HOWARD UNIVERSITY EARNS R1 STATUS
BY ERICKA BLOUNT
A s a grieving ninth grader in her hometown of Akron, Ohio, Howard University professor Dr. Yanick Rice Lamb, wondered why her stepfather died so young from lung cancer at just 42 years old. He, like many community members, had worked in Akron’s prosperous rubber and tire industry which at its peak produced nearly half of the world’s rubber tires. She found it curious that African Americans had higher rates of cancer and often worked in the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs at the factory. The idea that the rubber companies were at fault haunted her for years.
the personal to the need to tell a wider audience.
Meanwhile in Howard’s Department of Electrical
Lamb and Kim are two of thousands of scholars at Howard University who have helped to buoy Howard to R1 Carnegie Research Activity Classification (ACE), considered to be the highest research level in the United States. Howard is the only historically Black college or university to earn this designation. Out of 4,000 institutions in the U.S. only 187 have this distinction. Dr. Bruce Jones A. Jones, a Howard professor and senior vice president for research, says that research is the third highest generator of revenue for Howard.
Engineering and Computer Science, Dr. Charles Kim was creating a device that can detect brownouts in cities before they happen. The Brownout Detector has been licensed to a data science company. The invention has been implemented and the first city to buy into it is San Diego, along with the help of a corporate partner. The invention is generating revenue – thousands of dollars a year— that goes to Kim as the inventor, Howard, and their corporate partner. This is Howard’s first commercialized invention in the university’s history.
“My sister and I wrote down the names of everyone we knew who had cancer, respiratory problems and autoimmune conditions,” said Dr. Lamb, an award-winning journalist, “We filled a few pages of a stenographer’s notebook.” Lamb started her research journey from that grim finding, writing a three-part series which won the Thomas L. Stokes Award for Best Energy and Environmental Reporting. She is now completing the story for a national audience with Harper Collins book publisher.
There was a singular moment when her questioning moved from
There have been bumps along the way. Howard earned R1 status
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