Honoring Black Excellence in the Physical Sciences: A Look Back and Forward

From the first Black physicist to earn a doctorate to modern-day trailblazers, AIP has resources that highlight Black excellence in the physical sciences. We invite you to take a trip with us and learn about a few inspiring Black physical scientists past and present.

Edward Bouchet

We start this journey with Edward Bouchet, the first Black undergraduate from Yale University and the first Black person in the United States to earn a doctorate in physics.

Bouchet was the son of a former enslaved person and attended segregated schools before attending Yale. Though he was not the first Black student, he was the first to graduate, in 1876, and remained the only Black person in the U.S. with a doctorate in physics until Elmer Imes earned his in 1918.

After graduating from Yale, Bouchet was unable to become a university professor due to racial discrimination, so in the autumn of the same year he began teaching at the Institute for Colored Youth and continued to teach there for 26 years.

However, societal shifts at the turn of the 19th century trended toward vocational and technical training for Black Americans rather than academic pursuits, so Bouchet lost his job at the ICY when managers decided to give up academic and scientific education. He moved on from the institute but spent the rest of his career teaching elsewhere. Bouchet documented few details of his own story, but his accomplishments are remembered in the physical sciences community.

One example is this oral history interview with physicist and mathematician Ronald E. Mickens that touches on the origins of the National Society of Black Physicists and explains the significance of, and the lessons learned, from Edward Bouchet’s life.

Tuskegee Airmen

For our next highlight, we’re going airborne. Formed in 1941, the Tuskegee Airmen fought in World War II and included the U.S.’s first Black military pilots. They earned awards and decorations for successful airstrikes, escorts, and bravery. AIP has teaching guides on two Tuskegee Airmen, both named Charles Anderson who made unforgettable waves in history.

The Tuskegee Airmen unapologetically proved they could reshape history and showed the world that Black pilots have a place in the skies. Prior to this, no Black person had ever been a U.S. military pilot, and suddenly, the country had hundreds of highly skilled Black pilots flying above Europe. Their successes advanced civil rights progress back home in the United States.

Charles Alfred “Chief” Anderson , known as the Father of Black aviation, was the first Black person in the country to earn a commercial pilot license and hold an Air Transport license. Anderson started as a self-taught pilot, since schools refused Black students, and went on to be the chief flight instructor for pilots at the Tuskegee Institute, which led to him being known as Chief Anderson in the military. In March 1941, he took a historic 40-minute flight with Eleanor Roosevelt, which proved the competencies of Black pilots were backed by the confident support of a first lady.

The Tuskegee Airmen didn’t only consist of pilots. In addition to around 1,000 pilots, there were about 15,000 support staff, including nurses, cooks, and meteorologists.

Charles E. Anderson , the first Black person to earn a doctorate in meteorology, trained the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II on the importance of understanding the weather conditions around them to successfully complete their flights.

Valerie Thomas

Next up on this trip, we’re stopping at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in the 1960s to meet Valerie Thomas.

Thomas was one of two women majoring in physics at Morgan State University in the early 1960s. She graduated in 1964 with the highest honors and started working at NASA as a data analyst in 1965. Part of her work included creating computer systems — even though she had seen computers only in science fiction films before working there — so she dove right into learning as much as she could about them. Her college math experience combined with her new computer science knowledge prepared her to take on multiple roles on the Landsat program in 1970.

Thomas invented and patented the illusion transmitter in 1980 and earned a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Delaware. She has always been an advocate and supporter of young people, especially girls — and Black students in particular — pursuing education in the sciences.

Learn more about Thomas in AIP’s oral history interview , with nuclear physicist and machine learning engineer Helen Jackson, who credits Thomas as one of her mentors.

Jessica Esquivel

Our next highlight brings us into the 21st century. We’d like you to meet Jessica Esquivel.

Growing up feeling captivated by science fiction movies and space, Esquivel is a one-of-a-kind physicist and co-founder of Oyanova Enterprises.

Esquivel was one of the first Afro-Latinas to graduate with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and applied physics from St. Mary’s University and was the second to earn a doctorate in physics from Syracuse University. Passionate about advocating for marginalized groups in the sciences, Esquivel and her partner, Emily Esquivel, created Oyanova Enterprises to foster equity, education, and community. She is also a co-founder of the #BlackInPhysics social movement.

She is a trailblazer in her field and continues to knock down barriers so the current and next generations of physicists can include all those who share a passion for discoveries and innovation while empowering them to be their true selves.

Learn more about black voices in physics and Esquivel’s perspectives in this Q&A from Physics Today .

In 2024, Esquivel received an honorable mention for the Joseph A. Johnson Award at the 2024 National Society of Black Physicists Annual Conference. You can read more in this press release .

Christopher Williams

It’s our final stop and we’d like to direct your gaze toward the International Space Station.

As a child, Christopher Williams found himself drawing pictures of space shuttles while he was in class. Today, we can find Williams aboard the International Space Station completing his first mission in space.

As he grew up, Williams didn’t see becoming an astronaut as a realistic path, but it was a dream he hoped to achieve. He fell in love with science at 5 years old and focused on physics in high school, thanks to an internship with the Naval Research Center. There weren’t many people who looked like him as he studied physics, but he thanks his mentor, Kurt Weiler, for helping instill the confidence that he was exactly where he was supposed to be.

Williams was previously a medical physicist at Harvard Medical School and he is currently serving as a flight engineer for his long-duration expedition to the ISS and will remain in space until July 2026. You can read more about his story at TEAM-UP Together .

The iconic people on this list are just a few groundbreaking individuals driven to open doors not only for themselves, but also for all those who will follow with a shared love for the physical sciences. Check out more impactful stories via AIP’s Black History Month page .