Cherlynlavaughn Bradley

Bradley was born in Chicago, Illinois.^[1] Her father, Leroy Bradley, worked at Burlington Railroad and her mother, Geneva Bradley, was a musician.^[1] Bradley attended St Matthew's Catholic School and became interested in science when she was given a Gilbert Chemistry set.^[1] She took a course in advanced placement chemistry and went on to study chemistry and Illinois Wesleyan University.^[1] She was the only African-American student and graduated magna cum laude in 1973, and went on to study inorganic chemistry at graduate school.^[2] At Northwestern University, Bradley was, again, the only African-American woman in the department. She worked on polymer semiconductors and linear permethylpolysilanes.^[3] She earned her PhD in 1978.^[1][4]

Bradley joined Standard Oil in 1977, which later became Amoco.^[1] She worked on elemental detection for sulfur compounds. She was nominated to join the American Society for Testing and Materials and led the gas chromatography study group.^[1] The group included Amoco, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron Corporation, Mobil and Marathon Oil.^[1] She was likely the only African-American woman with a PhD to work at Amoco, and made efforts to mentor young women.^[1]

She developed a Microwave plasma gas chromatography detector that could detect trace elements.^[1] She worked with Hewlett-Packard to develop a small version of the equipment.^[1] She was recognised for her ability to determine polymer contaminants. She was a member of the American Chemical Society's Project SEED, an organisation that brought students from economically disadvantaged background to Amoco for the summer.^[1][4] She mentored girls for the Girl Scouts of the USA chemistry award.^[1][4] Bradley was a member of the American Chemical Society's Women Chemists committee.^[5] She died after a short illness on August 30, 2014.^[1][6]