Samuel M. Nabrit

Samuel M. Nabrit, (February 21, 1905 – December 30, 2003) became the first African American to be awarded a doctoral degree from Brown University, the first Morehouse College graduate to earn a Ph.D. and the first African American appointed to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (now the Nuclear Regulatory Commission). He also holds the distinction of being the first African American to serve on the Brown University Board of Trustees.

Dr. Nabrit graduated from Morehouse College in 1925, obtained his master's degree from Brown University in 1928 and received his doctorate in biology from Brown University in 1932. The next four African-American Ph.D. candidates at Brown University were students whom Nabrit taught at Morehouse.

Born on February 21, 1905, in Macon, Georgia, Samuel Milton Nabrit was the son of James M. Nabrit, Sr., a Baptist minister and teacher, and Augusta G. West. One of eight children, all of whom received a college education, Nabrit was elected valedictorian of his high school class in 1921. His brother James Nabrit, Jr., also a graduate of Morehouse College, became the second African-American president of Howard University and Deputy United States Ambassador to the United Nations. He was married to the late Constance Croker.

An accomplished marine biologist, Dr. Nabrit studied the regeneration of the tail fins of injured fish at the Marine Biological Laboratory where he became the second African-American scientist to obtain membership into the Marine Biological Laboratory Corporation. Dr. Nabrit began his teaching career at Morehouse College in 1925 where was a professor of zoology and named Chair of the biology department in 1932. He later became chairman of the biology department at Atlanta University in 1932, and from 1957 to 1955 was dean of the graduate school of arts and sciences at Atlanta University. In 1950, Dr. Nabrit was a research fellow at the University of Brussels in Belgium. The scientific papers Nabrit published, during this period, remained influential in the field for decades. In 1955, he was named the second president of Texas Southern University where he served as president until 1966. Between 1956 and 1962, Nabrit served on [President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s National Science Board

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