September 4: Lewis Latimer, a major African American inventor and draftsman, was born on September 4, 1848, in Massachusetts. He joined the US Navy at age 16 in 1864, serving until the end of the Civil War, at which time he was honorably discharged. Following his time in the Navy, Latimer began working a menial job in a patent law office, where he taught himself drafting and mechanical drawing. The firm then promoted him to draftsman. In addition to working as a draftsman, Latimer also began working on his own inventions, including a patent for an improved toilet system for railroad cars. In 1876, Latimer went to work for Alexander Graham Bell, and he assisted in drafting the design for the telephone patent. In 1879, he began working at US Electric Lighting Company, a rival of Thomas Edison, where he invented a modification for making carbon filaments for lightbulbs. In 1884, he went to work for Thomas Edison, where he wrote a book on electrical lighting. During this period, he continued inventing things, such as a forerunner of an air conditioner. When not working, Latimer also taught English, mechanical engineering, and drawing to new immigrants at the Henry Street Settlement House in New York City. Latimer died in 1928, and you can read more about him here and here.
September 10: Argentinian American physicist Juan Maldacena, known for his contributions to string theory and quantum gravity, was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on September 10, 1968. His undergraduate education was completed at the University of Buenos Aires and the Instituto Balseiro before he completed his PhD in physics at Princeton University. After completing his post-doc at Rutgers, he worked at Harvard University before moving to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where he has been employed since 2001. His work in theoretical physics focuses on quantum gravity and string theory. He has investigated the properties of black holes using string theory. He also studies the connection between strings and quantum fields and has studied the application of string theory to cosmology. Maldacena has received a number of awards for his work, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 1999, the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2012, the Albert Einstein Medal in 2018, and the Lorentz Medal in 2018. You can learn more about his work and read his publications here and here.
September 18: On September 18, 1980, Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, a cosmonaut, became the first Latin American, first Cuban, and first person of African descent to fly in space, as part of the Soyuz 38 mission. Born in 1942 in Baracoa, Cuba, he began working at the age of 13 as a shoeshine and vegetable vendor, he participated in the Cuban Revolution as a young man, joining the Association of Young Rebels and the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces. He certified as a combat pilot and served in the Cuban forces in Vietnam for two years. In 1978, he was selected for the Intercosmos program, a Soviet space program intended to promote cooperation among socialist nations. On September 18, 1980, Yuri Romanenko and he participated in the Soyuz 38 space mission, where they studied the cause of space adaptation syndrome and the crystallization of sucrose in microgravity. Méndez later became the Director of International Affairs in the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces and has served as a deputy in the Cuban National Assembly. You can learn more about his life here and here.
September 21: On September 21, 2009, France A. Córdova, an astrophysicist and academic, was confirmed as a member of the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents. Born in Paris to Irish-American and Mexican-American parents, Córdova completed her undergraduate education at Stanford University, and she received her PhD from the California Institute of Technology in physics in 1979. She began her career at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and became department head of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University in 1989. In 1993, Córdova was appointed NASA Chief Scientist, the first woman to serve in that role. Following her time at Nasa, Córdova became a higher education administrator, serving as a Vice Chancellor of Research and eventually Chancellor of the University of California, Riverside. In 2007, Córdova was appointed as the President of Purdue University, the first woman to serve as president of that institution, where she served until 2012. In 2014, Córdova became head of the National Science Foundation, where she served until 2020. Since 2021, she has served as president of the Science Philanthropy Alliance, a nonpartisan network dedicated to advancing investment in science. You can learn more about Córdova here and here.