Gilda A. Barabino, president of Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Massachusetts, has been awarded the 2024 Dickson Prize in Science from Carnegie Mellon University. The annual award recognizes an individual who has made outstanding progress in the field of natural sciences, engineering, computer science, or mathematics in the United States.
Dr. Barabino’s academic interests center around global health and interdisciplinary engineering education and research. Her contributions to the understanding of sickle cell disease and orthopedic tissue engineering formed the basis for novel therapies. As a leader in engineering higher education, her work explores the importance of race, ethnicity, and gender in science, with a focus on creating cultures and climates that support a sense of belonging.
In July 2020, Dr. Barabino was named the second president of Olin College of Engineering, where she also serves as a professor of biomedical and chemical engineering. Prior to assuming her current presidency, she spent seven years as dean of the Grove School of Engineering at the City University of New York. Earlier in her career, she was the inaugural vice provost for academic diversity at the Georgia Institute of Technology and vice provost for undergraduate education at Northeastern University in Boston.
Dr. Barabino is a graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana, where she majored in chemistry. She was the first African American to graduate from Rice University’s graduate chemical engineering program and the fifth Black woman in the United States to receive a Ph.D. in chemical engineering.