Studying African history, Cobb renamed himself. Born William Anthony Cobb, he chose to replace his middle name with Jelani, which means “great and powerful” in Swahili.

“It’s what I was aspiring toward at that point in my life,” he says. “We were involved in the anti-apartheid struggle, and as students at Howard University, we were involved in the student takeover to get Lee Atwater (the late controversial Republican strategist) off our board of trustees … we wanted to make differences in the world.” Says Dr. Khalil Muhammad, an assistant professor of history at Indiana University who attended graduate school with Cobb: “His command of contemporary events, rooted in a deeply informed historical context, positions him to be an exceptional voice of commentary and insight on a range of topics, most recently including the Obama elections.” Ind e e d , Cobb is revising his forthcoming book, titled Change Has Come: Barack Obama and the New Black America. Cobb admits that, at the time he was writing the book, he questioned whether the country was prepared to elect an African-American president.

“I got something wrong. Really wrong,” Cobb says. He wanted to figure out why. “If you asked most of us if we thought the country was prepared to elect an African- American president, we would have said no — 99 percent of us would have said no,” he says. “In our shorthand understanding of how race works: difficult economic times increase racial tension. The economy goes down and there are increased incidences of racial hostility. In September, the economy tanked and Barack Obama’s polls went through the ceiling. That doesn’t make sense to us. We’re still trying to figure out why.”

So what is the new Black America?

 “Less than 10 percent of the population of Black America is over 65 — so the majority of us did not experience segregation first hand. While we have racism as a reality, we also have this vast vista of possibility which is completely at odds with the Black history of Black people in America,” Cobb says. When he’s not teaching or writing, the divorced father of a 16-year-old daughter is baking (his specialty is an eggnog sweet potato pie) and taking African drum lessons and kickboxing classes.

Ever the prolific writer, Cobb is working on a novel based on the boxing careers of his father and grandfather.

Cobb is also revising another book titled Antidote to Revolution: African American Anticommunism and the Struggle for Civil Rights, 1931-1957, an outgrowth of his master’s thesis.

Next, he plans to author a history of Black men in America. “A long, thick book,” he says. “That’s going to be my door-stopper project.”

— By Wendy Grossman

PHYSICS

Engaging in the ‘Creative Act’ of Science

Dr. Stephon Alexander is as intricate as the quantum theories he works to demystify. Seduced by two activities so utterly engaging there is no escaping their allure, Alexander fills blackboards with mathematical equations by day and satiates the musical palate of jazz enthusiasts by night with melodies from his bass saxophone.

A theoretical physicist, Alexander deals with the science of ideas. He sheds light on the unknown and discovers new ways to test the seemingly impossible.

“I work on big problems,” Alexander says, explaining his most recent research endeavor. “I’m working on the dark energy and matter problem, the recent observation that most of the substance in our universe around us is invisible to the eyes.”

Alexander is also known for his work on String Theory, a theory that describes all particles as one-dimensional strings. Alexander’s scientific roots stem from his childhood in the Bronx, N.Y., where his father, Keith Alexander, worked as a computer technician. When Alexander was 12 years old, his father brought home a used computer. Alexander used it to play video games.

“Video games were primitive back then, so I taught myself how to program better games. The computer was a perfect laboratory for me to learn the process of exploration, analysis and discovery; how to realize an idea and try to make it a reality,” says Alexander. Eventually, Alexander’s curiosity about the composition of computers led him to the library. “I discovered the words ‘quantum mechanics.’ Although I was mystified by the equations, I was hooked,” Alexander says.

The Caribbean-born Alexander is trailblazing a path for other scientists of color. His accolades are extensive. Alexander recently received the CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation and was honored by the National Geographic Society as an “Emerging Explorer.” Alexander credits much of his success and perseverance to another African-American physicist, Dr. Sylvester James Gates, the John S. Toll Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland, College Park.

“When I met Jim Gates, I saw him on the blackboards doing physics at the highest level. Having that sort of role model is more powerful than anything. It is what has inspired me to persist and become a professor. I didn’t really have A f r i c a n - Ame r i c an p h y s i c s p r o f e s - sors,” says Alexander, who completed his undergraduate studies at Haverford College, where he now teaches.

From 1999 to 2004, only 62 Black males earned doctoral degrees in physics, according to 2005 data collected by the American Institute of Physics, and Alexander was one of them. The paucity of Black physics professors is an issue Alexander, who also teaches at The Pennsylvania State University, is eager to address. “One thing that I’m going to really try to do as a professor is attract the best young minds, including the best African-American minds into physics and provide a supportive environment so that they can do their very best.”

Last summer, while representing National Geographic at a physics conference, Alexander recorded with a local “trip-hop” band in Iceland. Currently a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Alexander steals away to local jazz clubs when there is time.

“Music, especially jazz music, sharpens some of the same faculties used in analytical work. Music is a creative act. Science, especially doing theoretical work, is a creative act. The things that we’re working on, you can’t access or touch. And the things that we come up with, if we’re correct, their application is usually 50 years down the line,” says Alexander, noting that scientific theories of this magnitude require a formidable degree of imagination and creativity.

As a Black scientist, Alexander encountered resistance from non-Black peers who were more comfortable with his musical endeavors than his scientific ambitions. But Alexander refused to believe that physics was an area that academia reserved for the White and privileged.

Alexander worked diligently to succeed at his postgraduate endeavors earning a Ph.D. from Brown University and humbling a White professor who said Alexander was not Ivy League material. Alexander emphasizes the importance of persistence and self-identity to his students. He advises them to insert their own brand of originality and passion in their field.

“For me, doing physics is like playing jazz,” says Alexander. “When I do physics, no one does it the way that I do it. It is important for young people to realize that you don’t have to be someone else or speak a certain way to be a good physicist.”

— By Michelle J. Nealy

 

PHYSIOLOGY

‘The Picture Perfect’ Inventor

During high school and college internships, Dr. Tejal Desai shadowed doctors treating diabetic patients. Their treatment typically consisted of daily insulin shots along with pinpricks to draw blood for glucose monitoring. Their pain made Desai wonder, can’t they get insulin another way?

Years later, she would devise an artificial pancreas to produce the insulin that a diabetic’s body could not. To do this, she would use micromachining techniques similar to those for creating silicon computer chips, making her a rising star in the fields of bioengineering and nanotechnology. The latter involves creating materials at the molecular scale, thousands of times tinier than a sugar cube.

Scientists had spent decades trying unsuccessfully to build a pancreas for implant. The problem was, their inventions could not withstand attack from the body’s natural immune system. Then came Desai. Her prototype, which included a thin silicon membrane and live pancreatic cells inside, let insulin filter out of its tiny pores while also blocking the immune system’s antibodies from entering and destroying it. The human body requires insulin to be able to use sugars and carbohydrates from food.

Although not currently available to patients, Desai’s device has been tested in rats and its technology licensed to a private company. Innovations such as the artificial pancreas have earned Desai a shower of accolades, including a 2000 National Science Foundation CAREER Award; a 2003 Eurand Grand Prize for outstanding research in oral drug delivery and 2006 Grand Prize for innovative approaches to drug delivery; and a 2006 Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award from the University of California, Berkeley.

Desai is grateful for the honors, learning resilience along the way. “You don’t get funded all the time, and you don’t get your papers accepted and published all the time.”

She cautions younger scholars, especially scientists, that the academic life “is like a marathon. It’s a long career trajectory. Not everything has to be done in a few years. Besides, you won’t enjoy the field if you burn out.”

Pacing herself at work is also important because Desai and her husband are raising three children ranging in age from 6 months to 5 years.

Since joining the University of California, San Francisco in 2006, Desai has taught courses such as “Principles of Tissue Engineering” and “Biological Aspects of Bioengineering.” She previously taught at Boston University and the University of Illinois at Chicago. She also co-edited an encyclopedia, “Therapeutic Micro/Nanotechnology.”

Currently, as director of UCSF’s Laboratory of Therapeutic Micro and Nanotechnology, Desai oversees a team of graduate students conducting more drug delivery research and trying to regenerate different types of body tissue. She was drawn to UCSF because she could work more closely with clinicians and basic scientists. UCSF, which offers graduate- level education in life sciences and health professions, has a medical center and a children’s hospital, among other health care affiliates.

Despite private sector job prospects, Desai went straight from graduate school to the professoriate. “I like the flexibility to research, to teach, to mentor. As long as you stay relevant in the field, you can pursue anything you’re interested in.”

She also enjoys her K-12 outreach, especially introducing girls to science. Lately, she has focused on seventh- and eighth-grade girls, explaining her job at career day events and doing science experiments with them.

“When I met her, I wondered if she was made by a computer because she is picture perfect in every way,” says Dr. Mauro Ferrari, director of the nanomedicine division at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Ferrari was Desai’s dissertation adviser. “She’s not only talented but truly compassionate.”

— By Lydia Lum

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