Alice Ball, American Chemist

 Alice Ball, 1892-1916, was an African American chemist who helped solve the problem of preparing an oil for injection into a human. A little background first. Kalaupapa, a small area on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, had become a holding area for people with leprosy. If you are familiar with biblical references, leprosy was an issue then. It ravages the skin, attacks mucus membranes, and attacks peripheral nerves of the brain and spinal cord. It is contagious, which is why people were isolated. For hundreds of years, the only medication was an oil from the chaulmoogra tree. Because it's an oil, it doesn't mix with water, so injecting it was useless. It also tasted terrible, nauseating. Apparently, rubbing it on skin didn't do much good. Dr. Harry T. Hollmann worked with leprosy patients, and knew he needed a chemist to help find a way to make the oil into a usable form. Alice Ball, who grew up in Hawaii as a child, returned there to be the first woman and first African American to earn a graduate degree at the College of Hawaii. Alice also continued as an instructor there. With her expertise, Ball became the first person in the world to successfully prepare a form of the oil that could be injected and absorbed by the body. She made this breakthrough while teaching, and when she was only 23 years old! Unfortunately, Alice Ball died at the age of 24, possibly from accidentally inhaling chlorine gas during a class. Chlorine interacts with water in the body, turning it to an acid. Ultimately, she died from the damage. A 1918 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that 78 patients had been discharged to their homes. Ball's formulation worked. 

Swaby, Rachel. Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science - and the World. 2015, Broadway Books.