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Symposium to honor life of biologist, Feb. 24

The sixth annual  symposium on the life and science of Dr. Ernest E. Just will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Feb. 24 in Room 125, Gazes/Strom Thurmond Building.
 
Following a continental breakfast, registration and greeting, the symposium will feature presentations by guest lecturers on the international impact this South Carolina native had on the science of cell biology.
 
“The E.E. Just Symposium is a tribute to the life and times of a great African-American scientist Ernest E. Just,” said Perry Halushka, MD. Ph.D., dean, College of Graduate Studies. “The symposium was the idea of Dr. Vladimir Mironov, who developed a keen interest in Dr. Just’s career. The symposium attracts outstanding scientists who either will give a seminar on Dr. Just and his research or a scientific research talk. In addition, we expect more than 130 underrepresented undergraduate students to
attend the symposium and also learn about the opportunities for furthering their education in one of our six colleges.”
 
Guest lecturers at the symposium are:
  • Gerald B. Grunwald, Ph.D., professor of pathology, anatomy and cell biology; senior associate dean, Jefferson College of Graduate Studies, Thomas Jefferson University, “Rising to the Surface: The Science of Ernest Everett Just.”
  • Judith Salley-Guydon, Ph.D., chair, Department of Biology, South Carolina State University, “Ernest Just: South Carolina State University Connection.”
  • Frank Hamilton, M.D., National Institutes of Health, branch chief and director, Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition; Gastrointestinal Motility Program director; Gastrointestinal Mucosa and Immunology Program director; AIDS Program, “Is this the best of times for Biomedical Research? Fueling your career with NIH support for the 21st Century.”
  • Jean E. Schwarzbauer, Ph.D., professor of molecular biology, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, “Extracellular Matrix Dynamics During Tissue Morphogenesis and Repair.”
  • Barry Gumbiner, Ph.D., professor, Department of Cell Biology, University of Virginia School of Medicine, “Protocadherin Induced Tissue Morphogenesis via Regulation of a Classical Cadherin.”   
  • Keith Mostov, M.D., Ph.D., professor, anatomy, biochemistry and biophysics, UCSF; Cardiovascular Research Institute, Cell Biology Program, UCSF, “Formation of Multicellular Epithelial Structures.”
 
“Dr. Just provided some amazing contributions to the area of cell biology, cell structure and tissue development during his career. He was a man who achieved the top of his profession through hard work and a remarkable pursuit of excellence in science at every institution he was affiliated with,” said Titus D. Reaves, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine, Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy and event organizer.
 
The symposium will also include campus tours for visiting students and a chance for students to meet with college admissions officers.
 
The Dr. Ernest E. Just symposium is sponsored by the MUSC Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, SC NASA Space Grant Consortium, MUSC Provost Office, Office of Diversity, and the colleges of Graduate Studies, Dental Medicine, Pharmacy and Medicine.   
 
Information regarding the symposium can be access through its Web site at http://www.musc.edu/grad /just.    
 
Ernest Everett Just
Ernest Everett Just, an eminent marine biologist, was born in Charleston.
 
He attended the Industrial School of State College in Orangeburg; Kimball Academy at Meriden, New Hampshire; and Dartmouth College, graduating in 1907.
 
At Dartmouth he won the Phi Beta Kappa Key, the highest scholastic award to be given to a student in an undergraduate college. Just was also on the faculty of Howard University Medical School as a professor and head of the Department of Physiology.
 
In 1915, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People conferred upon him the Spingarn Medal, which each year is given to the African-American who has been most outstanding in achievement.
 
The following year he obtained the degree of doctor of philosophy from the University of Chicago. Just's accolades include his selection as guest investigator to engage in research at the Kaiser Wilhem Institute fur Biologie.
 
In 1919, he spent six months in Biological Research at Naples, Italy. He had also at his disposal the private laboratories of several of the crowned heads of Europe.
 
For at least 20 years he did research work at the Marine Biology Laboratory at Woods Hole, Mass. A gift from the Rosenwald Fund of about $80,000 a year for several years made it possible for Just to be relieved of his undergraduate teaching assignment and devote his time to research and the teaching of graduate students.
 
Aside from this, Just was selected by leading biologists of Germany as the best fitted among world scholars to write a treatise on fertilization.
 
Just was a member of the National Research Council, editor of the international council, editor of the international journal, “Protoplasma.” He was a member of the American Society of Zoologists, the American Naturalists, and a corresponding member of La Societe des Science Naturelles et Mathematiques de France 1936.
 
Just summarized his ideas that he made through the years in a book, “The Biology of the Cell Surface,” which was published in 1939.
 
The book explained the special significance of the outer cytoplasm, which Just called the ectoplasm. When Germany and France went to war near the end of 1939, the French government ordered all foreign scientists to leave the country. Unable to escape before Paris fell to the Germans, Just was captured and held briefly in a prisoner-of-war camp before being allowed to return to the United States in September 1940. Just went back to Howard, for he had nowhere else to go.
 
Howard officials ordered him to return to teaching, but he was too ill. Just’s increasingly severe digestive troubles proved to be due to cancer.
 
Just died on Oct. 27, 1941.
 
The biography of Dr. Ernest Just can be found at http://www.musc.edu/grad/just/Biography.htm.

   

Friday, Feb. 24, 2006
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