Dr. Willie May: Lessons in Scientific Discovery, Leadership and Opening Doors for Others
Before Dr. Willie May led one of the nation’s premier scientific institutions, a high school chemistry teacher helped him imagine a future he had never seen. Growing up in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, May had never met a practicing chemist until Mr. Frank Cook introduced him to the field. Cook gave five students college-level instruction during their study periods over three years—and, more importantly, the confidence to pursue science.
In a candid conversation with the Sandra Lee Heyman STEM Fellows earlier this year, May traced that teacher’s influence through a career spanning laboratory discovery, national scientific leadership and mentoring new generations.
May earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry and mathematics at Knoxville College and his doctorate in analytical chemistry at the University of Maryland, College Park. After encountering racial barriers and limited opportunities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in 1971 he accepted a temporary position at the National Bureau of Standards, now known as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
That opportunity transformed into a 45½-year career in which he served at every research and leadership level, eventually becoming NIST director and Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology. He also served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest scientific society.
Although NIST was far from diverse when he arrived, May said he found an environment where the strength of his ideas and the quality of his work could open doors.
Students’ questions brought May back to the laboratory, where he recalled the excitement of tackling problems without ready-made solutions. One major project took him to Alaska repeatedly to help establish baseline levels of petroleum hydrocarbons before completion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. His team developed new measurement techniques to document environmental conditions, producing data later used to assess damage from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Other projects ranged from measuring carcinogenic pollutants to developing methods for detecting whether meat had been irradiated and examining security markers on currency.
Working alongside talented colleagues to solve difficult problems, he said, made laboratory research among the happiest periods of his career.
The transition into management was less comfortable. Appointed as a division chief at 35, May initially wanted to return to hands-on science. A senior leader challenged him to take seriously his ability to bring people together, prompting a change in how he understood his contribution. Over time, personal publication goals gave way to May’s focus on helping younger scientists develop ideas, earn recognition and build careers.
He connected that approach to lessons learned as a baseball and softball team captain: collective success mattered more than individual accolades. Effective leadership, he told the Fellows, means understanding what different people need, supporting them and holding them accountable.
That commitment now shapes his work at Morgan State University, where he has helped strengthen research capacity and advance the institution’s pursuit of “R1” research status, considered as an elite higher education institution. May described empowering faculty, expanding opportunities for students and bringing accomplished scientists—including Nobel Physics laureate Dr. William Phillips—into mentoring roles.
He explained his motivation in personal terms: arriving on campus, he sees young people who remind him of himself decades earlier. Across his work, he emphasized that scientific excellence depends on recognizing and developing talent from every background, including people whose potential might otherwise go unrealized.
For Fellows considering their own futures, May recommended internships as a way to move career ideas “from the abstract to reality,” meet practicing scientists and discover whether the work suits them. He reassured students that it is never too late to seek those experiences and that deciding to pursue a different direction is a useful outcome.
As scientific fields increasingly overlap, he urged them to learn broadly and remain adaptable: education prepares people to keep learning and apply their knowledge to new problems. Despite uncertainty about research funding and technological change, May expressed confidence that society will continue to need bright, diligent young people—and people capable of using AI thoughtfully as a tool.
The Sandra Lee Heyman Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established in memory of Sandra Lee Heyman, a long-time mathematics teacher at the elementary, middle school, high school, and community college levels. The 18-month long Fellowship is aimed at promising high school students who have the opportunity to meet with STEM leaders, visit prominent institutions in the Washington, D.C., area, and access peers and mentors to support career exploration in STEM fields. There are multiple ways to support the Fellowship program, and donations to the Foundation are tax deductible.