Background
Ferguson, Lloyd Noel was born on February 9, 1918 in Oakland, California, United States. Son of Noel Swithin and Gwendolyn Louise (Johnson) Ferguson.
Ferguson, Lloyd Noel was born on February 9, 1918 in Oakland, California, United States. Son of Noel Swithin and Gwendolyn Louise (Johnson) Ferguson.
He graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1934 at the age of 16. After working in construction and as a railway porter in order to earn enough money to pay for college, he did his undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley and received a Doctor of Philosophy from the same university in 1943, the first African American to earn a chemistry Doctor of Philosophy there. After receiving his Doctor of Philosophy, he took a faculty position at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, then approximately two years later moved to Howard University, where he became the chair of his department and founded a doctoral program there, the first in chemistry at any black college.
As a child in Oakland, California, Ferguson had a backyard laboratory in which he developed a moth repellent, a silverware cleanser, and a lemonade powder. While affiliated with Howard University, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1953 and an National Science Foundation grant in 1960 that allowed him to travel to the Carlsberg Laboratory in Copenhagen, Denmark, and to Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zurich in Switzerland. He moved to the California State University, Los Angeles in 1965.
He again became chair, and played an advisory role to the Food and Drug Administration.
He retired in 1986. Ferguson"s is the author of seven chemistry textbooks and more than 50 research papers. His research included work on organic chemistry, the relation between structure and function in biochemistry, chemotherapy treatments for cancer, and the chemical basis for the human sense of taste.
In 1972, Ferguson was one of the founders of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers. In his honor, the organization gives its Lloyd North. Ferguson Young Scientist Award to young scientists with "technical excellence and documented contributions to their field".
In 1995, the chemistry department at California
State Los Angeles established the annual Lloyd Ferguson Distinguished Lecture series, in Ferguson"s honor.
Fellow Chemical Society London, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Institute Chemists. Member American Chemical Society (award Chemical Education 1978, chairman chemical education division 1980), American Association of University Professors, National Institute of Science, Sigma Xi.
Married Charlotte Olivia Welch, January 2, 1944. Children– Lloyd Noel, Stephen Bruce, Lisa Annette.