Ernest E. Just Biomedical Research Scholars@Columbia

Columbia University Irving Medical Center’s Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) and the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) have created the Ernest E. Just Biomedical Research Scholars @ Columbia, a groundbreaking program that will provide college and graduate students at historically Black colleges, universities, and medical schools (HBCUs) with research opportunities and access to mentors at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) and the HICCC. In turn, faculty at CUIMC will have access to a diverse and talented cohort of students to mentor, and faculty will collaborate on research projects ranging from epidemiological studies to new ideas for cancer therapy.

The program aims to increase the number of Black researchers in tenure-track positions at Columbia and other top-tier biomedical research institutions by providing a critical link between young scientists in the pipeline at HBCUs and established researchers at Columbia University.

“The Ernest E. Just Biomedical Research Scholars Program is an opportunity to build mutually beneficial relationships between researchers at Columbia and HBCUs,” says Anil Rustgi, MD, the Herbert and Florence Irving professor of medicine at CUIMC and director of the HICCC. “The most innovative research comes when scientists from all backgrounds are represented and have a voice.”