The Vivien Thomas Scholars Initiative welcomed its first 20 doctoral students this fall, ushering in a program to remedy a lack of racial and ethnic diversity in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.
The first cohort of 20 Vivien Thomas Scholars arrives at Johns Hopkins to pursue PhDs as part of an initiative designed to address historic underrepresentation in STEM fields
Just One More | Vivien Thomas: Remembering a Pioneering Legend Feb 04, 2021
A
Vivien Thomas life and legacy are rife with colors – black, white and blue. A poor Black man and grandson of an enslaved person, Thomas was classified as a janitor at Johns Hopkins University but donned a white lab coat and eventually played a crucial role in developing surgical techniques to overcome tetralogy of Fallot, a cause of blue baby syndrome.
Thomas was born in Louisiana in 1910. While he never realized his dream of going to college and medical school, losing his college savings during the Great Depression, he became a scientist and educator and the teacher of many cardiac surgeons who went on to head surgery departments across the U.S.