Facts About Jewel Plummer Cobb

Jewell Plummer Cobb, PhD, is a pioneering African-American scientist, educator, and businesswoman who is known for her discoveries in cell biology and her work to advance women and minorities in the sciences. Dr. Cobb was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 17, 1924. She is the granddaughter of a freed slave and was strongly influenced in her career path by other successful African-Americans in her family and community. She has authored 48 scholarly books and papers and holds 22 honorary doctorate degrees. She is currently retired and lives in Maplewood, New Jersey.

Family Influences

• Cobb was born Jewel Isadora Plummer to Claribel (Cole) and Frank Plummer. According to "Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20th Century" (James H. Kessler, 1996), Frank Plummer was a physician who graduated from Cornell University and the Rush Medical School. He practiced medicine on the south side of Chicago, and his patient roster included many stockyard workers. Claribel Plummer was a dance educator in the Chicago school system and originally studied dance at Sargents College, which was then affiliated with Harvard University. She re-enrolled in college when her daughter entered college, and graduated from Roosevelt University in 1944.
  Frank Plummer's father was a pharmacist who graduated from Howard University in 1898. Plummer's grandfather was a freed slave.
  The Plummer household had a large library from which Cobb was encouraged to read, and her family was a proponent of integration and civil rights.
  Cobb married Roy Cobb in 1954 and had a son, Jonathon, in 1957. The Cobbs divorced in 1967.

Education

• Cobb was an avid reader as a child and in high school focused on biology. She decided during her sophomore year of high school to become a biologist. She initially entered college in 1941 at the University of Michigan, but was unsatisfied with the school's segregated dormitories and impersonal bureaucracy. In 1942, Cobb transferred to the all-black women's college Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama. Though she was unable to transfer credits from the University of Michigan, she graduated with a bachelor of science degree from Talladega in 1944.

  Cobb was then accepted to New York University (NYU) for her graduate studies. According to the Global Alliance for Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce, Cobb was originally denied a teaching fellowship, but after she spoke with university officials in person, they were impressed with her drive and qualifications, and they granted her a 5-year teaching fellowship.

  At NYU, Cobb studied cell biology and graduated in 1947. She stayed at NYU to complete her PhD, which focused on cell physiology. She was awarded a doctorate in cell physiology in 1950. From 1950 to 1952, she worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), studying cell growth, cancer therapies and melanin production.

Career Highlights

• 1956: Appointed assistant professor of research surgery, New York University
  1960: Appointed professor of biology, Sarah Lawrence College
  1969: Appointed professor of zoology and college dean, Connecticut College
  1973: Appointed trustee, Institute of Education Management
  1976: Appointed professor of biology and college dean, Douglass College
  1981: Appointed professor of biological science and university president, California State University at Fullerton
  1991: Appointed principal investigator, Southern California Science and Engineering ACCESS Center and Network
  2001: Appointed principal investigator, Science Technology Engineering Program (STEP) Up for Youth--ASCEND project at California State University, Los Angeles

Discoveries

• According to Kessler, Cobb spent much of her career seeking new treatments for cancer, focusing on melanoma. One compound she tested, methotrexate, was found to be effective in treating skin cancers, lung cancer and childhood leukemia. She also contributed to the knowledge that ultraviolet light is damaging to skin and introduced new data about how hormones and chemotherapeutic drugs alter cell division.

Social Justice Work

• While serving as California State University at Fullerton president, Cobb worked to increase student and staff diversity, developing scholarships and programs to bring in women and minority students. Some of these programs were originally government funded, but when state funds were reduced, she found private sources to supplement them. She also spearheaded a project to build a multiethnic residence hall on campus. The building was later named for Cobb.
  While serving at Connecticut college, she set up a scholarship program for minority students in the college's premedical and predental programs.
  Cobb has spoken widely regarding the importance of education for minority youth. She told Black Enterprise magazine in 1988, "I don't think there's anything wrong with [black children's abilities to learn.] It is a matter of being stimulated, having a curiosity about science early on, and developing the commitment and discipline to study."

Notable Awards and Honors

• Cobb has been awarded 22 honorary doctorates and numerous awards for excellence in education, science and social justice work. Four of her notable awards or honors are listed below.

  1989: Douglass College at Rutgers dedicated the Bunting-Cobb Math and Science Hall in Cobb's honor.
  1991: California State University, Fullerton dedicated the Jewel Plummer Cobb Residence Halls in her honor.
  1993: National Academy of Science presented Cobb with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
  2008: Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame inducted Cobb.