goulbourne?
This Haitian-American neo-expressionist's paintings have sold for over $100M at auctions.
Who is Jean-Michel Basquiat?