Michael Ibba, professor and chair, microbiology, was selected for the Arts and Sciences Diversity Enhancement Award. Ibba has been an advocate for diversity for a very long time. He has attended and presented at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students for many years and has actively promoted life sciences programs to underrepresented minority students. As chair of the Department of Microbiology, Professor Ibba ensures that a faculty member attends this conference and works with the interdisciplinary life sciences to support graduate student ambassadors to attend.

Professor Ibba also sponsored the participation of the department in the conference and ongoing work of the Society for Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.  As a joint principal investigator of a NIH training grant, Professor Ibba has been extremely active in ensuring the recruitment and funding of a diverse pool of graduate students. He also works to ensure diversity among department faculty, volunteering to lead implicit bias workshops for search committees as part of the Discovery Themes diversity effort. More recently, Professor Ibba has become a facilitator in the Ohio State Advocate FORWARD Program for gender equity.

Congratulations to Dr. Ibba!

Original story published by Arts and Sciences News, Honors & Recognition