Spelman students sparkle in sciences

Which Atlanta institution produces the most African-American graduates who go on to earn doctoral degrees in science and engineering?

a) Morehouse College

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Hyosub Shin / hshin@ajc.com

Diana Spell (left) tests prostate cancer cells as Kimberly Jackson (center), assistant chemistry professor, supervises Patrice Wagner’s work in a Spelman College lab.

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b) Georgia Tech

c) Emory University

The answer is d) None of the above. That distinction goes to Spelman College — a small, historically black, private liberal arts college for women.

Spelman, with a student body of about 2,200, sent 150 black students on to Ph.D. degrees in those traditionally male disciplines from 1997 to 2006, according to a survey released in August by the National Science Foundation. That’s more than any other undergraduate program in the country except the much larger, coed Howard University, with 224. Howard, also historically black, has about 7,000 undergraduates.

For the record, Morehouse ranked fifth in the country with 99; Georgia Tech came in 48th with 32; and Emory didn’t make the top 50.

“Spelman really shatters many of our ideas about women in science and math,” said Lily McNair, Spelman’s associate provost of research, “and black women in science and math in particular.”

McNair, a psychologist by training, said Spelman professors expect their students to succeed. “As a psychologist, I know that high expectations often lead to higher performance,” she said.

Biology major Tiffany King, 21, a senior from Maryland, knows about expectations and opportunities at Spelman. As an undergraduate, she’s presented papers at national conferences and worked with scientists at the University of Chicago, Princeton and the Morehouse School of Medicine. She has studied gene mutations and germ cell development.

King plans to go to graduate school, do post-doctoral work in pharmaceuticals, then join the faculty of a college.

Spelman maybe?

“I would think of coming back,” she said.

King is a RISE scholar at Spelman, part of the Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement, a program funded by the National Institutes of Health to encourage students in underrepresented groups — such as women and African-Americans — in the sciences.

Chekesha Liddell, 32, has achieved King’s longtime goal. Liddell, who graduated from Spelman in 1999, is an assistant professor on a tenure track at Cornell University.

Liddell was part of another scholars’ program at Spelman — Women in Science and Engineering, or WISE. It’s funded by NASA. She benefited from Spelman’s dual-degree program with Georgia Tech, earning a chemistry degree from Spelman and a materials engineering degree at Tech simultaneously. Her Ph.D. is also from Tech.

Liddell said she was sold on Spelman because of the NASA program,

Dedicated mentors, peer support and exposure to professional role models made the college an ideal learning environment, she said. “There was a lot of professional development,” she said.

Spelman women in the dual degree program have impressed Tech officials, said Felicia Benton-Johnson, director of diversity at Georgia Tech’s School of Engineering.

“They’re very mature and focused,” she said. “They are full of energy. They take key leadership positions in organizations.”

Spelman’s strong science program grew from the grit of professors who were determined that the college, founded in 1881 to train black teachers, could become a powerhouse producer of female scientists.

In the late 1960s, Spelman’s small science faculty began questioning the low number of science majors, the late Etta Falconer, mathematics professor, later wrote. Spelman’s sole chemistry course was for home economics majors. The only physics course had been discontinued. The science building was “dark and uninviting,” Falconer wrote in the article.

The faculty faced a dilemma — they needed students to fill classes, but they needed courses to attract students.

With the backing of then-President Albert Manley, in 1972 they established a summer program to recruit high school students interested in science. To help students pursue careers in medical-related fields, they opened a Health Careers Office.

By 1977, Spelman had added a department of chemistry. Biochemistry followed, along with physics, environmental science and computer courses. Women could get dual degrees in engineering by spending three years at Spelman and two at Georgia Tech or any of several other schools. Major grants started to come in from private foundations and federal agencies.

Mathematics professor Sylvia Bozeman came to Spelman in 1974 with a master’s degree from Vanderbilt and left two years later to get her own doctorate at Emory.

“I went away and came back, and things were really moving forward,” she said.

In 2000, Spelman’s science program reached a milestone with the opening of the Albro-Falconer-Manley Science Center, bearing the names of some of the pioneering faculty members.

Albert Thompson was the fourth professor in the chemistry department when he came in 1981. Now he’s one of a chemistry faculty of 13.

Spelman’s success is self-perpetuating, Thompson said. As more students succeed in the sciences, they provide more role models for future students, he said.

Spelman’s Ph.D.s are teaching at major universities, working as government scientists and running their own companies.

Afi Harrington, 36, a 1993 Spelman mathematics graduate with a doctorate from North Carolina State University, is in business with two other women. One of them, Kim Barnette, is a fellow Spelman grad.

After working together at the Center for Naval Analyses, the women founded the research and consulting firm Delta Decisions of D.C.

Harrington loved math as a student, she said, but didn’t want to teach. Mentors at Spelman introduced her to careers in applied mathematics she didn’t know existed.

“Spelman was a very nurturing environment,” she said. “When I left and went to N.C. State, I was very confident in my ability.”

Next year, Spelman will be showcasing some of its former students in a new way. With a portion of a $1.4 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Spelman student filmmakers are documenting the lives and careers of Spelman-educated scientists.

Spelman officials hope the film will inspire more girls to pursue careers in science.