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, associate professor of biological sciences at Hampton University, has been awarded ��������’s 2021��E. E. Just Fellowship. Sharma is a microbiologist and biotechnologist with a background in molecular microbiology and parasitology. Arriving at the �������� in late May, her research will focus on the role of bacterial cell shape and size as predation avoidance strategy in marine environments.

���󲹰���������as “passionate about providing authentic research experience to undergraduate minority students to pursue a career in the STEM field.”

The E. E. Just Endowed Research Fellowship Fund honors Ernest Everett Just’s contributions to developmental biology and experimental embryology. Just, a professor in the department of Zoology at Howard University, is widely considered the first Black American to be professionally recognized for his scientific achievements. He came to the �������� in 1909 at the invitation of the institution’s second director, Frank R. Lillie, as his research assistant. Just returned to the �������� nearly every summer for over 20 years, during which time he received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago – one of the first Black Americans to do so. Just discovered an important aspect of cell cleavage while researching his dissertation and published his most important work,��The Biology of the Cell Surface, in 1939. He was the first awardee of the NAACP’s highest honor, the Spingarn Medal, in 1915 in recognition of his research in biology.