"Roger Arliner Young"(1899-November 9,1964)

Was an American scientist of zoology,biology,and Marine biology.She was the first African American woman receive a doctorate degree in zoology.Born in Clifton Forge,Virginia in

1899,Roger moved with her family to Burgettstown Pennsylvania.The family was poor and much time and resources were expended in the care of  her disabled mother.In 1919,she enrolled at Howard University in Washington,D.C. to study music.Roger did not take her first science course until 1921.Her grades were poor at the beginning of her college career,some of her teachers saw promises in her.One of them was Ernest Everett Just, a prominent black biologist and head of the Zoology department at Howard.He stated mentoring her,and Roger graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1923.The influence of Ernest seemed to improve her academics and they worked together for many years.He also helped her to gain funding for graduate school,and in 1924 Roger began studying for master's degree at the University of Chicago.While at Chicago,she was asked to join Sigma XI,a scientific research society,which was an unusual honor for a master's student.She also began to publish her research,and in 1924 her first article,"On the excretory apparatus in Paramecium"was published in the journal Science,making her the first African American to research and professionally published in the this field.Roger received her master's degree in 1926.Ernest then invited Roger 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,Roger returned to Howard to be interim department head for the zoology department for the time while Ernest was in Europe seeking grant money.In the fall of 1929,Roger returned to the University of Chicago to begin her doctorate under the direction of Frank Rattray Lillie.Frank had been a mentor of Ernest while both were involved with the Marine Biological Laboratory.In 1930 she failed to pass her qualifying exams,and for a time,disappeared from the scientific community.Roger returned to Howard University to teach and continued working with Ernest at the Marine Biological Laboratory during the summers.Around 1935,rumors started circulating that there was a romance between Ernest and Roger,and in 1936 they had a huge confront.Later that year she was fired,ostensibly,she mistreated lab equipment and missed classes.Roger used this setback as an opportunity to try again to obtain a Ph.D in June 1937,she went to the University of Pennsylvania,studying with Lewis Victor Heilbrunn (another scientist she met at the Marine Biological Laboratory) and graduated with her doctorate in 1940.After obtaining her doctorate,she became an assistant professor at the North Carolina College for Negoroes.Roger later held teaching positions in Texas,Mississippi and Louisiana.Roger contributed a great deal of work to science.She studied the effects of direct and indirect on sea urchin eggs,on the structures that control the salt concentration in paramecium,as well as hydration and dehydration of living cells.She published four papers between 1935 and 1938 and also wrote several books.Roger was never married.In the 1950s her mental health began to deteriorate and she was hospitalized.Roger died in New Orleans,Louisiana.