LOS ANGELES (February 10, 2000) -- At a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Feb. 14, a portrait of Keith L. Black, M.D., will be unveiled and added to The National Academies' portrait collection of African Americans who have made outstanding contributions to science, engineering and medicine.
Dr. Black is being recognized for his pioneering research in brain cancer and his blood-brain barrier discoveries that enable anti-cancer drugs to be delivered directly into a tumor.
The treatment and research center founded at Cedars-Sinai by Dr. Black in 1997, the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute, employs about 20 scientists who are unlocking the biologic secrets of tumors and the immune system. With these breakthroughs, the researchers create novel approaches designed to halt cancer cells' ability to proliferate.
This is the 14th annual program hosted by The National Academies, which is comprised of The National Academy of Sciences, The National Academy of Engineering, The Institute of Medicine, and The National Research Council. Former astronaut Bernard Harris will be this year's keynote speaker. He, along with Dr. Aprille Joy Ericsson-Jackson from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, will focus on outstanding achievements of African Americans in the space program. They also will emphasize the importance of supporting and encouraging students to consider careers in science and engineering.
Dr. Black, who has had a lifelong passion for learning, now shares his enthusiasm for scientific research with selected students from the Los Angeles Unified School District. He and his colleagues at the Institute host an annual program for about 120 seventh- and eighth-graders at a program called Brainworks. This program provides an opportunity for students interested in science to see and experience for themselves the excitement of performing scientific research.
Through this and other educational opportunities, Dr. Black hopes to "expose as many young minds as we can to how exciting science is -- and especially how fascinating the brain is."
In addition to Dr. Black, Garrett Augustus Morgan and George Carruthers will be honored at this year's ceremony. Morgan, who lived from 1877 to 1963, was an inventor whose most noted works included the traffic light and the gas mask. Carruthers, an engineer and astrophysicist at the Naval Research Laboratory, specializes in building instruments that detect radiation from astronomical objects and from Earth's upper atmosphere.
The ceremony will be held from 10:30 a.m. to noon on Monday in the auditorium of The National Academy of Sciences Building in Washington, D.C. Although Dr. Black's schedule does not allow him to attend the unveiling, he said he is pleased and grateful to The National Academies for bestowing this honor.
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