Sampson Henry

American inventor and the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering in the United States. Sampson is associated with the Board of Directors of Los Angeles Southwest College Foundation and is a technical consultant to the Historical Black Colleges and Universities Program. He was a member of the United States Navy between the years 1962 and 1964. Sampson was employed as a research chemical engineer at the U.S. Naval Weapons Center, China Lake, California, in the area of high energy solid propellants and case bonding materials for solid rocket motors. Sampson also served as the Director of Mission Development and Operations of the Space Test Program at the Aeropace Corporation in El Segundo, California. His patents included a binder system for propellants and explosives and a cse bonding system for cast composite propellants. Both inventions are related to solid rocket motors. On July 6, 1971 he was awarded a patent, with George H. Miley, for a gamma-electrical cell, a device that produces a high voltage from radiation sources, primarily gamma radiation, with proposed goals of generating auxiliary power from the shielding of a nuclear reactor. Additionally, the patent cites the cells function as a detector with self power and construction cost advantages over previous detectors. Sampson is a writer and film historian. He wrote the book "Blacks in Black and White: A Source Book on Black Films," which examines often overlooked African American film makers and entertainers from the first half of the 20th Century. In addition he authored "The Ghost Walks: A Chronological History of Blacks in Show Business, 1865-1910." Sampson produces documentary films on African American film makers. In 2005, he published "Singin on the Ether Waves: a Chronological History of African Americans in Radio and Television Programming, 1925-1955" (two vols, 1270 pages), Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland, and Oxford, UK, 2005. Sampson married Laura Howzell Young in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands in June 2007. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less