George Carver (1864-1943), US agriculturist. Carver is famous for his research on crop rotation and inventing new commercial products from unwanted crops. He was born into slavery, a year before it was abolished. He was the first African-American to receive a Bachelor of Science degree from Iowa State University. In 1896, he became the director of agricultural research at Tuskgee Institute, Alabama, USA. Carver educated farmers in the south to rotate their crops instead of solely growing cotton. He is also well known for the over 300 commercial products he invented from peanuts.