The Wesley L. Harris Scientific Society (WLHSS) is a Princeton University student organization founded in the year 2006. Its mission is to increase the number of underrepresented minority researchers in science and technology by creating a supportive and interdisciplinary community for minority engineers and scientists and promoting an appreciation of the scientific and technical excellence within the minority communities.
The organization was founded in 2006 by Professor William A. Massey ’77 of the ORFE Department and Emeka Onodugo *09. Onodugo, the first WLHSS president, received his masters degree in 2009 from the Bendheim School of Finance. Over 25 former members have received a Princeton PhD degree in a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) field and over 30 former members have a Princeton masters or PhD STEM degree.
WLHSS is named after Professor Wesley L. Harris *68 of MIT, who by receiving his PhD in mechanical engineering from Princeton in 1968, became the first African-American ever to receive a Ph.D. from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Princeton University.
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