Barbara Oakley is currently an associate professor of engineering at Oakland University and recently served as vice president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society – the world’s largest bioengineering society.

Her research and teaching interests are in the area of bioelectronics, medical sensors and instrumentation, and the effects of electromagnetic fields on biological cells. An award-winning teacher with a witty way in the classroom, she is also the author of Hair of the Dog: Tales from Aboard a Russian Trawler (WSU Press, 1996), Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend (Prometheus Press, 2007), and a co-editor of Career Development in Bioengineering and Biotechnology (Springer, 2008).

Oakley earned a B.A. in Slavic languages and literature in 1976 from the University of Washington in Seattle, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the same institution in 1986. She earned an M.S. in electrical and computer engineering in 1995, and a Ph.D. in systems engineering in 1998, both from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.

• Creating Scientific Ambassadors (December 22, 2008)