RutgersRevolutionaries Rutgers people and innovations that have changed lives around the world RutgersRevolutionaries Rutgers people and innovations that have changed lives around the world Throughout our 250-year history, Rutgers University has produced world- renowned authors and artists, soldiers and scientists, governors, senators, and Supreme Court justices. Among these men and women are individuals who have been truly revolutionary—courageous students, professors, and alumni whose ideas and actions have changed the world. These Rutgers Revolutionaries include inventors, civil rights leaders, and other members of the university community who have been responsible for everything from medical breakthroughs and genome sequencing to prison reform and improving airplane safety. They range from an 18th-century mapmaker who fought for our nation’s independence to a 21st-century undergraduate engineer who used a 3-D printer to build a “special hand” for a young girl born with a rare disability. Being a member of the Rutgers community is being part of a proud tradition of visionaries who have had a profound impact on our state, our nation, and our world. We hope their stories will inspire others to follow their lead. The Editors, Rutgers Today Produced by the Rutgers University Department of University Communications and Marketing, Rutgers University Libraries, and Rutgers University Alumni Association RutgersRevolutionaries | 1 RutgersRevolutionaries 4 36 Paul Robeson: Donald Roden: Renaissance Man Fought 20 Professor Founded a 52 Injustice Selman Waksman: Prison-to-College Program That Oscar Schofield and the Nobel Prize Winner Advanced Provides a Second Chance Marine Team: the Golden Age of Antibiotics A New World Underwater 8 39 Joachim Messing: Thomas Nosker: Feeding the World 23 Recycled Plastic Lumber 56 Bill Rasmussen: Invented by Professor George McLaughlin: Alumnus Founded ESPN, Fought for Civil Rights at a Creating First 24-Hour TV Woolworths Lunch Counter Network 10 42 Christian Lambertsen: Julia Baxter Bates: Alumnus Was a Father of 26 Proving the Scientific Case for 59 Scuba Gear Mary I. Bunting: Public School Desegregation James Dale: Dean Led Coeducation Fight Alumnus Put a Spotlight on at Top Universities Discrimination against Gays 13 46 Katherine Lau: Michael Gottlieb: A New Hand for Hailey 30 Alumnus First Identified AIDS 62 Peter Rodino: Simeon De Witt: Alumnus Championed Letters from the Revolutionary the Constitution War 16 49 Constantine Sarkos: Amanda O’Keefe: Alumnus Leads the FAA’s 33 Law Student Untangles Web 66 Effort to Reduce Airliner Oscar Auerbach: of Services for the Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Fire Hazards Professor Proved the Developmentally Disabled Former Rutgers Law Professor Case against Tobacco Use Led the Campaign for Gender Equality 2 | RutgersRevolutionaries RutgersRevolutionaries | 3 Paul Robeson: Renaissance Man Fought Injustice Scholar, athlete was renowned international entertainer and human rights advocate. BY ROYA RAFEI It would have been easier for Paul Robeson to “I am not being tried for whether I am a denounce the Communist party. Communist. I am being tried for fighting for the Throughout the late 1940s and well into the 1950s, the internationally renowned singer was rights of my people, who are still second-class branded a Communist sympathizer, a “Red” citizens in this United States of America.” during the height of the Cold War. His concerts in the U.S. were canceled; record companies —Paul Robeson before the House Un-American Activities dropped him; and the government revoked his Committee, June 12, 1956 passport, denying him the ability to perform abroad. By the time Robeson, a 1919 Rutgers grad- “I am not being tried for whether I am a Paul Leroy Robeson uate and distinguished student, was summoned Communist,” he told the House Un-American is one of the most to appear before the House Un-American Ac- Activities Committee on June 12, 1956. “I am well-known tivities Committee in June 1956, he had already being tried for fighting for the rights of my graduates of lost his reputation, his livelihood, and much of people, who are still second-class citizens in this Rutgers. The future his income. United States of America.” singer, actor, orator, Yet, he refused to back down and say if he Robeson went on to boldly declare to the and civil rights was a member of the Communist party. committee members: “You are the non-patriots, activist excelled “It was the principle,” says Junius Williams, and you are the un-Americans, and you ought both as a scholar founding director of the Abbott Leadership to be ashamed of yourselves.” and an athlete Institute at Rutgers University–Newark, which A decade earlier, Robeson was one of the during his four teaches parents, students, and the community most revered figures of the time, selling out years “on the to advocate for a quality education at Newark concert halls and theaters. If you try to compare banks.” The image schools. “He felt his rights were being violated; he a famous contemporary to Robeson, you won’t at left is Robeson’s had the Constitutional right of free association.” be able to find one, says Edward Ramsamy, senior portrait in Not only did Robeson refuse to say whether chair of the Department of Africana Studies the 1919 Scarlet he was a member of the Communist party, but in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers Letter yearbook. he also admonished the committee for running University–New Brunswick. a witch hunt. 4 | RutgersRevolutionaries RutgersRevolutionaries | 5 Robeson as Brutus Jones in the 1933 film version of The Emperor Jones. “Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, and I’m going to stay here and have a part of it just like you,” Robeson replied. “And no fascist-minded people will drive me from it.” Although Robeson is arguably Rutgers’ most famous alumnus, he is less well known beyond the university. Forty years after his death, Robe- son is being remembered in various ways. Steve McQueen, who directed best-picture Oscar winner 12 Years a Slave, announced in 2014 that he’s planning a movie on Robeson’s life. Locally, Ramsamy has launched the Paul Robeson Distinguished Lecture series. Additionally, the Class of 1971 has proposed Robeson running “There are people who have elements of He attended Rutgers in New Brunswick on Robeson waves to who has made marked contributions in the a design and is raising funds to build the Paul the ball against the him, in terms of his activism and in terms of his a full scholarship, becoming the university’s the crowd at a scholarly world, the athletic world, the political Robeson Plaza, expected to be located near Newport Naval internationalism,” Ramsamy says, “but in terms third black student and its first black football 1959 rally against world—both domestic and international. His Voorhees Mall on the College Avenue Campus. Reserve in 1917. of the breadth and scope of his work and his player. He endured discrimination not only nuclear armament, achievements are truly remarkable.” The goal is to unveil the tribute on June 10, courageous activism, I think he’s unparalleled.” from opposing teams—some refused to take organized by the Robeson and his family eventually moved 2019, on the 100th anniversary of Robeson’s Robeson not only stood up for the injustices the field with Robeson—but also from his own British Peace to England, which began a transformative time oration at graduation, according to organizer that African Americans faced, but also was able teammates. He was one of the first African Committee, London. for him, Ramsamy says. There, he met African Jim Savage, who chairs the Class of 1971 45th to empathize and connect with other people’s Americans to be named a college football nationalist leaders and began to link the black Milestone Campaign Committee. And in 2016, struggles, Ramsamy says. He funded Jews escap- All-American. He also earned more than a experience in America with the emerging Afri- Rutgers University–New Brunswick launched ing Nazi Germany, spoke out against the fascists dozen varsity letters from four sports. Robeson can struggles for nationalism. He also connected the Paul Robeson Leadership Institute, a four- in the Spanish Civil War, campaigned against was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the with the English working class and spoke out year program designed to recruit and support colonialism in African countries, and stood with Rutgers honor society, Cap and Skull. against fascism. Robeson criticized how blacks first-generation and low-income college-bound laborers in the United States. After Rutgers, Robeson went to Columbia were portrayed by Hollywood. His fame allowed students. “He identified with the most important Law School, where he earned his law degree. him to travel the world, including the Soviet “He was a powerful black man,” says issues of freedom and social justice of his time, He left the profession after a white secretary at Union, where he didn’t experience the bigotry Williams. “He had pride in himself and was a and he practiced what he preached,” says a New York law firm refused to take dictation he did at home. student of history and politics. He knew he had Norman Markowitz, an associate professor from him. “In Russia, I felt for the first time like a to speak out against injustices in the U.S. and of history in the School of Arts and Sciences. On the advice of his wife, Eslanda, he pur- full human being,” Robeson told the House other places. He believed in change that would “His commitment to the major revolutionary sued acting, initially performing at local theaters Un-American Activities Committee. “No color affect the status quo and how people of color movements of modern history—the movements before landing the lead in 1924 in Eugene prejudice like in Mississippi, no color prejudice were treated in the U.S.