Biochemists Blanche Lawrence and Carolyn Parker were both known as 'atom scientists.' for their contributions.
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Providing a sense of balance from week to week in this column, particularly when it comes to a gender matter, isn’t easy, and it is even harder with a subject where women are fewer in number. All of this surfaced during the completion of last week’s profile of Jesse Wilkins. Seeking Black women working in conjunction with the Manhattan Project finds us two important selections: Blanche J. Lawrence and Carolyn B. Parker.
It is unclear where Lawrence was born, but we know it was on June 18, 1920. She graduated from Tuskegee University and married Captain Erwin Lawrence, a Tuskegee Airman who was killed while on a strafing mission. Blanche Lawrence was an excellent student and among her extracurricular activities was membership in a creative dance group, as well as the Physical Education Club.
Her career as a biochemist began as a research assistant in the health division of the University of Chicago’s Metallurgical Laboratory during the Manhattan Project. After WWII, she continued her career at the Argonne National Laboratory and after four years there, became a junior chemist in 1949.
From 1943 to 1947, Parker was a physicist on the Dayton Project, the polonium research and development arm of the Manhattan Project. Later, she became an assistant professor of physics at Fisk University. She died on March 17, 1966, in Gainesville amid speculation that it was the contact with radioactive material that led to her death. She was a member of the Institute of Radio Engineers, American Physical Society, Sigma Upsilon Pi, and Delta Sigma Theta.
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