Resolution Creating Alice Augusta Ball Day and an Annual Award in her Name Recognizing Excellence in Research by a Graduate Student

Presented to the Mānoa Faculty Senate by the Committee on Professional Matters for a vote of the full senate on April 21, 2021, a resolution in recognition of Alice Augusta Ball to establish an annual day and award in her honor. Approved unanimously through acclamation by the Mānoa Faculty Senate on April 21, 2021.

RESOLUTION CREATING ALICE AUGUSTA BALL DAY AND AN ANNUAL AWARD IN HER NAME RECOGNIZING EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH BY A GRADUATE STUDENT 

WHEREAS, the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa seeks to refine its recognition of Alice Ball and her accomplishments, including the following:

1. Contribution to the treatment of Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) through the application of a new method of ethyl esterification (developed by a German chemist) to chaulmoogra oil, more effectively administered to patients with leprosy;
2. First Black woman published twice in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, one before she had a master’s degree.
3. First Black woman to receive a master’s degree in chemistry (probably first in the US).
4. First Black woman to become head of the College of Hawaiʻi’s Chemistry Department (very likely the first in the US).
5. First Black woman to develop an early treatment for Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) that was used for two decades.
6. She also taught compositional English to young women at the Hawaiʻi YWCA in the fall of 1914 and spring of 1915 when she was working on her thesis, teaching chemistry classes, and managing the Chemistry Department.

WHEREAS, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has recently honored Alice August Ball as a woman health pioneer, recognizing her and placing her in the same category as Marie Curie and Florence Nightingale;

WHEREAS, Alice Ball Day was proclaimed by Lieutenant Governor Mazie Hirono to take place on February 29, 2000; and UH-Mānoa recognized her the same day with a bronze plaque at the base of the lone Chaulmoogra tree on campus;

WHEREAS, retired UH Science and Technology Librarian Paul Wermager has already established the Alice Ball Scholarship with the UH Foundation, and  in 2006, the University of Hawai‘i Board of Regents awarded Alice Ball their Medal of Distinction, posthumously,

BE IT RESOLVED, that the Mānoa Faculty Senate request that Gov Ige/Lt. Governor Josh Green issue a proclamation designating a day in February (besides February 29) as a Alice Ball Day henceforth to; and, that the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa recognize and memorialize the contributions of Alice Ball by commissioning the design and sculpting of a bust of Alice Ball (or other such memorial), which may also serve as an incentive and inducement to young scholars aspiring to contribute to the public health and welfare;

BE IT FURTHER AND FINALLY RESOLVED, that the Mānoa Faculty Senate facilitate the establishment of an annual Alice Ball Award to honor a graduate student for outstanding research that contributes to the well-being of the people of Hawaiʻi.