George C. Royal
Encyclopedia
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
institution, and was part of one of the few African American husband - wife teams in Science with Gladys W. Royal Ph.D. George C. Royal is currently professor emeritus at Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
.
Early life
Royal was born in Williamston, South CarolinaWilliamston, South Carolina
Williamston is a town in Anderson County, South Carolina, United States, The population was 3,791 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Williamston is located at ....
in 1921, the oldest boy of nine children of African American and Native American descent. His father, George Sr., owned an auto garage there before migrating his family to Urbana, Ohio during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. Royal has six children, including jazz musician Gregory Charles Royal
Gregory Charles Royal
Gregory Charles Royal is an American musician, composer, author, and a judge on America's Hot Musician, as well as a plaintiff in a 2009 lawsuit against Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.- Biography :...
.
College and Early Professional Career
Royal attended Tuskegee Institute from 1939-1943 earning a B.S. in Biology before serving in the Army in World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as a munitions sergeant ending at the Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive , launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, hence its French name , and France and...
in 1945. After the war, he attended the University of Wisconsin where he received an M.S. in Microbiology in 1947. Royal took on positions as Bacteriology instructor at Tuskegee in 1947-48; research assistant at Ohio State University and Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station from 1948 to 1952. He was assistant professor of Bacteriology at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro from 1952 to 1955.
Ph.D and Beyond
In 1955 Royal gained admission to the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, an Ivy League institution, where he received his Ph.D in microbiology
Microbiology
Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are defined as any microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters or no cell at all . This includes eukaryotes, such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes...
as a predcotoral fellow in 1957. Dr. Royal was associate and professor of Bacteriology at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro from 1957 to 1965; and in 1959 he served a summer research fellowship for the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Biology Division, at Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies. He was the dean of the Graduate School at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro from 1961 to 1965. Following a postdoctoral study in allergy and hypersensitivity and an assistant professorship in Microbiology at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia from 1965 to 1966, he joined the faculty of Howard University from 1966-1993. He became professor emeritus in 1993.
African American Husband - Wife Team
George C. Royal married Gladys Geraldine Williams in 1947 while attending the University of Wisconsin. Gladys W. Royal (1926–2001), was an African American biochemist, who graduated from Dillard University at age 18 and would receive her Ph.D from Ohio State University in 1956 by age 29- a rare feat for an African American female in the 1950s. The Royals would colloborate on important research including that funded by the Atomic Energy Commission involving bone marrow transplants to treat radiation overdoses. (http://books.google.com/books?id=75bnncOVqEIC&pg=PA250&lpg=PA250&dq=gladys++royal+women+in+science+african+american&source=bl&ots=xJDeBcJdsO&sig=M5YBEyYTRLXkau0UyGQAnEaVTKI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA250,M1 (Black Women Scientists in the United States, Wini Warren Indiana University Press 1999)African American husband and wife teams in science were extremely rare in the early and mid 20th century due to the social, educational and economic climate regarding African Americans in the United States.
"Husband -Wife Team's Project Draws International Interest" Afro-American, 10 September 1960, p. 10
"Physical Chemists" in Contributions of Black Women in America, ed Marianna W. Davis,
vol 2 (Columbia, SC Kenday Press, 1982) pp. 446–447
Important Research Presented
updatingAtomic Energy Commission Grants for Bone Marrow Transplants with Gladys W. Royal:
1) Fifth International Congress on Nutrition Washington, DC 1960
2) International Congress on Histochemistry and Cytochemistry Paris, France 1960
National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation Grants:
Collaborations at Howard University with Dr. Calvin Sampson to develop serological procedures having prognostice value in candidiasis; with Dr. Arvind Nandedkar to study antigenic compounds associated with Candida albicans; with Dr. Robert Watkins and Dr. Arvind Nandedkar to develop antibodies to nortriptyline as a method of reducing toxicity; and with Dr. Richard Garden in the department of Oral Surgery to study the effects of Peridex (Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....
) on the growth of clinical isolates of Candida species
Important Non-Academic Positions Held
Dean of the Graduate School North Carolina A&T College 1961-1965President American Society of Microbiology 1980 Washington, DC
Board of Directors Concordia College
External links
- http://www.jimmunol.org/cgi/content/abstract/71/1/22
- http://www.washingtondcbranchasm.com/Previous_Presidents.html
- http://ijs.sgmjournals.org/content/vol32/issue3/
- http://www.scribd.com/doc/1001644/National-Science-Foundation-ar-1962-appendix-d
- http://www.ncat.edu/~gradsch/Catalog.html#DEANS_OF_COLLEGES_AND_SCHOOLS
See also
- Gladys W. Royal