Scientists

A Black woman with shoulder length brown hair wearing a lacy white top and delicate jewerly

Linda Bell

Dr. Linda Bell is South Carolina's State Epidemiologist.

Charles Bolden wearing an orange astronaut suit.

Charles F. Bolden, Jr.

Born in Columbia, SC, Charles F. Bolden, Jr. was the head of the NASA federal agency from July 2009 to January 2017.

Black and white photo of man

Joseph H. Burckhalter, Ph.D.

Professor of medicinal chemistry; scientist, teacher and administrator.

Black and white photograph of James Coker

James Lide Coker

Businessman, entrepreneur, philanthropist born in Darlington, SC. Coker was educated at the Citadel and Harvard where he studied to better prepare himself for managing agricultural property.

A smiling Cady Coleman in space floating. She wears a green shirt while a clarinet and flute float in front of her.

Catherine Coleman

Charleston native, Catherine Grace "Cady" Coleman is a chemist, a former U.S. Air Force colonel, and a retired NASA astronaut. 

Charles M. Duke in a space suit with a lunar glob in front of him and an American flag behind him.

Charles M. Duke Jr.

Colonel Charles Moss Duke, Jr. is a retired USAF Brigadier General and former NASA astronaut and engineer.

Black and white photograph of Eugene Figg

Eugene C. Figg

Eugene Figg was a structural engineer who designed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay.

A older man in a navy blue suite with a yellow tie standing in front of a city

Jim Gandy

South Carolina's Weatherman, Jim Gandy, was the Chief Meteorologist for WISTV (1984-1998) and WLTX (1999-2019).

A white Gardenia flower

Alexander Garden

Alexander Garden was a Scottish-born physician and naturalist who lived for many years in Charleston, South Carolina, collecting and observing flora and fauna of South Carolina. 

Robert Gibbes

Robert Wilson Gibbes

Robert Wilson Gibbes was a physician and naturalist who wrote paleontology articles on marine fossils found in South Carolina.

Dr. Gipson speaking at a microphone

Mack Gipson, Jr.

Dr. Mack Gipson, Jr. was the first African American man to obtain a Ph.D. in Geology.

Black and white photograph of Alma Hayden working in a laboratory

Alma Levant Hayden

Alma Levant Hayden was a chemist and one of the first African American women to work as a scientist at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C., in the 1950s.

Smiling Sherman James

Sherman James

Hartsville, SC native Dr. Sherman James is an epidemiologist and currently the Susan B. King Professor Emeritus of Public Policy at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy. 

Ernest Everett Just wearing a dark suit and tie.

Ernest Everett Just

Born in Charleston, SC, Dr. Ernest Everett Just was a pioneering African-American biologist and educator who pioneered many areas on the physiology of development.

A smiling Ronald McNair wearing a blue Nasa space jumpsuit.

Ron McNair

Ron McNair was an American NASA astronaut and physicist.

A smiling Kary Mullis

Kary Mullis

Kary Mullis grew up in Columbia, SC, and was an esteemed biochemist and Nobel laureate.

Portrait of Eliza Lucas Pinckney.

Eliza Lucas Pinckney

Eliza Lucas Pinckney was a daughter of a plantation owner who is best known for her experiments with creating blue dye from indigo plants, which led to indigo becoming one of the colony’s most important cash crops.

black and white photograph of Edwin Russell

Edwin Roberts Russell

Dr. Edwin Roberts Russell was a chemist who worked on the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory.

Black and white photograph of J. Marion Sims

James Marion Sims

James Marion Sims is credited as the "father of modern gynecology" for developing tools and surgical techniques related to women's reproductive health.

Black and white photograph of Charles Townes

Charles Hard Townes

Charles Hard Townes was a physicist who won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964.

John B. Watson

John B. Watson

John Watson was a psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism and conducted research on animal behavior, child-rearing, and advertising.