Roger Arliner Young (1898-1964)

R. Arliner Young, zoologist, was born in Clifton Forge. After graduating with a B.A. from Howard University and an M.S. from the University of Chicago, she became the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in zoology when she completed her Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1940. Her research focused on the effects of electromagnetic radiation on marine organisms, and her 1924 article in the journal Science won international attention. For years she taught zoology at Howard and conducted research at the elite Marine Biological Laboratory in MA. She later taught at other historically Black colleges and universities and was a civil rights activist and labor union organizer.