Just, Ernest Everett (1883-1941), an American biologist, received the first Spingarn Medal, which is awarded annually to a black who has had outstanding achievement in his or her field. When he won the award in 1915, he was studying fertilization in marine invertebrates and the role of the cell surface in the development of such organisms. Just's research led him to declare that all parts of a cell influence the cell's activities. This idea differed from the traditional belief that only the nucleus of the cell controlled cell activity.