Alice A. Ball (1892 - 1916)

Alice Augusta Ball (July 24, 1892 – December 31, 1916) was an American chemist who developed the "Ball Method", the most effective treatment for leprosy during the early 20th century. She was the first woman and first African American to receive a master's degree from the University of Hawaii, and was also the university's first female and African American chemistry professor. At age 23, Ball developed a technique to isolate and modify the active constituents of chaulmoogra oil, to make it injectable and absorbable by the body. Sadly she died at the young age of 24 in 1916 before she could publish her results. The first recognition of Ball's work came six years after her death in 1922. In 2000, the University of Hawaii honored Ball in 2000 by dedicating a plaque to her on the school's only chaulmoogra tree.