OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — Clarice Phelps said she remembers falling in love with science as a little girl. Little did she know, she'd go on to work on some of the most important projects of her life.
"I always loved science," she said.
Phelps's fascination with the scientific world started in middle school, with two teachers who saw her potential.
"They really inspired me and planted that little seed of the love of science," she said.
She's now a chemist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and not too long ago, she was a part of a team that helped discovered something big.
"We were tasked with purifying the Berkelium 249, which was used in the confirmation of the element 117, which is Tennessine," she said.
Phelps and her colleagues helped confirm the discovery of a new element on the periodic table. The project was a combined effort from ORNL, the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University.
It is an achievement she said wouldn't dawn on her until later.
"At the time you know you're doing it for this project but it's actually a pretty big deal to be on the periodic table," she said.
Not only would she join several others in this global achievement but she'd also learn to break a barrier at the same time.
"It was neat to find out later on that I was the first African-American woman to be associated with the discovery of an element," she said. "It's an accomplishment that I can really be proud of."
However, this wouldn't be her last big win. In July, she was included in the Periodic Table of Younger Chemists, an honor scientists all over the world are considered for.
"I do it because I want little girls to look in the mirror and see themselves being that scientist, being that engineer," she said.
While life as a scientist means the work never stops, Phelps said she's excited to welcome more little ones into the world of science, a place she believes you can thrive no matter where you come from.
"I want to bring that diversity to them and show them scientists can be young, they can be minorities and come from a diverse background," she said.