03/12/2025
In honor of Women's History Month, we will be highlighting innovative women from around the world. Our first honoree is Alice Augusta Ball.
Alice Ball (1892–1916) was an African American chemist and the first woman and African American to earn a degree in chemistry at the University of Hawaii. She is best known for developing the Ball Method, an innovative treatment for leprosy that became the standard for several decades.
While working under the mentorship of Dr. Harry T. Hollmann, the head of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Hawaii, Ball developed an injectable form of the active ingredient in chaulmoogra oil, which had previously been used to treat leprosy, but only in oral form, making it ineffective. Her method significantly improved its effectiveness. However, after Ball’s untimely death at the age of 24 due to a tragic accident, her work was claimed by her graduate advisor (and later president of the university) Dr. Arthur L. Dean. The Ball Method was renamed The Dean Method. This continued until 1922, Dr. Hollman wrote a paper giving Alice her proper credit.
To further give credit to Alice, several accolades and recognitions have been bestowed in her name. Most recently, in 2022, Hawai'i governor David Ige named February 28 as Alice Augusta Ball day and the University of Hawai'i, Manōa has a plaque displayed in her honor.
For more information and to see what other notable Alice is related to, please do a quick Google search or visit your local library!
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