William A. Hinton Research Training Award

03-26-2012

LaJoyce Debro, Ph.D., Professor of Biology, Jacksonville State University, Alabama, is the 2012 William A. Hinton Research Training Award laureate. "For more than 40 years, Debro has been an outstanding educator," says her nominator, Ellen Neidle from the University of Georgia. This award, given in memory of William A. Hinton—a physician-research scientist and one of the first African-Americans to join the ASM—honors outstanding contributions toward fostering the research training of underrepresented minorities in microbiology. "She has had an impact on hundreds of students," says Benjie Blair, Jacksonville State University. "She is highly respected for her depth of knowledge and dedication in teaching and research."

Debro grew up in Clarksdale, Miss., and received her B.A. in Biology from Spelman College. She went on to receive her M.S. from Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta), and her Ph.D. in Biology with a concentration in Microbiology from Purdue University. Read of this story from the ASM news letter.