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Ruth Ella Moore, the first Black woman in the United States to get a doctorate in the natural sciences and to join the American Society for Microbiology (then the Society of American Bacteriologists), would also become the first woman to head up a department at Howard University. The mold-breaking scientist had diverse research interests and was a dedicated teacher and mentor.
Moore was born in 1903 in Columbus, Ohio, where she grew up with her parents and two older brothers. She earned her bachelor’s, master’s, and history-making doctoral degree in microbiology at The Ohio State University. Moore’s 1933 dissertation was on the bacterium that causes tuberculosis.
At the time Moore was going through school, very few universities in the US were admitting Black students—Ohio State was one of the few—and virtually none hired Black faculty. Historically Black colleges and universities would be the only ...
