Roger Arliner Young was an American zoologist, biologist & marine biologist. She was the first African American to receive a doctorate degree in zoology. She was born in 1899 Clifton Forge, Virginia, & passed away on November 9th in New Orleans Louisiana. She is best known for her work with marine biology & zoology, which gave her the international & iconic status that she has. She is an icon & a staple for minorities in science.
Her Early Life & Young Adult Life
She was born in Clifton Forge, Virginia in 1899. Ms. Young soon moved with her family to a certain Burgettstown, Pennsylvania. The family was financially troubled and much time and resources were expended in the care of her disabled mother. This gave Ms. Young a strong will & motivation.
In 1916 aged 27, Ms. Young enrolled at Howard University in Washington, D.C. to complete a degree in music. She wrote in the yearbook: "Not failure, but low aim is a crime." She did not take her first science-related course until 1921. Even though her grades were unpromising at the beginning of her college career, some of her teachers saw a brightness in her. One of these was Ernest Everett Mr. Just, a prominent black biologist and head of the Zoology department at Howard University. Ms. Young graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1923. Mr. Just tried unsuccessfully to help her to gain some funding for graduate school, but in 1924 Ms. Young began studying for her master's degree at the University of Chicago, which she received in 1926. This was a Master of Arts degree. While studying at the University of Chicago, she was asked to join Sigma Xi, a scientific research society, which was an unusual honor for a master's student. In 1924 her first article, "On the excretory apparatus in Paramecium" was published in the journal Science, making her the first African American woman to research and professionally publish in this field.
Her Career
Ernest Everett Just invited Ms. Young to work with him during summers at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts beginning in 1927. While there, they worked on researching the fertilization process in marine organisms, as well as the process of hydration and dehydration in living cells. In 1929, Ms. Young became interim department head for the zoology department at Howard University for the time while Mr. Just was in Europe seeking grant money. Ms. Young's eyes were permanently damaged by the ultraviolet rays used in the experiments conducted at Howard for Mr. Just.
In the fall of 1929, Ms. Young returned to the University of Chicago to begin her doctorate degree under the direction of Frank Rattray Lillie. Mr. Lillie had been a mentor of Mr. Just while both were involved with the Marine Biological Laboratory. However, in 1930 she failed to pass her qualifying exams, and for a time, disappeared from the scientific community. She returned to Howard University to teach and continued working with Mr. Just at the Marine Biological Laboratory during the summers.
However, around 1935, rumors started circulating that there was a romance between Mr. Just and Ms. Young, and in 1936 they had a huge confrontation. Later that year she was fired, ostensibly because she missed classes. In her words, "The situation here is so cruel and cowardly that every spark of sentiment that I have held for Howard is cold." She used this setback as an opportunity to try again to obtain a Ph.D. In June 1937, she went to University of Pennsylvania, studying with Lewis Victor Heilbrunn, who was another scientist she met at the Marine Biological Laboratory, and graduated with her doctorate in 1940.
After obtaining her doctorate, Ms. Young became an assistant professor at the North Carolina College For Negroes, and Shaw University, (1940–1947), and held teaching positions in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana until 1959.
Ms. Young contributed a great deal of work to science. She studied the effects of direct and indirect radiation on sea urchin eggs, on the structures that control the salt concentration in paramecium, as well as hydration and dehydration of living cells.
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