JAMES ELLIS LU VALLE Biography - Famous Scientists

 
 

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JAMES ELLIS LU VALLE

Name: James Ellis Lu Valle                                                       
Bron: 10 November 1912                                                           
Died: 30 January 1993                                                           
                                                                                 
Olympic athlete and scientist James Ellis Lu Valle was born in San Antonio,     
Texas on November 10, 1912 but grew up in Los Angeles where he made use of a     
library card even before entering elementary school. Academics was always       
uppermost in his mind despite the fact that as a track star at the University of 
California at Los Angeles and not on athletic scholarship - he won the bronze   
medal in the 400-meter dash at the historic 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany.   
Upon graduating Phi Beta Kappa, Lu Valle was elected the first president of UCLA's
Graduate Student Association and earned his master's degree in chemistry.       
Studying under the renowned Linus Pauling, Lu Valle obtained his doctorate at   
the California Institute of Technology in 1940 then briefly taught chemistry at 
Fisk University.                                                                 
                                                                                 
From 1941 to 1953 Lu Valle was employed as a chemist doing research on color     
photography for the Eastman Kodak Company, thus becoming the first African       
American in its laboratories. Subsequently, he worked on research projects at   
Technical Operations Inc., Fairchild Camera & Instrument Corporation, SMC       
Corporation, and Smith Corona Marchant Laboratories. An expert in electron       
diffraction, photochemistry, magnetic resonance, solid state physics, and       
neurochemistry and the chemistry of memory and learning, from 1975 until he     
retired in 1984 Lu Valle was laboratory administrator for the chemistry         
department at Stanford University. In March 1985 he was paid the unique honor of 
having the new student center at UCLA named Lu Valle Commons. He died January   
30, 1993 in Te Anau, New Zealand.