Illustration of Jewel Plummer Cobb (1924-2017), American cell biologist. Cobb was born in Chicago, USA and graduated with a Bachelor of Science at Talladega College in 1944 and a Master of Science from New York University in 1947. In 1950, she received her PhD in cell physiology from New York University in 1950. She is best known for her research on the skin pigment melanin and testing chemotherapeutic drugs in cancer cells. Cobb also served as professor at Sarah Lawrence College and was a dean of California State University in Fullerton. Artwork by Ernest Chrichlow, made as part of a portrait series of black scientists for Ciba-Geigy AG during the 1980s called Exceptional Black Scientists.