UH celebrates Alice Ball Day in Hawaiʻi, February 28

VIDEO NEWS RELEASE

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Dan Meisenzahl, (808) 348-4936
UH Spokesperson/Director, UH Communications
Posted: Feb 28, 2022

Link to video and sound (details below): https://bit.ly/3K0BZDq

WHO: Alice Augusta Ball (1892–1916), University of Hawaiʻi’s first African-American graduate and first woman to earn a master’s degree in chemistry in 1915, a pioneering scientist who discovered a successful treatment for Hansen’s disease (leprosy) in 1916 using oil from the Chaulmoogra tree.

WHAT: At a special recognition ceremony held on the UH Mānoa campus, Gov. David Ige, joined by First Lady Dawn Ige, UH President David Lassner and campus and community leaders, signed a proclamation that declared February 28 to be “Alice Augusta Ball Day” in Hawaiʻi to commemorate her remarkable legacy. 

WHEN: Monday, February 28, 2022

WHERE: The signing took place next to Bachman Hall in the shade of a Chaulmoogra tree planted in Ball’s honor where a bronze plaque is displayed in her memory.

WHY: Alice Ball Day in Hawaiʻi had previously been proclaimed in 2000 to be February 29, which falls on Black History Month, after what is now Kalaupapa Month in Hawaiʻi (January) and before Women’s History Month (March).

Additional information on Alice Ball

  • Born: July 24, 1892, in Seattle, Washington

  • Undergraduate: University of Washington Pharmaceutical Chemistry (1912); Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy (1914)

  • Graduate: University of Hawaiʻi (then the College of Hawaiʻi)

  • First African American to graduate from the University of Hawaiʻi (1915).

  • First female to graduate from the University of Hawaiʻi with a master’s degree in chemistry.

  • First African-American female chemistry instructor at the University of Hawaiʻi.

  • First African-American woman to be published twice in the prestigious Journal of the American Chemical Society (1914 and 1917, posthumously).

  • First person in the world to develop a treatment for Hansen’s disease (leprosy) from Chaulmoogra oil (1916), now called “The Ball Method.”

  • In 2007, the UH Board of Regents awarded Alice Ball their Medal of Distinction, posthumously.

  • Ball was honored alongside Marie Skłodowska-Curie (a.k.a. Madam Curie) and Florence Nightingale. Their names were etched on the façade of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine as part of its 120th anniversary in 2019.

  • The Alice Augusta Ball Scholarship was established for underrepresented minority students at UH Mānoa who, like Ball, hope to enter the science field

  • More stories about Alice Ball on UHNews.org. 

 

BROLL (1:32)

(:01-46)  Cover of signing ceremony, plaque, audience shots and speakers

(:47-1:16) Special guests present lei on bronze plaque

(1:17-1:24) Group shot with proclamation


SOUND:
LaJoya Shelley - PhD Candidate and President of UH Mānoa’s Black Student Association

(:16)

“When I talk about it being important for black students, it's because we know that representation matters and so when we see ourselves written in the academic canon, see ourselves as part of the campus culture, hopefully it enhances our student sense of belonging on campus.


David Lassner - UH President

(:19)

The fact that she made amazing contributions for Hawaiʻi, the world, while here as a young black woman whose work was overlooked for decades, today was just an opportunity to try to begin to make that right.