BHS Day 16: William A. Hinton

Hi! I realized we hadn't had any Medical contributions to this year's series yet, so it was time to feature someone primarily in that field. I'm really happy with today's choice; throughout the couple of years I've been doing this series, I hadn't heard of him before. I love days like this, when I choose someone based on a couple of accolades and the fact that I hadn't heard of them before, but then find out that they'd done so much more than I'd assumed. Let's learn about today's entrant!

Name: William Augustus Hinton, 1883-1959
Profession: Medical researcher, pathologist, professor

Why is the Spotlight on him today? For his groundbreaking work in the medical and education industries

Notables and accomplishments:
--Was the first African-American to publish a medical textbook, which later became an acclaimed body of work --Developed a diagnostic test for syphilis, later named the Davies-Hinton test --Was widely regarded as an expert on syphilis diagnosis and wrote a number of scientific papers on the subject
--Won the Wigglesworth scholarship two years in a row while obtaining his doctorate from Harvard
--Was a life member of the American Social Science Association
--Was an assistant lecturer at Harvard and taught preventative medicine and hygiene --Later in life, was offered the position of clinical professor at Harvard, making him the first African-American to receive such an offer --Graduate of both University of Kansas and Harvard University
--Was physician-in-chief of the clinical laboratories department at the Boston Dispensary --Was the namesake of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Laboratory Institute serology lab building --Created the Dwight D. Eisenhower Scholarship Fund --Served as director of the laboratory used by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health --Helped open the lab department to women by creating a program that helped train women to be lab technicians --Was a special consultant to the US Public Health Service --Was a professor at Tufts University and Simmons College --Is the namesake of an award given out by the American Society of Microbiology
Research resources and further reading links: PBS | Kentake Page | ASM
Quote of the Day: (this one is unrelated because I couldn't find one by either today's entrant or one said about him)
"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed." 
--Booker T. Washington