Jeremiah Abiade

Professor Jeremiah Abiade was motivated to pursue a career in scientific research and also increase participation and outcomes for minoritized students during his training as a Scholar in the Timbuktu Academy at Southern University & A&M College where he earned his bachelor’s degree in physics. There he began to learn from Dr. Diola Bagayoko the important tools needed to prepare himself and others for success in STEM fields. Abiade has participated and led DEI efforts at every point in his training and work in higher education. Abiade’s efforts have also been directed at diversifying the STEM faculty. Abiade has helped to recruit outstanding faculty candidates to UIC STEM departments and currently serves as a mentor for both non-tenure and track track STEM faculty. His efforts at UIC have been particularly focused on dismantling non-evidenced based educational practices that have a disproportionate and negative impact on Black students. For example, Abiade led the UIC Faculty Senate Committee that sponsored a resolution that was eventually passed and adopted to utilize holistic application review in undergraduate admissions. This effort along with others laid the groundwork for UIC becoming ’standardized-test optional’ for undergraduate applicants. Additionally, Abiade has led and collaborated on efforts to increase enrollment, retention, and graduation rates of minoritized students in various STEM programs. He has served as the Executive Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) - funded Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) Program, the UIC site coordinator for the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (also NSF funded), and is the Faculty Director for the DuSable Scholars Program (dusable.uic.edu). Together, these programs are transforming our STEM departments with the DuSable Scholars Program emerging as a national model for recruitment and support of talented Black students in STEM at research intensive institutions. Abiade's research is conducted in the Laboratory for Oxide Research and Education where the LORE members seek to answer questions in the areas of ferroic materials, bacteria-surface interactions, and the use of thin films for a variety of other applications.