January 5

Science Giants: George Washington Carver, Jr.

On this day in 1943, George Washington Carver, Jr., an outstanding innovator in the agricultural sciences, died. Born into slavery on a small Missouri farm, Carver earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in science from Iowa State College during the 1890s and later taught at Tuskegee Institute of Technology in Alabama.

Carver discovered hundreds of industrial uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes, soybeans, pecans, and other plants. Carver's discoveries include using agricultural products to make synthetic rubber, bleach, paper, ink, and more than 500 dyes and pigments.