Edward Bouchet

Edward Alexander Bouchet (September 15, 1852 – October 28, 1918) was an American physicist and educator. He was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in any subject from an American university, completing his dissertation in physics at Yale University in 1876. Bouchet was also among the first 20 Americans (of any race) to receive a Ph.D. in physics and was the sixth to earn a Ph.D. in physics from Yale. The Bouchet Graduate Honor Society was co-founded by Yale University and Howard University on September 15, 2005, in commemoration of Bouchet's birthday.

Early life Edward Bouchet was born at home in New Haven, Connecticut to parents William Francis Bouchet and Susan (Cooley) Bouchet in 1852. His father had been brought to New Haven from Charleston, South Carolina in 1824 as the enslaved valet of a young plantation owner and Yale student. William Francis was emancipated by his owner when the latter graduated from Yale, and he then went to work as a janitor and later porter at Yale, and served as a deacon of the Temple Street Church, the oldest black church in the city. Edward's mother took in the laundry of Yale students. Two of his sisters were Fanny Bouchet Turner and Georgie Bouchet. or possibly to Randall Lee Gibson or Moses Simons. He then earned his PhD from Yale in 1876, completing it in just two years. Bouchet's doctoral thesis centered on measuring the refractive indices of various glasses. Word of Bouchet's talents reached Philadelphia and Alfred Cope of the Society of Friends and Institute for Colored Youth. Cope wanted Bouchet to teach at the Center after finishing his studies and paid for his time at Yale in order to facilitate this partnership. Bouchet ranked sixth in his class on graduation from Yale.

Between 1905 and 1908, he was director of academics at St. Paul's Normal and Industrial School in Lawrenceville, Virginia (later St. Paul's College). He was then principal and teacher at Lincoln High School in Gallipolis, Ohio, from 1908 to 1913, when arteriosclerosis forced him to retire.

Death Upon retirement, Bouchet moved back to New Haven. He died there in his childhood home at 94 Bradley Street in 1918 after a six-week illness caused by high blood pressure, at age 66.

The Edward Bouchet Abdus Salam Institute (EBASI) was founded in 1988 by the late Nobel Laureate Professor Abdus Salam under the direction of the founding chairman Charles S. Brown. The current chair of EBASI is Professor Milton Dean Slaughter.

In 2005, Yale and Howard University founded the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society in his name.