Sylvia Omulo, clinical assistant professor at the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health at Washington State University, will give the next Vice President for Research Distinguished Lecture at 3 p.m., on Tuesday, Feb. 25, in the Veterinary and Biomedical Research Building (VBRB), room 305. A reception will take place prior to the lecture at 2:30 p.m. outside of VBRB 305.
Omulo’s talk, “Antibiotic Use, Antibiotic Resistance, and the Gulf in Between,” will highlight her work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s antimicrobial resistance research program in Kenya. This program focuses on identifying the risk factors of antibiotic resistance in community and hospital settings, determining the possible trafficking of genetic material between resistant bacteria in these settings, and investigating how animals contribute to these processes.
Over the course of her career, Omulo has helped establish and support diagnostic capacity for infectious diseases in several countries in sub‑Saharan Africa, including Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria.
Omulo received a master’s degree in public health from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom and a doctoral degree in immunology and infectious diseases from WSU. She currently teaches a public health course in WSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine. She has extensive experience in the field of infectious diseases and public health, having spent the last 15 years working on diagnosis and surveillance of infectious diseases and outbreak response. Omulo has received multiple awards, including the Extra mile Honour Award in 2006, the Emerging Infections Honour Award in 2007, and the Superiority Honour Award in 2008 in her home country of Kenya; the John Griffith Prize for academic excellence in the field of Public Health in 2011 in the United Kingdom; and the Karen DePauw Leadership award in 2016–2017 in the United States.
The Vice President for Research Distinguished Lecture Series invites world-renowned experts to WSU to share ideas and spark conversations about research that addresses society’s biggest challenges. Invited lecturers are leaders in their fields. The Vice President for Research Distinguished Lecture Series is sponsored by the Office of Research.
This lecture will also be available on Zoom. The dial number is 376054431.
