People, Locations, Episodes

Henry A. Hill, Chemist born

Henry A. Hill

This date marks the birth of Henry Aaron Hill in 1915.  He was a Black chemist.

Born in St. Joseph, N.C., he completed a B.A. at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C., in 1936 and a Ph.D. in Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1942.  In 1961, he became president and founder of the Riverside Research Laboratory.

An authority in the fields of polymer chemistry and fabric flammability, Hill directed research on fluorocarbons. Polymer or macromolecular chemistry is a multidisciplinary science dealing with polymers or macromolecules' chemical synthesis and chemical properties. According to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) recommendations, macromolecules refer to individual molecular chains and are the domain of chemistry.  Polymers describe the bulk properties of polymer materials and belong to polymer physics as a subfield of physics.

In 1977, Hill became the first Black president of the American Chemical Society and chaired the chemistry section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).  An advocate of chemical regulation and safety, Hill served with several government scientific groups.  He passed away in 1979 in Haverhill, Mass.

To become a Chemist