"I love my job. It was a childhood dream of mine to be doing TV weather. Since the third grade, this is what I wanted to do. I have a blast up there and I hope it shows," Bryan said. 

Since coming to KMBC 9 NEWS in 1985, Bryan quickly established himself as Kansas City's leading meteorologist. Fun, interaction and community outreach are key ingredients that make Bryan Kansas City's favorite television personality. 

"I never know what to expect when I do an on-location weather report. Spontaneous reactions make my job fun and sometimes very challenging," Bryan said. 

Recently Bryan was appointed to the National Chapter of the American Meteorological Society's Board of Broadcast Meteorologists, and named Chairman for that committee 1997-1998. 
Bryan's awards include: 
*Emmy Awards (1984, 1993, 1998, 2000), NOMINEE (1985, 90, 91, 92, 95, 96, 97, 99, 2000, 2001) 
*Black Achievers Award, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1987) 
*Kansas City Media Professionals Hall of Fame (1991) 
*Ten outstanding young Missourians, Missouri Jaycees (1992)
 *' 100 Most Influential, Kansas City Globe Newspaper (1992-98) 
*Role Model Of the Year -- Kansas City Area Boys and Girls Clubs (2001) 

Bryan's interest in weather began in Cleveland, Ohio when he was a child. As he studied weather, he realized that television was for him. In high school, he broadcast weather reports for two Cleveland-based radio stations. After this beginning in radio, Bryan earned his degree in meteorology from St. Louis University. 

He got his start as a TV weatherman at 17. In 1978 he began working at KTVI, Channel 2 in St. Louis. Though only an intern, he was on the air after only eight weeks at the station as the weekend weathercaster. He remained in St. Louis for eight years before joining KMBC 9 NEWS. 

"I will keep doing TV weather until it is not fun anymore. That is a few more years down the road," Busby laughed. 

A teacher, first and foremost, Bryan enjoys sharing his knowledge about broadcasting and meteorology with student interns. To date, over two dozen broadcasters he has mentored currently employed in various U.S. cities, from Tampa, Fla., to St. Joseph, Mo. 

A natural showman with wit and personality, Bryan's performing is not limited to television. Bryan is also the principal timpanist for the Civic Orchestra of Kansas City performing five or six times a year. Professionally, he is the solo timpanist with the Independence Messiah Festival Orchestra, playing in that group's annual performance of the Messiah at the Community of Christ Auditorium. He even performed with the Moody Blues (at Sandstone), the Kansas City Symphony and the Kansas City Percussion Quartet. He is also a private timpani instructor to many of the area's best student musicians. 

In addition to performing and teaching, Bryan was the Principal Guest Conductor of the Kansas City Youth Symphony, having conducted that group in Yardley Hall at Johnson County Community College, Kemper Arena, the United States Pavilion at the 1992 World's Fair in Seville, Spain, and most recently in Carnegie Hall in New York City. Besides his Youth Symphony activities, Bryan and has appeared as guest conductor at area community orchestras, bands and high schools. 
In addition to his musical abilities, Bryan is known by friends to be a terrific imitator of cartoon voices. As a matter of fact, he is the voice of his own cartoon character Georgie Global, a feature that is now appearing on the Web, television and in newspapers across the country. To further a hobby he began in grade school, Bryan plans to pursue a job doing voice-overs when he retires from broadcasting. 

When Dale Brown Emeagwali was a child, she had dreams of becoming a scientist.

She was studious - always at the top of her class. She had the support of her parents who, though not academicians, encouraged her pursuits, even helping her at home with simple experiments.

Dr. Emeagwali, encountered more than a few obstacles growing up, which she said made her even more determined to become a scientist. She grew up at a time when Black people were told, "You can't do math. We were taught inadvertently, and sometimes directly, that we couldn' t do that," she said. "When a Black child said he wanted to be a doctor, he was slapped upside the head and told to stop being simple."

Drawing from her childhood experiences. Dr. Emeagwali has always maintained that the success of children depends on the character of their parents. 
 

In 1976 she enrolled at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington. She was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy in microbiology, in 1981. 

Professor Emeagwali has contributed to the field of microbiology, molecular biology and biochemistry. Her greatest scientific accomplishments include the discovery of isoenzymes of kynurenine formamidase. The knowledge of this particular enzyme could lead to a better understanding of what causes cancer found in the blood, like leukemia. 

With the sentiment that science is boring which has particularly permeated the minds of young black children, Professor Emeagwali organises and conducts science workshops for 4th to 12th grade inner-city youths as her personal service. 

Dr. Emeagwali, who says that black people are told, "You can't do maths, are taught inadvertently and sometimes directly that we couldn't do that." She is working to reverse the fallacy that science is reserved for geniuses, and says everyone has the ability to master the craft. All that is needed is a spark of interest. 

Dorothy McClendon has been a professional microbiologist for twenty-four years. She received a Bachelor of Science in Biology in 1948 from Tennessee A&I State University. She studies microorganisms, living things too tiny to be seen by the naked eye, such as bacteria and fungi. Some microorganisms are harmful to the body and can cause disease by destroying cells in the body. Others can contaminate liquids and solid materials and cause them to spoil or decay. 

Ms. McClendon coordinates microbial research for the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Command (TACOM) in Warren, Michigan. As a microbiologist, she develops methods to prevent microorganisms from contaminating the fuel and deteriorating military storage material. Currently, she is developing a fungicide, a chemical which will protect storage materials and not harm the people who use them. 

She is a native of Minden, Louisiana, but she moved to Detroit, Michigan in her early teens. There she attended Cass Technical High School where her interest in science developed. In college, she majored in biology at Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State University, and took advanced science courses at Wayne State University, University of Detroit and Purdue University. Before becoming an industrial microbiologist for the Army, she taught in the public schools in Phoenix, Arizona 

Dr. Drew set up and operated the blood plasma bank at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, NY. Drew's project was the model for the Red Cross' system of blood banks, of which he became the first director. Drew resigned his position as director after the US War Department issued a directive stating that blood taken from white donors should not be mixed with blood taken from black donors. Dr. Drew strongly objected, and stated "the blood of individual human beings may differ by blood groupings, but there is absolutely no scientific basis to indicate any difference in human blood from race to race." Dr. Drew also formed Britain's blood bank system. 

A U.S. postage stamp was issued in 1981 to honor Dr. Drew. 

Skip Ellis is a professor of Computer Science, and Director of the Collaboration Technology Research Group at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Clarence "Skip" Ellis was born in 1943 and grew up in a very poor neighborhood of the south side of Chicago. His mother struggled to raise five children by herself. Gangs and violence were common in school. 

At 15, Skip took a job at a local company to help support his family. He was assigned the "graveyard shift," which meant he had to work all night long. His job was to prevent break-ins and, most importantly, not to touch the company's brand new computer! It was 1958 and computers were very expensive and not very common. Since he had lots of free time, he read the computer manuals that came with the machines. He became a self-taught computer expert. One day, there was a crisis at the company. They had an urgent project but had run out of new punch cards. Early computers used punch cards to enter data and without new cards, the project came to a halt. Skip was the only one who knew how to reuse old cards. He changed some settings on the computer and the old cards worked perfectly. He was a hero for a day! This was his first real experience with a computer and it changed his life.

Over the next couple of years, teachers recommended that Skip attend summer programs at local universities. For the first time, Skip met students outside of his neighborhood and became aware of university life. Skip's family couldn't afford to send him to college. But, as he was about to graduate from high school, the pastor in his family's church learned about a scholarship at Beloit College. Beloit is located in Wisconsin, about 100 miles northwest of Chicago. Skip won the scholarship and, in the fall of 1960, arrived on campus. He discovered that he was the only African-American attending the school! Life in south Chicago was hard, but this was much worse. He felt very alone. He soon learned that his classes were much more difficult than any of those at his high school. Everyone seemed smarter, more aware and better educated.
At Beloit, a teacher gave Ellis extra lessons in the subjects that Skip was finding the most difficult, such as English. He studied constantly and had no time to do many of the fun things that other students seemed to enjoy. He even stayed on campus to study during winter and summer breaks. Skip was so sad and lonely that he thought about quitting many, many times. But he knew how proud his mother was of his accomplishments. She had constantly encouraged him, saying, "be your own person and follow your talents." He vowed to stay.

At the beginning of his junior year, a computer was donated to the college. Skip and his chemistry professor were given the task of setting it up. This was the start of the college's computer lab, and it was a big event in Skip's life - he finally felt like he belonged. He worked so long on the new computer that he sometimes slept overnight in the lab.
During this period of time, the civil rights movement was gathering momentum across the country. Skip was especially moved by the non-violent protests of Dr. Martin Luther King. In August of 1963, Skip was one of 250,000 people who went to Washington, D.C., to hear Dr. King give his famous "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. From then on, Skip's passions were computer science and civil rights.
In 1964 he received a BS degree, double major in math and Physics, from Beloit College. Clarence (Skip) Ellis attended graduate school in Computer Science from the University of Illinois where he worked on hardware, software, and applications of the Illiac 4 Supercomputer. Clarence Ellis is the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in Computer Science (1969).

After his Ph.D., he continued his work on supercomputers at Bell Telephone Laboratories. Ellis has worked as a researcher and developer at IBM, Xerox, Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation, Los Alamos Scientific Labs, and Argonne National Lab. His academic experience includes teaching at Stanford University, the University of Texas, MIT, Stevens Institute of Technology, and in Taiwan under an AFIPS overseas teaching fellowship.
Currently, Dr. Ellis is a Professor of Computer Science, and Director of the Collaboration Technology Research Group at the University of Colorado at Boulder. At Colorado, he is a member of the Systems Software Lab, and the Institute for Cognitive Science.

During 1991, he was chief architect of the FlowPath workflow product of Bull S.A. Previously he was the head of the Groupware Research Group within the Software Technology Program at MCC. For the decade prior to joining MCC, he was a research scientist at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center.

Clarence (Skip) Ellis is on the editorial board of numerous journals, and has been an active instigator and leader of a number of computer associations and functions. He has been a member of the National Science Foundation Computer Science Advisory Board; of the University of Singapore ISS International Advisory Board; of the NSF Computer Science Education Committee; and chairman of the ACM Special Interest Group on Office Information Systems (SIGOIS).

          The potato chip was invented in 1853 by George Crum. Crum was a Native American/African American chef at the Moon Lake Lodge resort in Saratoga Springs, New York, USA. French fries were popular at the restaurant and one day a diner complained that the fries were too thick. Although Crum made a thinner batch, the customer was sill unsatisfied. Crum finally made fries that were too thin to eat with a fork, hoping to annoy the extremely fussy customer. The customer, surprisingly enough, was happy - and potato chips were invented! 
Crum's chips were originally called Saratoga Chips and potato crunches. They were soon packaged and sold in New England - Crum later opened his own restaurant. 
William Tappendon manufactured and marketed the chips in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1895. In the 1920s, the salesman Herman Lay sold potato chips to the southern USA (selling the chips from the trunk of his car). In 1926, Laura Scudder (who owned a potato chip factory in Monterey Park, California) invented a wax paper potato chip bag to keep the chips fresh and crunchy - this made potato chips even more popular.