Dr. 威廉·柯南·戴维斯

Dr. 戴维斯 led a remarkable career as a researcher, food chemist and educator. His career was set in motion when his father took him on a road trip from the family’s home in Valdosta, 乔治亚州, to the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. There, the young 戴维斯 attended a workshop with George Washington Carver and Henry Ford. Seeing African American professors and scientists in action inspired 戴维斯 to become a chemist.

Dr. 戴维斯 created instant mash potatoes, soft-serve ice cream and industrial glue. He standardized medical tests for insulin and growth hormones. 与St一起工作. Philip’s 大学 colleague, the late Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. 拉尼尔·伯德博士. 戴维斯 studied the characteristics of drinking water and co-created the formula for Dasani brand water.

威廉·柯南·戴维斯 was born on August 22, 1926, 在奥克菲, 乔治亚州 to Kince Charles and Laura Jane 戴维斯. He graduated from a segregated high school and went to New York City to further his education. 他和他哥哥住在一起, the late actor and civil rights activist, 澳大利亚戴维斯, and briefly attended the City 大学 of New York (www.ccny.城市大学.edu).

戴维斯 went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Talladega 大学 (Ala.)(塔拉.edu) in 1956 and a Master’s of Science in Organic Chemistry from the Tuskegee Institute (tuskegee.edu) in 1958, where he was a George Washington Carver Research Fellow.

他决心攻读博士学位.D. in research—an extremely difficult goal for a black student at the time. 爱达荷大学(uidaho.edu) was the only institution willing to accept him as a research-track grad student. 他的论文是 A Study of Sloughing in the Potato Tuber (1965).

有Ph值.D. 握在手里，博士。. 戴维斯开始探索人类健康, 研究花粉热抗原, learning radioimmunoassay techniques, and spent nearly 15 years as director of United Medical Laboratories in Portland, 俄勒冈州. He helped establish a free medical clinic in Portland’s Albina neighborhood before relocating to 圣安东尼奥, 德州. 1979年至1982年, 戴维斯 was a research associate in Molecular Pharmacology at the University of 德州 Health Science Center 圣安东尼奥 (uthscsa.edu) and, in 1983, he became a chemistry professor at St. 菲利普学院(阿拉莫.edu/spc).

Dr. 戴维斯 served as department chair of Natural Sciences, starting in 1996. He was named professor emeritus upon his retirement in 2009. In 2012, the college science building was named in his honor, the 威廉·C. 戴维斯科学楼. On the day of the building renaming ceremony, Dr. 戴维斯奖励该学院20美元,000 endowment toward scholarships for science, 技术, 工程, 和数学(STEM)学生. 

戴维斯就读于美国大学.S. Army Officer Training Corps while a student at Talladega 大学. Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, he served during the Korean War and was awarded with a Purple Heart in 1953.