Clarice Phelps

Clarice Phelps

Clarice Evone Phelps is an American nuclear chemist researching the processing of radioactive transuranic elements at the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). She was part of ORNL's team that collaborated with the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research to discover tennessine (element 117).

Quotes

• For the first 18 years of my career, I was the only Black woman in my field. When I was in the Navy, I was the only Black girl in my division. Afterwards in my lab, I was the only Black woman in the whole facility – and initially they thought I was the janitor.
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• You feel like you have to represent your entire race and descend the racial stereotypes … especially in nuclear and radiochemistry.
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• I thought about me — as a little girl, desperately looking for someone like me in science who was an inspiration, and it changed my perspective.
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