“If you fight hard, know who you are, and are proud of who you are, you’ve got a good chance of winning” – Walter Lincoln Hawkins
Dr. Walter Lincoln Hawkins was a polymer chemist and engineer who earned a B.S. in chemical engineering and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in chemistry. At a time when people of color were not provided many opportunities in STEM, Hawkins became the first Black person to join the Bell Laboratories technical staff in 1942. He made substantial impacts in the polymer chemistry field through the innovation of a safe cable sheath polymer to replace the lead-based material used in telephone cables. Hawkins was also a major contributor towards advocacy efforts for minorities and engineers who wanted to earn Ph.D.’s through the Bell Laboratories Cooperative Research Fellowship Program. Among many honors and achievements, Hawkins became the first Black engineer to be inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 1975 and was honored with a National Medal of Technology in 1992.