NASA/GSFC Inventor of the Year honors in 1984 was received by George Edward Alcorn Jr.

George Edward Alcorn Jr.

Born March 22, 1940

X-Ray Spectrometer US Patent No. 4,472,728 Inducted in 2015  

• Born in 1940 in Indianapolis, IN
• Attended Occidential College on scholarship and graduated with honors, with a B.S. in Physics, while also participating on basketball and football teams.
• Earned a Master of Science in Physics in 9 months from Howard University in 1963.
• After years as a physicist & engineer at IBM, Alcorn left to work for NASA in 1978
• As Second Plateau Inventor at NASA, he invented an imaging x-ray spectrometer for which he earned a patent, as well as NASA/GSFC Inventor of the Year honors in 1984
•  He served on a project management team that developed technologies used on the space station Freedom  
• Alcorn has been an integral part in managing the 30 year mission of the space station, overseeing the GSFC Evolution Program. 
• In all George Alcorn, Jr. is responsible for over 20 inventions

In 2010, Dr. Alcorn received the highest award of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, The Robert H. Goddard Award of Merit

George Edward Alcorn

(1940 – )

Physicist, Engineer

Dr. Alcorn earned a B.A. from Occidental College, majoring in physics and winning letters in football and baseball. He completed graduate work in physics at Howard University.

Dr. Alcorn’s achievements have elicited honors from many institutions and organizations, including Howard University, NASA, and IBM, along with special recognition from the United States Congress. 

In 2010, Dr. Alcorn received the highest award of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the Robert H. Goddard Award of Merit, “for outstanding innovation and significant contributions to space science, technology, and NASA programs as an engineer, a physicist, a professor and an inventor.”

First African American Female Astronaut

Dr. Mae Carol Jemison

1956-

She is an American engineer, physician and former NASA astronaut. She became the first black woman to travel in space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Honors and awards

• 1988 Essence Science and Technology Award
• 1990 Gamma Sigma Sigma Woman of the Year
• 1991 McCall’s 10 Outstanding Women for the 90s
• 1992 Johnson Publications Black Achievement Trailblazers Award
• 1992 Ebony Black Achievement Award
• 1993 National Women’s Hall of Fame
• 1993 Ebony magazine 50 Most Influential women
• 1993 Kilby Science Award
• 1993 Montgomery Fellow, Dartmouth College
• 1993 People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People in the World”
• 1993 Turner Trumpet Award
• 2002 listed among the 100 Greatest African Americans according to Molefi Kete Asante
• 2002 Texas Women’s Hall of Fame inductee
• 2003 Intrepid Award by the National Organization for Girls
• 2004 International Space Hall of Fame
• 2005 The National Audubon Society, Rachel Carson Award
• 2017 Buzz Aldrin Space Pioneer Award

Who is Lewis Latimer?

Lewis Howard Latimer
Latimer in 1882
Born	September 4, 1848 Chelsea, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	December 11, 1928 (aged 80) Flushing, Queens, New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Inventor, Author, Engineer, Patent Consultant, Draftsman, Navy Landsman (Rank)
Spouse(s)	Mary Wilson Lewis (m. 1873)
Children	Jeanette (Mrs. Gerald F. Norman), Louise
Parent(s)	George W. Latimer (1818–1896) Rebecca Smith (1823–1910)

 

Otis Boykin — Inventor of the Cardiac Pacemaker

 

 

(August 29, 1920, Dallas, Texas – March 13, 1982, Chicago, Illinois)

Boykin was an African-American inventor and engineer, who patented 28 electronic devices. One of his early inventions was an improved wire resistor.

Other notable inventions include a variable resistor used in guided missiles.

His most famous invention was  a control unit for the artificial cardiac pacemaker.  The device essentially uses electrical impulses to maintain a regular heartbeat.