Dr. David Sibley to Speak at College of Science 2019 Spring Commencement

 

The LSU College of Science is honored to announce Dr. David Sibley as the Spring 2019 Commencement keynote speaker. Sibley received a bachelor' degree at Oberlin College in 1978 and a PhD in zoology from LSU in 1985. He also received further training at the National Hanson’s Disease Laboratory followed by a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine from 1988 to 1991. Sibley has since gone on to become a leader in the field of molecular parasitology.

Since 1991, Sibley has been at the Molecular Microbiology Department at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis where he is the Alan and Edith Wolff Distinguished Professor. The Sibley laboratory has been continually funded while it trained more than 30 postdoctoral and 16 doctoral students, resulting in over 230 publications in noteworthy journals and over 21,000 citations by other scientists. Sibley’s laboratory has investigated the adaptations for intracellular parasitism, focusing on Toxoplasma gondii, a wide spread pathogen associated with HIV and other forms of immunosuppression. His group has a long-standing interest in how the parasites migrate across tissue barriers and invade host cells and it has been important in the development of the prevailing model for these unique biological processes. The Sibley lab has contributed extensively to the development of molecular genetic tools and established genetic mapping methods which remain one of the most adept parasitic systems for genetic analyses.

Sibley serves on advisory panels of the Institute Pasteur in Paris, the Wellcome Centre for Molecular Parasitology in Glasgow and the Structural Genomics Consortium and on several editorial boards. He recently chaired the National Institutes of Health Study Section on Eukaryotic Pathogens. He has been the recipient of many honors, including the Burroughs-Wellcome Award in Molecular Parasitology, and was appointed a fellow of the American Society for Microbiology.

Sibley’s achievements earned him acceptance into the National Academy of Science (NAS) in 2017, making him one of two LSU College of Science alumni to have the honor. He was also inducted into the LSU College of Science Hall of Distinction in April.

The commencement ceremony will be held Friday, May 10, at 4 p.m. in the Maddox Fieldhouse. Graduates are asked to be at the fieldhouse no later than 3:15 p.m. The procession will begin at 3:45 p.m. This is not a clear bag policy event; therefore, there will be bag checks at all entrances to the fieldhouse. The ceremony will be streamed live at science.lsu.edu for family and friends who are unable to attend.

Related links:

• LSU Spring Commencement |  Main Ceremony and Diploma Ceremonies