{"id":104708,"date":"2020-02-04T11:17:04","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T21:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=104708"},"modified":"2024-03-04T12:08:41","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T22:08:41","slug":"alice-ball-honored-london-building-facade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/02\/04\/alice-ball-honored-london-building-facade\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> graduate honored alongside Madam Curie and Florence Nightingale"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"Alice<\/p>\n

Alice Augusta Ball<\/strong>, University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s first female and first African-American graduate, was honored alongside Marie Skłodowska-Curie (a.k.a. Madam Curie) and Florence Nightingale, with their names etched on the façade of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine<\/a> (LSHTM<\/abbr>). The school celebrated its 120th anniversary in 2019.<\/p>\n

Ball, who passed away at the age of 24, was also the first person in the world to develop a treatment for Hansen\u2019s disease in 1916 using oil from the Chaulmoogra tree.<\/p>\n

“Alice Ball discovered the first effective treatment for leprosy; not a cure, but a treatment that worked,” said Paul Wermager<\/strong>, head of the science and technology department at Hamilton Library<\/a> for 19 years until his retirement in 2010. “The biggest thing she changed in the world is that she gave us hope.”<\/p>\n

Wermager has done extensive research on Ball\u2019s accomplishments and even established a UH<\/abbr> Foundation scholarship<\/a> to assist underrepresented minority females who, like Ball, also hope to enter the science field.<\/p>\n