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Lloyd Noel Ferguson was born on February 9, 1918 in Oakland, California. Like many during the Great Depression, his family lost everything and had to start over. He was able, however, to buy a chemistry set when he was about 12 years old and began to experiment in a shed that he built in his backyard. While he was in high school, he developed some useful products such as moth repellent, spot remover, and silver polish, which he sold. His high school chemistry teacher recognized his ability and encouraged him to go to college to pursue chemistry as a career.
After Ferguson graduated from high school, he worked as a porter for the Southern Pacific Railway Company to save enough money to enroll at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned a B.S. degree in chemistry in 1940 and a Ph.D. degree in 1943. He was the first African American to earn a doctoral degree in chemistry there. While at Berkeley, he worked with Melvin Calvin's team to develop a hemoglobin type of compound that could quickly and reversibly gain and lose oxygen. The Monsanto Company continued the development and manufactured large quantities of this material for use in submarines as a source of oxygen.
Lloyd Ferguson married Charlotte Welch shortly before he left California to accept a position in the chemistry department of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, North Carolina. About two years later, he accepted a position at Howard University in Washington, DC and remained there until 1965. While at Howard, he published two chemistry texts, was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship, became chair of the chemistry department, and began to research the sense of taste. During his chairmanship, he established the first doctoral program in chemistry at any black college or university.
Ferguson later joined the chemistry department of the California State University in Los Angeles and was also chair of that department for three years. Here he worked on programs to recruit more pre-college and college minority students into the sciences. In addition, he was a founder of the National Organization of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers, and he chaired the ACS Division of Chemical Education in 1980.
Lloyd Noel Ferguson retired from the California State University in Los Angeles in 1986.
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