Fatimah Jackson

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Biologist, anthropologist and educator

title: "Fatimah Jackson" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["cornell-university-alumni", "howard-university-faculty", "university-of-maryland,-college-park-faculty", "university-of-california,-berkeley-faculty", "university-of-florida-people", "university-of-north-carolina-at-chapel-hill-people", "american-anthropologists", "american-women-anthropologists", "year-of-birth-missing-(living-people)", "living-people", "21st-century-african-american-scientists", "american-women-scientists", "american-women-academics", "21st-century-african-american-academics", "21st-century-american-academics", "20th-century-african-american-academics", "20th-century-american-academics", "21st-century-african-american-women", "scientists-from-denver", "african-american-muslims", "converts-to-islam"] description: "Biologist, anthropologist and educator" topic_path: "society/education" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatimah_Jackson" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Biologist, anthropologist and educator ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox scientist"]

FieldValue
nameFatimah Linda Collier Jackson
birth_placeDenver, Colorado
nationalityAmerican
workplacesUniversity of North Carolina, Professor, 2009 – Present
W. Montague Cobb Research Laboratory, Director, 2013 – Present
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Professor, 2009 – 2013
Institute of African American Research, Director, 2009 - 2013,
University of Maryland, College Park, Professor Emerita, 1990 - 2011
University of Florida, Associate Professor, 1986 - 1990
University of California, Berkeley, Assistant Professor, 1981 - 1986
alma_materCornell University
known_forBiologist, Anthropologist
awardsCharles R. Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award
::

| name = Fatimah Linda Collier Jackson | image = | othername = | image_size = | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = Denver, Colorado | death_date = | death_place = | burial_place = | nationality = American | workplaces = University of North Carolina, Professor, 2009 – Present W. Montague Cobb Research Laboratory, Director, 2013 – Present University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Professor, 2009 – 2013 Institute of African American Research, Director, 2009 - 2013, University of Maryland, College Park, Professor Emerita, 1990 - 2011 University of Florida, Associate Professor, 1986 - 1990 University of California, Berkeley, Assistant Professor, 1981 - 1986 | alma_mater = Cornell University | years_active = | known_for = Biologist, Anthropologist | awards = Charles R. Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award Fatimah Linda Collier Jackson is an American biologist and anthropologist. She is a professor of biology at Howard University and Director of its Cobb Research Laboratory.

Early life, family and education

Jackson was born and raised in Denver, Colorado.

After high school, she attended the University of Colorado. She trained in human biology. Both she and her husband, Robert Jackson, spent years performing research in Africa.

While in Tanzania, in 1974, Jackson contracted and nearly died of malaria. She was temporarily blind and unable to walk but recovered. The experience led her to research malaria throughout her career.

Career

In the 1970s, Jackson taught science education in Tanzania. She would use cultural examples to explain scientific information, in order to make it relatable to people. In 1981 she became assistant professor at University of California, Berkeley in its Department of Anthropology before moving to the University of Florida in 1986 as associate professor. She became professor emerita of applied biological anthropology at the University of Maryland after teaching there for 20 years (1990–2011), which was recognised by a Distinguished Scholar Teacher Award in 1995. In 2009 Jackson held a professorship and director role in biological anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). She became a professor of biology and director of the W. Montague Cobb Research Laboratory at Howard University in 2013. Jackson served as director of UNC's Institute of African American Research from 2009 to 2011. She serves now as the director/curator of the W. Montague Cobb Research Lab. Her research on peoples of recent African-descent also led to appearances on the PBS programs African American Lives, Nova and the BBC's Motherland.

Research

Jackson specializes in the study of human-plant coevolution and anthropological genetics, especially African human genetics and population biological substructures in peoples of African descent. For example, genetic changes in human evolution due to cultural migrations.

A significant portion of her research is dedicated to examining the properties of cassava, a starchy root similar to a potato. Jackson's studies reveal that individuals in Liberia, West Africa, who consume considerable quantities of cassava exhibit immunity against certain illnesses. Notably, they display reduced rates of sickle cell anemia and a decreased susceptibility to malaria compared to those with lower cassava consumption.

Jackson is the Director and Curator of the Cobb Research Laboratory at Howard University where she conducts studies on African-American biological history with access to the largest collection of African-American skeletal and dental remains in the world.

Jackson has published in many scientific and scholastic journals, including Human Biology, Biochemical Medicine and Metabolic Biology, American Journal of Human Biology, and Journal of the National Medical Association.

Honors and awards

She won the Nick Norgan Award in 2009 for the Best Article Published in Annals of Human Biology. She was awarded the Ernest E. Just Prize in Medical and Public Health Research by Avery Research Institute of College of Charleston and Medical University of South Carolina in 2012 as its first recipient. Furthermore, in 2012, she had the honor of being coined by Rear Admiral Dr. Helena Mishoe, National Institutes of Health, NHLBI, and US Public Health Service.

In 2017, she received the STEM Woman Researcher of the Year from Howard University. That same year, she received the Outstanding Service Award from the Department of Biology at Howard University.

In 2020, Jackson was awarded the Charles R. Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. She is the first African-American woman to receive this award.

She has also been a Fulbright Senior Fellow.

Personal life

Jackson is an observant Muslim; she converted when she was in graduate school at Cornell University.

At age 19, she married Robert Jackson, now a professor of nutrition. They met after Fatimah transferred colleges to Cornell University. They have six children.

References

References

  1. Knudson, Mary. (1997). "Fatimah Linda Collier Jackson Biography". University of Lincoln.
  2. (22 August 2014). "Let minority serving institutions lead the way". Science.
  3. (2008-09-02). "Flash of Genius: And Other True Stories of Invention". Macmillan.
  4. (2009-02-09). "Race to the Finish: Identity and Governance in an Age of Genomics". Princeton University Press.
  5. Jackson, Fatimah. (20 September 2020). "In conversation with Fatimah Jackson: The life and career of an African American Muslim biological anthropologist". [[American Anthropological Association]].
  6. (3 April 2023). "Women's History Month - A tribute to Fatimah Collier Jackson".
  7. "Fatimah Jackson".
  8. Jackson, Fatimah. "Fatimah Jackson, Ph.D". College of Behavioral & Social Sciences, University of Maryland.
  9. "Fatimah Jackson, Ph.D: Background Summary". College of Behavioral & Social Sciences, University of Maryland.
  10. "CRL Director, Fatimah Jackson Named STEM Woman Researcher of the Year". W. Montague Cobb Research Laboratory, Howard University.
  11. (July 21, 2009). "Jackson to direct UNC's Institute of African-American Research". The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
  12. "Cobb Biological Anthropology Laboratory". W. Montague Cobb Research Laboratory.
  13. (2021). "Secrets in Our DNA". [[WGBH Educational Foundation.
  14. "Motherland: A Genetic Journey".
  15. "Fatimah Jackson". Department of Biology, Howard University.
  16. (March 20, 2020). "Fatimah Jackson to Receive the Charles R. Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.
  17. "Fatimah Jackson". W. Montague Cobb Research Laboratory.
  18. "Wayback Machine".
  19. "Fatimah Jackson | Howard Profiles".
  20. (2008). "Ethnogenetic layering (EL): An alternative to the traditional race model in human variation and health disparity studies". Annals of Human Biology.
  21. (8 September 2019). "Dr. Fatimah Jackson". Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality & Equality.

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