The Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Award was established in 2013 by Dr. Curtis L. Patton. A United States Army veteran, Patton earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Michigan State University in Microbiology. Patton joined the Yale University Faculty in 1970 as assistant professor of Microbiology and retired from Yale in 2006. In January 2013, an Endowment Agreement between Michigan State University and Dr. Patton resulted in the establishment of The Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Award.
The award is named in honor of Edward A. Bouchet (1852-1918), who became the first African American to earn a doctorate from an American university when he earned a Ph.D. in Physics from Yale University in 1876. Dr. Patton has been long committed to Bouchet’s legacy. The 2004 recipient of the Edward A. Bouchet Leadership Award Medal, he recalls that he was first introduced to Bouchet’s monumental accomplishments when he was a freshman at Fisk University by Mathematics Professor Lee Porch.
In honor of Bouchet, the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Award seeks to enhance financial support for Ph.D. students at MSU who demonstrate the kind of achievement, intellectual and emotional courage Bouchet exhibited.