Bettye Washington Greene

Bettye Washington Greene (March 20, 1935 – June 16, 1995) was an American industrial research chemist. She was one of the first few African American women to earn her Ph.D. in chemistry and she was the first African American female Ph.D. chemist to work in a professional position at the Dow Chemical Company. At Dow, she researched latex and polymers.

Early life

Bettye Washington was born to George Washington and Kian Criss in Palestine, Texas, where she attended Our Lady of Mercy Elementary School and James E. Guinn Junior High School. She also taught undergraduate chemistry at this time. Her doctoral dissertation, "Determination of particle size distributions in emulsions by light scattering" was published in 1965.

Personal life She married Veteran Air Force Captain William Miller Greene in July 1955. She had three children: Willetta Greene Johnson, Victor M. Greene, and Lisa Kianne Greene. She was elected to Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society. She had no siblings.

Career Dow Chemical

In 1965, Greene joined the Dow Chemical Company's E. C. Britton Research Laboratory in Midland, Michigan. She was the first African-American woman to join the company in a professional position. At Dow, she researched colloid and latex chemistry, including interactions between latex and paper.

In 1970, Greene was promoted to senior research chemist at Dow Chemical. In 1973, she joined Dow Chemical's Designed Polymers Research Division, again working with latex, to find polymers that could improve latex. She published several papers studying different properties that lend to the redispersement of latex. She also published work studying methodologies for determining the surface tension of liquids or solutions. She left Dow Chemical in 1990.

Greene filed for several patents during her career at Dow Chemical. In 1985, she was issued a patent entitled "Stable latexes containing phosphorus surface groups" describing a method of preparing a paper coating composition comprising the addition of from about 2 to about 30 percent of a modified latex containing phosphorus surface groups. In 1986, she was issued a follow-up patent entitled "Composite sheet prepared with stable latexes containing phosphorus surface groups" also employing emulsion polymerization techniques for preparing modified latex. In 1990, Greene was issued a patent entitled "Latex based adhesive prepared by emulsion polymerization" for the invention of a latex based pressure sensitive adhesive for coating conventional substrates to form an adhesive tape.

After decades of contribution to the science of polymers, she died in Midland on June 16, 1995. The Midland chapter was chartered in 1984.

Acknowledgements 28 years following her death, the National Historical Chemical Landmark (NHCL) was awarded to Greene by The American Chemical Society (ACS). The celebration, which took place on October 27, 2023, was held at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.

Patents Greene held a number of US patents including a latex-based adhesive using a carboxylic acid copolymerizing agent, and latex polymers with phosphates used as coatings:

4968740: Latex-based adhesive prepared by emulsion polymerization 4609434: Composite sheet prepared with stable latexes containing phosphorus surface groups 4506057: Stable latexes containing phosphorus surface groups