Georgia Dunston, Ph.D.

Professor of Microbiology. Former chair of the Department of Microbiology. Founding director of the Human Immunogenetics Laboratory. Founding director of the National Human Genome Center at Howard University. Dr. Georgia Dunston bears all of these titles, but the title that suits her best is “Teacher-researcher.” Why? Her passion for research ignites her teaching and, as a result, student learning.

Driven by the desire to understand what makes people different, Dr. Dunston has investigated the genetic make-up of people of African descent. On the one hand, she has chosen this focus because the African population has the greatest genetic variation, an attribute that facilitates survival in a wide range of conditions. On the other hand, she has focused on Africa and its diaspora because of African Americans’ difficulties with organ transplants, Type II diabetes, asthma, breast cancer, and prostate cancer. Consequently, she has campaigned to increase the participation of people of African descent as subjects and researchers in genetic research studies. Above all, she has used her gifts as a teacher to recruit more students into the field.

It was, after all, a series of encouraging teachers who inspired Dr. Dunston to pursue a career in genetics: an elementary school teacher who inspired her to work harder, a junior high school teacher who stimulated her interest in biology, a college professor who demanded that his biology majors settle for nothing less than excellence, and a graduate school professor who helped her secure funds for doctoral study. All of these teachers inspired her, and, as a result, she has inspired generations.