STEM Role Model
USA Science & Engineering Festival X-STEM Speaker renowned aviator Barrington Irving sums up his current mission as a role model this way: "Kids want to be challenged, but today too many are bored and uninspired. I want to use aviation to excite and empower a new generation to become scientists, engineers, and explorers."
He has a lot to inspire kids about. Born in Jamaica and raised in Miami Florida's inner city, surrounded by crime, poverty, and failing schools, he beat the odds in 2007 when, at the age of 23, he became the youngest person ever (and only African American) to pilot a…
Archibald A. Alexander – Noted Design and Construction Engineer
Best known for designing Washington, DC's Tidal Basin Bridge and Whitehurst Freeway; first black graduate of the University of Iowa's College of Engineering; served as territorial governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands
Growing up in Iowa during the late 1880s, Archibald "Archie" Alexander remembers being warned that engineering was not something he could expect to succeed in as a black man. But he pushed forward anyway, later graduating in 1912 with a bachelor's degree in engineering from the State University of Iowa (now the…
Stephanie C. Hill – Computer Software Engineer and Lockheed Martin Executive
Vice President and General Manager of Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Solutions Civil line of business; recipient of the Black Engineer of the Year Award for 2014
Looking back recently on her lengthy and high-profile career at Lockheed Martin, engineer and executive Stephanie C. Hill said, "I've worked for Lockheed Martin for 27 years. Most of those years have been in the technological field, and I have never been bored. I have had the opportunity to make a difference in a way that I never imagined…
Ed Dwight, Jr. – Test Pilot, Aerospace Engineer and America's First Black Astronaut Candidate
Chosen in 1962 by President Kennedy as America's first black astronaut candidate; due to racism in the astronaut program, he resigned; now is a world-class sculptor, specializing in sculptures depicting aspects of Black History
Ed Dwight, Jr. was a 28-year-old Air Force captain at Travis Air Force Base in California when he got a letter from President Kennedy in 1961 urging him to apply to test-pilot school as a prelude to becoming America's first black astronaut. The son of a Negro League baseball…
Sonya Kovalevsky – Russian-born Mathematician
One of the world's best mathematicians of her era; established first major result in general theory of partial differential equations; first modern European woman appointed to full professorship; advocate of women's rights
Sonya Kovalevsky (also known as Sofia Kowalevski) was born in Russia in 1850 and became a noted mathematician in spite of a father who "had a horror of learned women," according to historical accounts. As a young woman, she could study math and physics only in secret. She married a man she did not love just to get away from her…
Clara Barton -- Nurse, Educator
Her work as a dedicated battlefield nurse during the Civil War, and her founding of the American Red Cross helped set the standards for emergency medical care and disaster relief.
She was so timid, shy and depressed as a child that she was removed from school. But later Clara Barton transformed these drawbacks into a career of helping others, hallmarked by her service as a valued nurse in treating wounded soldiers in the Civil War and later founding the American Red Cross. Learn how Clara -- known for her gutsy, no-nonsense attitude as a leader -- built a…