Yasmine El Khouly
900150123
Professor Walid Fouad
5 May 2016

A Recipe for Invention: Jewel Plummer Cobb

Jewel Plummer Cobb is known for being an American biologist. She was born on the 17th of January 1924 in Chicago, IL. However, Cobb was not only a biologist but a researcher, specifically in Cancer, and an administrator in College as well as teaching too.
Jewel used to have a family of scientists, as her father was a physician and her mother used to teach physics, furthermore, this is the reason she got interested in biology.

In 1942, Jewel was a student at the University of Michigan, however it did not last because of segregation of African American students, she then transferred to a University in Alabama where she received her Bachelor’s degree in Biology in 1944. Followed by her master’s degree, Jewel, received her Ph. D in cell physiology from the University of New York in 1950.

After her education, she then joined the Harlem Hospital in New York to work for the cancer research foundation. With the help of another African American scientist, Jewel, tried to find a way to develop anticancer drugs on cells. Cobb was in charge of the laboratory, however, they did not succeed, yet, it was very useful in learning the affect of drugs on cancer cells with the help of a patient. Twelve years later, she became a single mother because of her divorce with Roy Cobb.

In 1969, Jewel became the dean of Connecticut College, which made her give up research because of the time it demanded. In 1981, she became the first African-American president of the California state university and there she founded two new departments: communication and engineering and computer science.
Apart from this, Jewel was known for her tireless effort in helping women as well, specifically in education also, making them enter traditionally white male-dominant fields, she has