Cherlynlavaughn Bradley

Cherlynlavaughn Bradley (October 27, 1951 – August 30, 2014) was an American chemist who worked at Amoco.

Cherlyn Bradley
Born
Cherlynlavaughn Bradley

(1951-10-27)October 27, 1951
Chicago
DiedAugust 30, 2014(2014-08-30) (aged 62)
Alma materNorthwestern University (PhD)
Illinois Wesleyan University (BS)
Scientific career
InstitutionsAmoco

Early life and education

Bradley was born in Chicago, Illinois.[1] Her father, Leroy Bradley, worked at Burlington Railroad and her mother, Geneva Bradley, was a musician.[1] Bradley attended St Matthew's Catholic School and became interested in science when she was given a Gilbert Chemistry set.[1] She took a course in advanced placement chemistry and went on to study chemistry and Illinois Wesleyan University.[1] She was the only African-American student and graduated magna cum laude in 1973, and went on to study inorganic chemistry at graduate school.[2] At Northwestern University, Bradley was, again, the only African-American woman in the department. She worked on polymer semiconductors and linear permethylpolysilanes.[3] She earned her PhD in 1978.[1][4]

Research and career

Bradley joined Standard Oil in 1977, which later became Amoco.[1] She worked on elemental detection for sulfur compounds. She was nominated to join the American Society for Testing and Materials and led the gas chromatography study group.[1] The group included Amoco, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron Corporation, Mobil and Marathon Oil.[1] She was likely the only African-American woman with a PhD to work at Amoco, and made efforts to mentor young women.[1]

She developed a Microwave plasma gas chromatography detector that could detect trace elements.[1] She worked with Hewlett-Packard to develop a small version of the equipment.[1] She was recognised for her ability to determine polymer contaminants. She was a member of the American Chemical Society's Project SEED, an organisation that brought students from economically disadvantaged background to Amoco for the summer.[1][4] She mentored girls for the Girl Scouts of the USA chemistry award.[1][4] Bradley was a member of the American Chemical Society's Women Chemists committee.[5] She died after a short illness on August 30, 2014.[1][6]

References
  1. Brown, Jeannette E. (2018-08-08). African American Women Chemists in the Modern Era. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190615192.
  2. Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill ) (1975). Annual commencement / Northwestern University. Northwestern University. Evanston, Ill. : The University.
  3. "THE CHICAGO SECTION MOURNS THE LOSS OF CHEMICAL BULLETIN EDITOR CHERLYNLAVAUGHN BRADLEY" (PDF). ACS. 2014. Retrieved 2018-09-14.
  4. "Passings: Northwestern Magazine - Northwestern University". www.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2018-09-14.
  5. "Women Chemists Committee News Fall '12 | Mentorship | Inquiry Based Learning". Scribd. Retrieved 2018-09-14.
  6. "Titans in the News | Illinois Wesleyan". www.iwu.edu. Retrieved 2018-09-14.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.