Yale researchers named to list of inspiring Black scientists

At least 14 Yale faculty members and researchers have been included in a list of 1,000 inspiring Black scientists in America appearing in Cell Mentor, an online resource for researchers.

The list was compiled by The Community of Scholars, a group of Persons Excluded because of their Ethnicity or Race (PEER) composed of postdoctoral fellows, early-stage investigators, instructors, and consultants.

“This post is for the present, but it is also a foundation of the future,” The Community of Scholars noted in its introduction to the list. “This is for our brothers and sisters that believed that they were alone in the struggle or did not know that there were others like them. For the Black scientists whose quirkiness was ridiculed not accepted. We hope that this post enables the next generation to fulfill their need to change the world.”

Yale scientists named as “Established Investigators” on the list were:

• Jennifer A. Richeson, the Philip R. Allen Professor of Psychology
• Larry Gladney, the Phyllis A. Wallace Dean of Diversity and Faculty Development in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and professor of physics
• Mahalia S. Desruisseaux, associate professor of internal medicine
• Michael Murrell, associate professor of biomedical engineering and physics
• O. Keith Baker, professor of physics
• Paul Turner, the Rachel Carson Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
• Vanessa Ezenwa, professor of biology at the University of Georgia, will join the Yale Department of Ecology and Environmental Biology in July 2021

In the category of “Rising Stars,” the list included:

• Aileen Fernandez, postdoctoral associate at the Yale School of Medicine
• Brionna Davis-Reyes, postdoctoral fellow at the Yale School of Medicine
• C. Brandon Ogbunu, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology
• Chrystal Starbird, postdoctoral fellow at the Yale School of Medicine
• Jerry Madukwe, postdoctoral research fellow at the Yale School of Medicine
• Keisha Smith, postdoctoral research fellow at the Yale School of Medicine
• Stephen Azariah Allsop, psychiatry resident at the Yale School of Medicine

This summary includes, to our knowledge, all members of the Yale community appearing on the list.