CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Honoring Diversity in Science
Walter Massey, PhD (1938-); Former President AAAS and Former
Director, NSF
A native of rural Mississippi, Massey was able to attend
college due to a Ford Foundation initiative to give African
Americans from the south a chance at a college education.
He entered Morehouse College at the age of 16 where he
would graduate with honors, and later completed graduate
studies at Washington University in St. Louis where he earned
his PhD in physics in 1966. Massey then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Argonne Laboratories in Chicago where
he studied the properties of liquid helium at low temperatures.
After his first academic position at Brown University, where he
was appointed full professor, Massey returned to Argonne as
the director. In 1987, Massey became the first AfricanAmerican to be elected president of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science and in 1990 he became the
second African-American selected to head the NSF. Since
1995, Massey has been president of his alma mater,
Morehouse College.
Jewell Plummer Cobb, PhD (1924-); Cancer Researcher, Educator
Jewell Plummer grew up in a family with a rich tradition of
education and science: her grandfather was a pharmacist and her
father a physician. After obtaining her PhD from NYU in 1950 and
completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Cancer
Institute in 1952, Plummer married Roy Cobb with whom she’d
later have a son. In 1955, she began a 21-year research career
that focused on mechanisms of inhibition of tumor cell division and
the role of melanin in protection from UV radiation.
For her research contributions, Cobb was elected to the Institute of
Medicine in 1974. In 1976, she left her research career to focus on
full time education administration. Cobb served as President of
California State University in Fullerton from 1981-1990, and has
worked diligently to increase the numbers of women and minorities
in the sciences and engineering.
http://bioaims.stanford.edu
CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Honoring Diversity in Science
Jill Bargonetti-Chavarria, PhD; Associate Professor, Hunter College
Jill Bargonetti is a New York native whose love for dance and genetics caused her to
change her major twice as an undergraduate. After receiving her B.A. in Biology, she
found herself “hooked on generating data and answering questions that had not been
asked before.” Jill Bargonetti’s decision to pursue a career in research occurred after
she received a Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Fellowship to study DNA
replication at New York University. Dr. Jill Bargonetti-Chavarria went on to post-doctoral
training at Columbia University where she developed a passion for studying the role of
the tumor suppressor p53. Dr. Bargonetti-Chavarria is currently an associate professor
at Hunter College of CUNY, where she is proud to serve as a role model for students of
color.
She was the recipient of several prestigious awards including the Presidential Early
Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the NY City Mayor’s Young Investigator
Award, and the NAACP’s Kathy Keeton Mountain Top Award. In December of 2004 she
was profiled in Working Mother magazine as one of the nation’s “Stellar Moms” for her
roles as scientist, wife, and mother. Most recently Bargonetti has been awarded a
Breast Cancer Research Foundation Award for her work on the relationship between
estrogen and the inhibition of the p53 tumor suppressor pathway.
Harold Amos, PhD (1919-2003); Former Chair, Department Microbiology
and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Amos earned a PhD from Harvard Medical School (HMS) in 1952 and
then went on to study as a Fulbright Scholar at the Pasteur Institute. In
1954, he returned to Harvard in to join the faculty as an instructor in the
Department of Bacteriology and Immunology where he would eventually
become department chair (1968-71 and 1975-78), the first AfricanAmerican to head any department at HMS. His most influential discovery
was the effect of starvation on glucose uptake in primary cells.
Amos was also an advocate of increasing diversity in the sciences,
directing the Minority Medical Faculty Development Program of the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation for more than a decade. Dr. Amos served on
the President’s Cancer Panel, was a fellow of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science and a member of the Institute of Medicine.
http://bioaims.stanford.edu
CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Honoring Diversity in Science
Marie M. Daly, PhD (1924-2003)
Biochemist, First African-American Female to Earn a PhD in Chemistry
Marie’s love for science started at a young age, spurred in part by
reading books like “Microbe Hunters.” After obtaining a bachelor’s
degree in chemistry with honors from Queens College in 1942, Daly
obtained an MS from NYU in 1943 and in 1947 she became the first
African-American woman to earn a PhD in Chemistry, graduating from
Columbia University. During her post-doctoral fellowship she studied
protein synthesis in the nucleus with noted biochemist AE Mirsky at
the Rockefeller Institute. In 1960, she accepted a position on the
faculty of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where her research
focus shifted to the etiologies of circulatory disease. Daly, who retired
in 1986, created a scholarship at Queens College to encourage more
minorities to enter the sciences, and was a fellow of both the American
Association for the Advancement of Science and the New York
Academy of Sciences.
Charles Drew, MD (1904-50); Blood Preservation Pioneer
Dr. Charles Drew received his medical degree from McGill University in
Montreal Canada, and then completed his postgraduate work (where he’d
earn an Doctor of Science in Surgery) at Columbia University College of
Physicians and Surgeons. At Columbia, Dr. Drew worked with Dr. Allen
Whipple and Dr. John Scudder to develop techniques to separate plasma from
other blood components in order to extend preservation time. In 1941, Dr.
Drew accepted Chair of Surgery at Howard University.
Dr. Drew is attributed with developing methods to improve blood storage,
advancing the front of blood transfusion and creating the first blood bank.
During WWII, as casualties mounted and the need for blood increased, Drew
was selected as director of the “Blood for Britain” project, and was the director
of the first American Red Cross Blood bank. As a social activist, he spoke
against the practice of segregating donated blood based on a donor’s race,
and this continued practice led him to resign his post. He became the first
African American to serve as an examiner on the American Board of Surgery,
and in 1981 the US Postal Service which issued a stamp in his honor.
http://bioaims.stanford.edu
CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Honoring Diversity in Science
Ernest E. Just, PhD (1883-1941); Marine Biologist
Ernest Just survived multiple childhood tragedies (the deaths of his
father and grandfather and a bout with typhoid fever all before the age
of seven) and in 1907 graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth
College where he first developed his interest in science. After college,
Just took a teaching position at Howard University (where he’d
become chair of Zoology) and during the summer months he
conducted research at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods
Hole, Massachusetts.
In 1916, Just obtained his PhD from the University of Chicago in
experimental embryology. Just became a leading authority in the field
of marine biology, his contributions including study of the process of
fertilization in marine invertebrates and of the fundamental role of the
cell surface in the development of organisms. In 1996, he became the
first African American biologist commemorated on a US postage
stamp.
Dorothy McClendon, PhD (1924-); Microbiologist & Former Director of
Microbial Research, US Army Tank Automotive Command (TACOM)
Originally from Minden, Louisiana, Dorothy McClendon first
developed an interest in science at Cass Technical High School in
Detroit, Michigan. She continued to pursue science in college,
majoring in biology at Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State
University and receiving her B.S in 1948. Moreover, McClendon
furthered her education by taking advanced courses at Wayne State
University, University of Detroit and Purdue University. After college,
she taught in the public school system before accepting a position as
director of microbial research at the U.S. Army Tank Automotive
Command (TACOM). McClendon’s primary area of research as an
industrial microbiologist focused on developing methods to prevent
contamination of fuel supplies and deterioration of storage materials
by microorganisms. In particular, she is credited with designing a safe
and effective fungicide for treating military storage materials.
http://bioaims.stanford.edu