Just, Ernest E.

Just, Ernest E. (Everett) (1883–1941) cell biologist; born in Charleston, S.C. He taught and performed research at Howard University (1907–41). Concurrently, he began studies at the Woods Hole (Mass.) Marine Biological Laboratory (1909), and returned there nearly every summer for 20 years. He made pioneering contributions to studies of the cytology and embryology of marine organisms. In 1925 he demonstrated the cancer-engendering effects of ultraviolet radiation on cells. By 1929, however, the diminishing number of African-American graduate students, his disenchantment with Howard's attitude toward his need for research facilities, and his feeling that Americans regarded him—an African-American—with more curiosity than respect caused him to take a leave of absence and pursue his studies in Europe. He died of cancer shortly after his return to the U.S.A. His scholarship and dignified bearing earned him the sobriquet "Black Apollo of Science."