Carolyn Parker

Portrait of Carolyn Parker painted using the second colour palette of Huely*.

Carolyn Parker was a physicist, and in fact the first African-American woman to receive a graduate degree in physics. She also worked on the top secret Manhattan Project, centered around working with the radioactive element polonium in the effort to find an initiator for the atomic bomb. She aimed to get a PhD, but was unable to complete it due to leukaemia, which she thought she might have been caused due to her work with polonium. She passed away from leukaemia at the age of 47.

* Huely is a limited colour palette challenge I run during July. The name is the combination of Hue (colour) and the month its held (July). For each image I use a maximum of 5 colours (+ black and white) to paint my images.