biology

Lilian Lewis

Lilian Lewis is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lilian Lewis rather than just read about it. In short: Lilian Burwell Lewis (August 13, 1904 – January 19, 1987) was an American zoologist known for being the first African-American woman to receive a doctorate degree from the University of Chicago and for her research in gonadogenesis. On November 8, 1960 she was elected to Winston-Salem Forsyth County School Board where was an advocate of equity and desegregation.

Key takeaways

Lilian Lewis belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lilian Lewis to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lilian Lewis from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Lilian Burwell Lewis (August 13, 1904 – January 19, 1987) was an American zoologist known for being the first African-American woman to receive a doctorate degree from the University of Chicago and for her research in gonadogenesis. On November 8, 1960 she was elected to Winston-Salem Forsyth County School Board where was an advocate of equity and desegregation. She campaigned for equal treatment of children during a time of de facto segregation.

Early life and education Lewis was born Lilian Leonora Burwell in Meridian, Mississippi on August 13, 1904, as the ninth of thirteen children. In 1919 She earned a high school diploma from Tougaloo College before attending Howard University. In 1925 she studied under Ernest Everett Just and graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology. Lewis would then follow in the footsteps of another one of Just's students, Roger Arliner Young to study with Frank Rattray Lillie at the University of Chicago. As a recipient of a General Education Board fellowship, Lewis earned her Master's Degree from the University of Chicago in 1931. She studied in Chicago during the summers and teaching Biology at Tillotson College during the school year. Though her Ph.D. studies were delayed for several reasons – including the financial burden of attending university and the obligation to continue providing for her aging parents, – she completed a doctoral degree in endocrinology in 1946.

Career and research

Teaching Lewis held several teaching appointments throughout her career. She began with short stints as an assistant/associate professor at the State Agriculture and Mechanics College of South Carolina (1926–1929) and Morgan College (1929–1931); both before she began graduate studies. From 1931 to 1947, Lewis taught at Tillotson College to finance her doctoral studies, despite earning two Rosenwald Fellowships from the University of Chicago. After earning her doctorate, Lewis spent the remainder of her career as a full professor and Chairperson of the Natural Sciences Department at Winston-Salem Teacher's College. She retired in 1970. Her research explored gonadogenesis in ducks, cellular differentiation, embryology, and sex hormones.

Public Office On November 8, 1960 Lewis ran for public office in Winston-Salem and was elected to the Forsyth County School Board. As the first Black member of the school board, Lewis was an advocate for the desegregation of schools. Despite Brown v. Board of Education finding school segregation unconstitutional six years earlier, many schools throughout the country were still de facto segregated. Lewis also campaigned for the fair treatment of low-income children regardless of race. Lewis was re-elected in 1962 and would continue to be re-elected until her retirement from the school board in 1970, despite a Republican board majority in 1968.

Published works Lewis, Lillian B. Early Differentiation of the Duck Gonad. Diss. University of Chicago, Department of Zoology, 1931. Lewis, Lillian B. "A Study of Some Effects of Sex Hormones upon the Embryonic Reproductive System of the White Pekin Duck." Physiological Zoology, vol. 19, no. 3, July 1946, pp. 282–329. DOI.org (Crossref), [2]. Lewis, Lillian B., and L. V. Domm. "A Sexual Transformation of the Osseus Bulla in Duck Embryos Following Administration of Estrogen." Physiological Zoology, vol. 21, no. 1, Jan. 1948, pp. 65–69. DOI.org (Crossref), [3]

Personal life At Howard University, Lewis was a member of the Freshman Debate Team in 1922, the Corresponding Secretary of the Alpha Kappa Mu scholarship society and a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. While studying at the University of Chicago, she was a member of the honor societies Sigma Xi and Sigma Delta Epsilon. Lewis married Winston-Salem native John Frank Lewis in 1934. Mr. Lewis was an Education and Psychology professor and Chair of the Winston-Salem College's Education and Psychology Department. Following their retirements, the Lewises established the Lewis Award for Academic Excellence. The award was a $500 prize for the member of the Winston-Salem State graduating class with the highest academic average. The two raised at least one child together. In addition to her school board duties, Lewis was also Chief Judge of the State Spelling Bee. Her 1925 Howard University yearbook quote was: "A winner never quits and a quitter never wins."

Notes

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lilian Lewis

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lilian Lewis claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lilian Lewis before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lilian Lewis ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lilian Lewis

In research: Lilian Lewis appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lilian Lewis in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lilian Lewis is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1904 births, 1987 deaths, 20th-century African-American scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lilian Lewis outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Lilian Lewis” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Lilian Lewis in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lilian Lewis means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lilian Lewis out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lilian Lewis in simple terms?

Why does Lilian Lewis matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lilian Lewis?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lilian Lewis.