Ernest
Everett Just
Ernest
Everett Just: Zoologist, Biologist, Physiologist, Research Scientist.
Ernest
Everett Just was born in Charleston, South Carolina on August 14, 1883
to parents Charles Frazier and Mary Matthews Just. He prepared for college
at Kimball Hall Academy, New Hampshire, where he completed the four-year
course of study in only three years. In the graduating Dartmouth College
class of 1907, Ernest Just was the only person to be graduated magna
cum laude. He won special honors in botany and history, with honors
in botany and sociology. In his freshman year at Dartmouth he received
the highest marks in the entire freshmen class in Greek; Ernest was conferred
as the Rufus Choate scholar for two years. In 1907, Dr. Just began to teach
at Howard University. Beginning in 1909, he began to conduct research as
a research assistant during the summer months for Professor Frank Rattray
Lillie, the second director of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods
Hole, Massachusetts. In 1916, Ernest Just received the Degree of Doctor
of Philosophy magna cum laude from the University of Chicago in
experimental embryology, with a thesis on the mechanics of fertilization.
Contributions on the physiology of development were the legacy of Dr. Just s research. His work on the subjects of fertilization, experimental parthenogenesis, hydration, cell division, dehydration in living cells, the effect of ultra violet rays in increasing chromosome number in animals and in altering the organization of the egg with special reference to polarity.
He was one of the authors of General Cytology, published in 1924. The list of authors includes among other eminent zoologists
In 1924 Dr. Just was selected from among the biologists of the world by a group of German biologist to contribute to a monograph on fertilization, one of a series of monographs by specialists working on fundamental problems of the function and structure of the cell. He is a contributor to Volume Two of Dr. Jerome Alexander's three-volume series on Colloid Chemistry. From 1920-1931 Dr. Just was the Julius Rosenwald Fellow in Biology of the National Research Council. Under this grant program he engaged in research as an adjunct researcher of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology, Berlin-Dahlam, working under Professor Max Hartmann department. He also worked at the marine biological laboratories in Naples and in Sicily. In 1930, Dr. Just lectured at the Eleventh International Congress of Zoologists, held at Padua, Italy. The lecture was entitled The Role of Cortical Cytoplasm in Vital Phenomena., which was based on the fifty published papers written by Dr. Ernest Just.
In his scholarly work Dr. Just showed all the traits of a true scholar. He was unostentatious and was modest in his personality. His inherent ability, scientific training, creative imagination, and industry were the basis for success in his field of zoology.
"If
we are to judge his accomplishments by standards set up by men of science,
it can be said that Dr. Just is an eminent scientist. If we are to judge
his value to Negro education by what he has accomplished in the realm of
science, it can be said that to Negro youth especially, he demonstrates
the possibility of human achievement regardless of race or color. In the
language of Dean Kelly Miller in an appreciation of Dr. Just, What boots
it that Euclid was a Greek, Newton an Englishman, Marconi an Italian or
Guttenburg a German? Their genius has enriched the blood of mankind regardless
of place, time, race or nationality."
George
R. Arthur. Ernest Just, Biologist., The Crisis, February
1932, p. 46.
Dissertation Title: Studies of Fertilization in Platynereis megalops.
Memberships:
Biology
of the Cell Surface.
Ernest
E. Just. (Philadelphia, PA: P. Blaikston's Son & Co.), 1939. 329 pages.
Dr. Ernest E. Just published more than 50 papers between 1912 and 1937.
Bibliography:
Black
Pioneers of Science and Invention.
Louis
Haber. (New York, Harcourt, Brace & World), 1970. [first edition] p.112-121.
Louis
Haber. (San Diego : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich), 1991. [third edition]
Black
Apollo of Science : The Life of Ernest Everett Just (Biography of E.E.
Just)
Kenneth
P. Manning. (New York: Oxford University Press), 1983.
"Publications
by E.E. Just": p. [331]-334.
W.
Montague Cobb. Ernest Everett Just, 1883-1941.
Journal.
National Medical Association. v. 49 (September 1957), p. 349-351.
Blacks
in Science: Astrophysicist to Zoologist.
Hattie
Carwell. (Hicksville, N.Y.: Exposition Press), 1977. p. 72-73.
J.
Lovell, Jr. In Memoriam. Crisis.
(New
York, NY: Crisis Publishing Co.) December 1942, p. 379, 387, 394, 396.
Dictionary
of American Medical Biography.
Martin
Kaufman, Stuart Galishoff, Todd L. Savitt, editors ; Joseph Carvalho III,
editorial associate. (Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press), 1984. p. 402-403.
Encyclopedia
of Black America.
W.
Augustus Low, editor, Virgil A. Clift, associate editor. (New York : McGraw-Hill),
1981. p. 481.
W.
Augustus Low, editor, Virgil A. Clift, associate editor. (New York, N.Y.
: Da Capo Press), 1984.
Ernest Everett Just, 1883-1941. National Medical Association, Journal
World's
Great Men of Color., 1947.
Edited
with an introduction, commentary, and new bibliographical notes by John
Henrik Clarke.
Joel
Augustus Rogers. (New York, NY: Macmillan) 1972, c1946-47. v. 2, p. 311-312.
Joel
Augustus Rogers. (New York, NY: Touchstone), 1996- (1st Touchstone ed.)
Who's
Who of the Colored Race : A General Biographical Dictionary of Men and
Women of African Descent ,
Volume 1. 1915
Frank
Lincoln Mather, editor. (Detroit : Gale Research Co.), 1976, c1915., p.165.
(Note: No more published.)
Who s Who in Colored America.
Illustrations:
Black
Pioneers of Science and Invention.
Louis
Haber. (New York, Harcourt, Brace & World), 1970. [first edition] p.112.
Louis
Haber. (San Diego : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich), 1991. [third edition]
Blacks
in Science: Astrophysicist to Zoologist.
Hattie
Carwell. (Hicksville, N.Y.: Exposition Press), 1977. after p. 48.
Magazine Articles
History
of the Negro in Medicine. [1st ed. (1967) - 3rd ed. (1969)]
Herbert
Montfort Morais. (New York, Publishers Co.), 1969. p. 110.
Part
of series: International Library of Negro Life and History. Published
under the auspices of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and
History.
Historical
Afro-American Biographies.
Published
as part of series: International Library of Afro-American Life And History.
v.4
W.S.
Robinson. (Cornwells Heights, Penn. : The Publishers Agency, Inc. under
the auspices of The Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and
History), p. 218-219.
Edward
S. Jenkins. Bridging Two Cultures. Journal of Black Studies.
(Beverly
Hills, Calif., Sage Publications) 21(3) 313-324. (March 1991)
The
Crisis.,
(New
York, NY: Crisis Publishing Co.), February 1932, p. 46. Biography.
J.
Lovell, Jr. In Memoriam. Crisis.
(New
York, NY: Crisis Publishing Co.), December 1942, p. 396.
Review
Philip Morrison (reviewer).
Kenneth
P. Manning. Black Apollo of Science : The Life of Ernest Everett Just
Scientific
American 250 (4) (May 1984): 27-30.
W.
Montague Cobb. Ernest Everett Just, 1883-1941.
Journal.
National Medical Association. v. 49 (September 1957), p. 349-351. p. [cover]
(list
of publications of E.E. Just)
United States Postal Service Commemorative Stamp -- 1997 (32 cent Portrait of Ernest E. Just)
Suggestions and comments about this guide are welcome.
This document was last updated: Wednesday, 20-Aug-97 08:54:15 CDT
