Gilda Barabino

Last updated
Gilda A. Barabino
Gilda Barabino.jpg
Born (1956-05-28) May 28, 1956 (age 68)
Anchorage, Alaska, United States
Alma mater Xavier University of Louisiana
Rice University
Scientific career
Fields Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering
Institutions Rohm and Haas
Northeastern University
Georgia Tech
City College of New York
Olin College
Thesis Rheological Studies In Sickle Cell Disease  (1986)
Doctoral advisor Larry V. McIntire

Gilda A. Barabino is the president of the Olin College of Engineering, where she is also a professor of biomedical and chemical engineering. Previously, she served as the dean of The Grove School of Engineering at the City College of New York, and as a professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering and the CUNY School of Medicine. [1] [2] On March 4, 2021, she became the President-Elect of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Gilda Ann Barabino was born in Anchorage, Alaska on May 28, 1956. [4] Both her mother, Margaret Agnes Barnes Barnum, and her father, Norman Edward Barnum III, were originally from New Orleans, Louisiana. Barabino's father was in the US Army and stationed in Alaska at the time of her birth. The family moved frequently during her childhood. After her father retired, the family returned to New Orleans. Barabino's mother went back to school and became a nurse's aid, working at Charity Hospital. Her father took a job in the Veteran's Administration, while studying for a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Southern University at New Orleans. [4]

Barabino began attending Xavier University of Louisiana while still in high school and continued on to complete her studies at Xavier after her high school graduation in 1974. When a high school teacher told her that girls could not become chemists, she decided to pursue an undergraduate degree in chemistry to prove the teacher wrong. [5] Barabino enjoyed her time at the historically black university, since she was no longer the only black student in her classes and was encouraged academically. [4] She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry with minors in biology and math in 1978. [4] [6]

After finishing her degree, she enrolled in the Louisiana State University (LSU) Dental School and applied for an Army Health Professions scholarship to cover the expenses. Barabino ended up leaving LSU after one year, after her professors refused to communicate with her and another black student, and she was told she would have to repeat her first year. [4] The terms of her scholarship required her to serve in the army as a commissioned officer for three years, even though she did not finish her training. She served in a medical combat unit in Fort Lewis, Washington. [4]

After her mandatory service, Barabino applied to several PhD programs in Chemical Engineering and received a prestigious National Science Foundation graduate fellowship. She decided to pursue chemical engineering, since she was interested in medicine but did not want to be a clinician. [4] She became the first African American admitted to the chemical engineering program at Rice University and only the fifth African American female in the U.S. to obtain a doctorate in chemical engineering. [7] [8] Her thesis work involved studying the abnormal flow of blood in sickle cell disease, a topic she picked because it disproportionately affects African Americans. [9] [4] [5] She worked to understand the molecular mechanisms that cause red blood cells to stick together and adhere to the walls of blood vessels as they deform to pass through small capillaries in people with sickle cell disease. She received a PhD in 1986. [4]

Career

Barabino (front center-right) serves as a member of the US Defense Innovation Board US Defense Innovation Board 2022 (52439508956) (cropped).jpg
Barabino (front center-right) serves as a member of the US Defense Innovation Board

After finishing her graduate studies, Barabino spent three years working as a chemical engineer at the Rohm and Haas Company, where she oversaw the synthesis of acrylics and acrylates. However, she found that she missed basic research and wanted to work in areas with biomedical applications. In 1989, she became a faculty member at the Northeastern University's department of chemical engineering and a senior research fellow, Center for Biotechnology Engineering at Northeastern. She was the vice provost for undergraduate education from 2000 to 2002 and rose to full professor in 2005. [4] [6]

Together with Lance Collins, Barabino founded the Minority Faculty Forum in 1995. [10] In 2006, they co-organized the Minority Faculty Development Workshop. [11]

In 2007 she moved to Georgia Tech, which was a center for sickle cell research. She was a professor in the department of biomedical engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, as well as the associate chair for graduate studies and the inaugural vice provost for academic diversity. [4] [1]

In 2013 she became the Daniel and Frances Berg Professor and dean of the Grove School of Engineering at The City College of New York, where she maintained an active research group. [6] Her areas of research included sickle cell disease, cell and tissue engineering, as well as race, ethnicity and gender in science and engineering. [1]

In 2019, Barabino was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering for leadership in bioengineering research and inclusive models of bioengineering education and faculty mentoring.

On July 1, 2020, Barabino became the president of the Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Massachusetts. [2]

Since February 2022, Barabino has served as the president of AAAS. [12]

Honors and awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biological engineering</span> Application of biology and engineering to create useful products

Biological engineering or bioengineering is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically viable products. Biological engineering employs knowledge and expertise from a number of pure and applied sciences, such as mass and heat transfer, kinetics, biocatalysts, biomechanics, bioinformatics, separation and purification processes, bioreactor design, surface science, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and polymer science. It is used in the design of medical devices, diagnostic equipment, biocompatible materials, renewable energy, ecological engineering, agricultural engineering, process engineering and catalysis, and other areas that improve the living standards of societies.

Peter W. Zandstra, is a Canadian scientist who is the Director of the Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British Columbia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Guiseppi-Elie</span>

Anthony "Tony" Guiseppi-Elie is a Trinidad-born, American scientist, engineer, entrepreneur, and avid Wikipedia editor. He is the President and Sr. Fellow of the American International Institute of Medical Sciences, Engineering and Innovation and the President and Scientific director of ABTECH Scientific, Inc. He is noted for his research and commercial development of biologically inspired and chemically responsive electroconductive hydrogels. Guiseppi-Elie is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the transdisciplinary journal Bioengineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholas A. Peppas</span> Greek chemical and biomedical engineer (b. 1948)

Nicholas (Nikolaos) A. Peppas is a chemical and biomedical engineer whose leadership in biomaterials science and engineering, drug delivery, bionanotechnology, pharmaceutical sciences, chemical and polymer engineering has provided seminal foundations based on the physics and mathematical theories of nanoscale, macromolecular processes and drug/protein transport and has led to numerous biomedical products or devices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering</span> Non-profit organization

The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) is a non-profit organization founded in 1991, and headquartered in Washington, D.C. It represents 50,000 medical and biomedical engineers, and academic institutions, private industry, and professional engineering societies.

Martin (Maish) L. Yarmush is an academic, American scientist, physician, and engineer known for his work in biotechnology and bioengineering. His faculty career began in 1984 at MIT in the Department of Chemical Engineering as a Principal Research Associate and Lucille P. Markey Scholar in Biomedical Science. In 1988 he joined Rutgers University, as Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and a member of the Center of Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine. In 1995, he returned to the Boston area to serve as the Helen Andrus Benedict Professor of Surgery and Bioengineering in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and to establish the Center for Engineering in Medicine at the Harvard Affiliated Teaching Hospitals. In 2007 he returned to Rutgers to hold the Paul and Mary Monroe Endowed Chair in Science and Engineering and serve as Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He also holds a Lecturer in Surgery and Bioengineering position at Harvard Medical School, and is a member of the Senior Scientific Staff at the Shriners children's hospital in Boston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samir Mitragotri</span> American chemist (born 1971)

Samir Mitragotri is an Indian American professor at Harvard University, an inventor, an entrepreneur, and a researcher in the fields of drug delivery and biomaterials. He is currently the Hiller Professor of Bioengineering and Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Prior to 2017, he was the Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp Chair Professor at University of California, Santa Barbara.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Wilson Merrill</span> American biomaterials scientist (1923–2020)

Edward Wilson Merrill was an American biomaterials scientist. He was one of the founders of bioengineering, and specifically the biomedical engineering field it developed from chemical engineering. Merrill was born to Edward Clifton Merrill (1881–1949), a chemical engineer and chief chemist of the United Drug Company (Rexall) and Gertrude Wilson (1895–1978).

Treena Livingston Arinzeh is an American biomedical engineer and academic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lola Eniola-Adefeso</span> Nigerian-American chemical engineer

Omolola (Lola) Eniola-Adefeso is a Nigerian-American chemical engineer and incoming Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celeste Nelson</span> Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Celeste M. Nelson is a Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the Director of the Program in Engineering Biology at Princeton University. She is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and was a finalist in the 2017 and 2018 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists.

Lance Collins is an engineer and professor for mechanical and aerospace engineering at Virginia Tech. He was previously the Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering at the Cornell University College of Engineering and is now the inaugural vice president and executive director of the new Virginia Tech Innovation Campus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Debra Auguste</span> American chemical engineer

Debra Auguste is an American chemical engineer and professor at Northeastern University in the department of chemical engineering. Auguste is dedicated to developing treatments for triple negative breast cancer, one of the most aggressive and fatal cancers that disproportionately affects African American women. Her lab characterizes biomarkers of triple negative breast cancer and develops novel biocompatible therapeutic technologies to target and destroy metastatic cancer cells. Auguste received the 2012 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and in 2010 was named in the 50 Most Influential African-Americans in Technology. In 2020, Auguste became an Elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Jerome Schultz is an American bioengineering researcher, professor, and university administrator. He is a fellow of several national scientific societies and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He has held professorships at the University of Michigan, the University of Pittsburgh, University of California, Riverside, and he is currently a Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Houston.

Sina Y. Rabbany is the Jean Nerken Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Hofstra University, dean of the Fred DeMatteis School of Engineering and Applied Science, founding director of the school's Bioengineering program, and adjunct associate professor of bioengineering at the Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University. Under his tenure, the DeMatteis School's fast growth led to the school's planned expansion into a new Science and Innovation Center. His research concerns cellular and tissue engineering of the vascular system and investigates the impact of the biophysical microenvironment on the structure and function of endothelial cells. His research explores the capabilities of endothelial cells to build functional blood vessels and support organ regeneration. His h-index is 28 by Google Scholar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Vorp</span>

David A. Vorp is an American bioengineer, researcher, entrepreneur, and academic administrator noted for his contributions to aortic aneurysm biomechanics and pathobiology, and tissue engineered vascular grafts. He currently holds the titles of Associate Dean for Research at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering and the John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering, with secondary appointments in the departments of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Surgery, Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, and the Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. He also serves as the co-director of the Center for Medical Innovation., the acting director of the university's GRID Institute, and the director of the Vascular Bioengineering Laboratory.

Beth L. Pruitt is an American engineer. Upon completing her master's degree in manufacturing systems engineering from Stanford University, Pruitt served as an officer in the United States Navy. She is a full professor of mechanical engineering, biological engineering, and biomolecular science & engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is a fellow of both ASME and AIMBE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stacey Finley</span> American biologist and geneticist

Stacey Finley is the Nichole A. and Thuan Q. Pham Professor and associate professor of chemical engineering and materials science, and quantitative and computational biology at the University of Southern California. Finley has a joint appointment in the department of chemical engineering and materials science, and she is a member of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. Finley is also a standing member of the MABS Study Section at NIH. Her research has been supported by grants from the NSF, NIH, and American Cancer Society.

Cynthia "Cindy" Reinhart-King is an American biomedical engineer and Department Chair of Bioengineering at Rice University. Her research considers cell motility and adhesion. She serves as president of the Biomedical Engineering Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juergen Hahn</span> American university professor

Juergen Hahn is an American engineering professor. His research focuses on computational systems biology with a specific emphasis on the development of data science approaches and their application to biological pathways relevant to the life sciences.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Gilda Barabino | The City College of New York". www.ccny.cuny.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  2. 1 2 "Biography | Olin College". www.olin.edu. Archived from the original on 2021-09-18. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  3. Hammer, David (March 4, 2021). "New Orleanian, Xavier grad Gilda Barabino named to lead world's largest scientific society". wwltv.com. Retrieved 2021-03-05.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Brown, Jeannette E. (Jeannette Elizabeth), 1934–. African American women chemists in the modern era. New York. ISBN   978-0-19-061517-8. OCLC   1031409931.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. 1 2 "Making a Difference through STEM: An Exclusive Interview with Dean Barabino – The Harlem Times". 21 March 2016. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
  6. 1 2 3 "Barabino Laboratory". www.barabino-lab.org. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
  7. "Navigate the Circuit | Gilda Barabino". navigate.aimbe.org. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  8. "How Three Engineers moved into Academic Leadership". www.blackengineer.com. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
  9. Barabino, Gilda (1986). RHEOLOGICAL STUDIES IN SICKLE CELL DISEASE (RED BLOOD, ENDOTHELIAL, ADHERENCE).
  10. "Interview with Lance Collins" (PDF). AIChE Minority Affairs Committee. August 21, 2015. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  11. "2006 Minority Faculty Development Workshop". National Science Foundation . Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  12. "How Dr. Gilda Barabino plans to make science accessible to all". March 8, 2022.
  13. "NAE Website – Dr. Gilda A. Barabino". nae.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  14. "2019 AIChE Annual Meeting Awards | AIChE". www.aiche.org. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  15. "Joseph N. Cannon Award for Excellence in Chemical Engineering". www.nobcche.org. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  16. "Pierre Galletti Award – AIMBE" . Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  17. "Past Presidents". aimbe.org. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  18. "TMAX – April 2016". www2.xula.edu. Archived from the original on 2020-06-11. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  19. "PAESMEM » Awardee Profile". paesmem.net. Retrieved 2020-06-10.