Ernest Everett Just

1925

Ernest Everett Just was the first African American �ֲ��ý student then course instructor, then he remained an �ֲ��ý investigator for decades. Just studied the processes by which sea urchin eggs are fertilized, working with the �ֲ��ý’s second director Frank Lillie to receive his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1916.

Sea urchin

Wikimedia Commons²

Egg cells normally begin differentiating and dividing when fertilized by sperm. But how? Just joined �ֲ��ý researchers Lillie and Jacques Loeb in exploring and arguing about their different ideas related to this question. Just closely studied the point at which fertilization begins, when the sperm cell joins the egg. He built on his findings for his well-received 1939 book, The Biology of the Cell Surface..

Stages of sperm penetration

Just 1939³

Just 1939³

�ֲ��ý Rare Books Collection

Just enjoyed life at the �ֲ��ý, but as the only African-American scientist, he faced considerable prejudice in the US academic world. Despite winning prestigious awards, he was not offered faculty or research positions commensurate with his abilities. With limited opportunities in the US, he traveled to Europe, where he felt more welcome at first, though WWII changed attitudes there and he returned to the US for a short time until his death in 1941.

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1. Still Image: "Ernest Everett Just", 6/8/2012, .

2. Wikimedia Commons contributors, "File:Red Sea Urchin by Lawson Harbour.png," Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository, (accessed October 11, 2021).

3. Just, Ernest Everett. The Biology of the Cell Surface. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston’s Son & Co., Inc., 1939, p. 165. .

4. Still Image: “EE Just pitching horseshoes", 5/15/2012, .

5. Still Image: "Ernest Everett Just", 2012-06-11, .

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