Alice Ball

Alice Augusta Ball (July 24 , 1892 – December 31, 1916) was an African-American chemist whose groundbreaking work produced the first effective treatment for Hansen’s disease, better known as Leprosy. She was born in Seattle, Washington, to James Presley Ball Jr. and Laura Louise Ball. Her father was a photographer, journalist, and lawyer, while her mother left a photography career to raise the family. Ball excelled academically, graduating from Seattle High School with strong interests in the sciences.

She continued her education at the University of Washington, earning a pharmaceutical chemistry degree in 1912 and a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy in 1914. During her studies, she co-authored a research paper on benzoylation reactions published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, making her one of the first African-American women to publish in a major scientific journal. Ball earned a scholarship to the College of Hawaiʻi (now University of Hawaiʻi), where she completed a master’s degree in chemistry in 1915, becoming the first woman and first African-American to achieve the degree, and was subsequently appointed as the college’s first female chemistry instructor.

While working in Hawaiʻi, Ball was approached by Dr. Harry T. Hollmann of the Leprosy Investigation Station, who sought help improving the therapeutic use of chaulmoogra oil, a traditional but highly ineffective treatment for leprosy. The disease carried a severe stigma, with patients often being forcibly isolated in remote settlements with horrible conditions. Though chaulmoogra oil had shown potential for centuries, its extreme viscosity and poor absorption made it nearly impossible to administer effectively. Ingested doses caused nausea and vomiting, while injectable forms caused painful lesions under the skin.

Ball’s critical innovation was developing a method to chemically modify chaulmoogra oil’s fatty acids into ethyl esters, making the compound water-soluble and suitable for injection. This process, later called the “Ball Method,” allowed the drug to be absorbed into the bloodstream safely and efficiently, overcoming the problems that had prevented earlier use. By 1920, health authorities in Hawaiʻi reported that many patients who received the Ball Method were able to return home, rather than remain in lifelong quarantine. For more than two decades, the Ball Method was the standard treatment for leprosy worldwide.

Ball died unexpectedly in 1916 at age 24 before she could publish her findings. After her death, others took credit for her work, but later scholarship and institutional recognition restored her legacy. Today, the Ball Method itself is medically obsolete, replaced by modern multidrug therapy; however, the technique marked a turning point between early botanical medicine and modern pharmaceutical chemistry and remains historically significant. Though her life was brief, her innovation dramatically changed medical outcomes and restored dignity and hope to thousands of patients worldwide.