By Special to the Daily World
As a result of a $2.3 million National Science Foundation grant, ScienceMakers, in partnership with the Fernbank Science Center, hosted an evening with five nationally prominent African American scientists entitled, “Atlanta: Connections in Science.” Public Affairs Manager of WSB-Television and Atlanta’s first African American news anchor, Jocelyn Dorsey, moderated the evening program held Feb. 3, 6:30 p.m., at Atlanta’s Fernbank Science Center.
The featured ScienceMakers included Electrical Engineer and Roboticist, Ayanna Howard; Electrical and Computer Engineer, Ralph Etienne-Cummings; Atmospheric Scientist, John Hall; Aerospace Engineer & Inventor, Jocelyn Harrison and NASA’s Associate Administrator for Mission Support, Woodrow Whitlow. ScienceMakers bring to light the often overlooked contributions of African American scientists. This pioneering program was part of a collaborative effort with the nation’s top science centers including Detroit Science Center, Center Of Science and Industry in Ohio, Franklin Institute, Lawrence Hall of Science, Museum of Science and Industry, Saint Louis Science Center, Science Museum of Minnesota and SciWorks.
“Atlanta: Connections in Science” brought together 300 guests from Atlanta. This event was part of a two-day ScienceMakers educational program where students from the DeKalb Public Schools and NASA’s Science Engineering Mathematics and Aerospace Academy
had the unique opportunity to talk and learn from these leading scientists. In a new exhibit, Fernbank Science Center also featured African-American leaders in the Atlanta community who are part of The HistoryMakers’ archive.
“Atlanta: Connections in Science Program” raised awareness of the scientific contributions of African-American scientists which are many and mostly unknown,” said Julieanna Richardson, The HistoryMakers founder and executive director.
ScienceMakers is an innovative African-American media and education initiative focused on capturing and preserving the stories of African-American scientists. Spanning a three-year period, ScienceMakers will collect 180 video oral history interviews of distinguished African- American scientists resulting in an educational, career and media resource for teachers, parents and students in the United States and abroad.
The HistoryMakers, a national 501(c) (3) nonprofit corporation, is the nation’s largest African- American video oral history archive, committed to the development of a unique online archive of 5,000 first-person narratives of African Americans, both well known and unsung. When completed in 2015, the archive will represent the largest one of its kind in the world.
For more information, visit The HistoryMakers website at www.thehistorymakers.com and The HistoryMakers digital archives at www.idvl.org/thehistorymakers and www.idvl.org/
sciencemakers, or call 312-674-1900. The email address is jw@thehistorymakers.com. The HistoryMakers’ National Headquarters is located at 1900 South Michigan Ave. Chicago, with regional offices in Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
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