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Brief
Hayden (1927-1967) was a chemist who specialized in spectrophotometry and chromatography. She's believed to be the first Black scientist to work for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She graduated from South Carolina State College (an HBCU) and earned a Master's degree in Chemistry from Howard University (an HBCU). In the 1950s she joined the National Institutes of Health, and in 1956 she joined the FDA as an analytical chemist. In 1963, she was named director of the Spectrophotometer Research Branch in the Division of Pharmaceutical Chemistry.
Hayden made national headlines when she exposed one of the biggest medical frauds of the era, the Krebiozen hoax, where two Yugoslavian brothers introduced an alleged cancer treatment to the U.S. market, claiming it was created from horse blood and discovered in Argentina. As director, she led the investigation into this expensive treatment. Using infrared spectrophotometry, Hayden and her team proved the drug was nothing more than mineral oil and naturally occurring creatine.
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