Alice Ball

Alice Ball was an American chemist and researcher who made significant contributions to the treatment of leprosy. She was the first woman and the first African American to earn a master's degree from the College of Hawaii.1

Ball worked with physician Harry T. Hollmann to develop a more effective treatment for leprosy using chaulmoogra oil, which was already in use but unreliable. She successfully created a water-soluble form of the oil, making it safe for injection. This innovation became known as the "Ball method".1

Tragically, Ball died at the young age of 24, possibly from chlorine poisoning. Her groundbreaking work was nearly lost to history because her research was not published before her death, and her contributions were not initially credited to her.1