Alice Ball
Alice Ball went to the University of Washington to study chemistry. Following this, she went to the University of Hawaii, and became the first African-American and the first woman to receive a masters degree in chemistry from the institution (1). Alice studied chaulmoogra oil as a treatment for leprosy. She was able to determine a way to make the active ingredients of the oil to become water soluble in 1915. This allowed the treatment to be easily injected into patients, and became known as the “Ball Method”. This was the significant treatment available for leprosy prior to the production of antibiotics.
References:
Brewster CD. 2018 Feb 28. How the woman who found a leprosy treatment was almost lost to history. Natl Geogr Mag. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/alice-ball-leprosy-hansens-disease-hawaii-womens-history-science.