18 Facts About Alice Ball

Alice Ball died at the age of 24 and her contributions to science were not recognized until many years after her death.

Alice Augusta Ball was born on July 24,1892, in Seattle, Washington, to James Presley Ball and Laura Louise Ball.

Alice Ball was the third of four children, with two older brothers, William and Robert, and a younger sister, Addie.

Alice Ball's family was middle-class and well-off, as Ball's father was a newspaper editor of The Colored Citizen, photographer, and lawyer.

Alice Ball's family moved to Hawaii with the hopes that the warmer weather would ease her grandfather's arthritis, though he died shortly after the move.

Alice Ball graduated from this school in 1910, receiving top grades in the sciences.

Alice Ball went on to study chemistry at the University of Washington, earning a bachelor's degree in pharmaceutical chemistry in 1912, and a second bachelor's degree in the science of pharmacy two years later in 1914.

Alice Ball received an offer from the University of California Berkeley, as well as the College of Hawaii, where she decided to study for a master's degree in chemistry.

Chaulmoogra oil had been the best treatment available for leprosy for hundreds of years, and Alice Ball developed a much more effective injectable form.

Alice Ball was the first African-American "research chemist and instructor" in the College of Hawaii's chemistry department.

At age 23, Alice Ball developed a technique to make the oil injectable and water-soluble.

Alice Ball was unable to publish her revolutionary findings before her untimely death in 1916.

Alice Ball's name is not mentioned in any of Dean's published works on the chaulmoogra extract, while the name "the Dean method" is appended to the technique.

In 1920, a Hawaii physician reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association that 78 patients had been discharged from Kalihi Hospital by the board of health examiners after treatment with injections of Alice Ball's modified chaulmoogra oil.

Alice Ball published a paper in 1922 giving credit to Ball, calling the injectable form of the oil the "Ball method" throughout the article.

Alice Ball had become ill during her research and returned to Seattle for treatment a few months before her death.

Paul Wermager established a scholarship, in 2017, called the "Alice Augusta Ball endowed scholarship" for students pursuing degrees in chemistry, biology, biochemistry, or microbiology.

In December 2024, after a resolution by the UH Manoa Faculty Senate, a bust sculpture of Alice Ball was placed in the Hamilton Library.