Annie Easley And Luis Miramontes

 Annie Easley 

    Annie Easley was born in Birmingham Alabama in the 1930's, a time where segregation was still prominent and African American children were educated separately. Annie's mom told her that she could do whatever she wanted to with her life she would just need to work hard to get her education, and that is what Annie did, as she graduated as valedictorian. In her adult life she moved to Cleveland at the time she didn't know anybody there or have any connections. In 1995 she read an article about two sisters who were "computers" for NACA and she decided to apply-two weeks later she was offered the job. She worked for the NACA in the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory as a mathematician and a computer engineer. While working here she was able to develop a computer code that analyzed ways of alternative power, which lead to finding ways to solve energy problems. She was one of four African Americans that worked for this branch that had 2500 employees at the time and to help further herself she continued to go to school to advance her knowledge so that she would be able to advance in her career. Today we can stop bias from happening by making sure that we allow everyone an opportunity in these positions and not keeping it to a select few. Ideas can come from anywhere and we never know who will come up with the next idea to change the world, by limiting who is able to participate, we are limiting our ability to advance. 

Luis Miramontes 

        Luis Miramontes was born in Mexico in 1925, which was the wake of the Mexican Revolution. At a young age he decided on a career in science and in 1940 he began studying in Mexico City. At the time the Mexican Company, Syntex, was working on producing hormones at a low cost to treat different types of diseases. They used a Mexican yam to help produce these hormones, and in 1949 Luis was assigned to a group to work on this project through his university. His group was able to find out that they might be able to help prevent pregnancy from happening through the properties of the yam and the technology they developed by trying different formulas with it. Unfortunately an American company was able to publish their findings first and they got all of the credit for it. He was very modest and did not write about his contributions, others did and that is why we know his story today. He was overshadowed by an American company and got little credit for all of the advancements he made in technology. Today we can get rid of the bias by making sure the information we collect is correct and that we give credit to everyone involved in a project. We need to make sure we are showing the truth and not changing the narrative.