Ohio University to honor Distinguished Professor Sarah Wyatt on March 18

Ohio University will honor Distinguished Professor Sarah Wyatt on Wednesday, March 18, during the Distinguished Professor Portrait Unveiling and Lecture.

Students, faculty, staff and community members are invited to attend this special event in the Baker University Center Ballroom, beginning at 5:30 p.m. The event will also be livestreamed at this webpage. Refreshments will be served beginning at 5 p.m.

Dr. Wyatt is an internationally renowned leader in the field of plant responses to gravity and is greatly admired by colleagues in her field for her cutting-edge research. Her research includes multiple collaborations with NASA, with five experiments conducted aboard the International Space Station. In 2023, she was also selected as one of just 18 scientists nationwide to help develop a 10-year research roadmap supporting human exploration of the moon and Mars.

A highly regarded educator, Dr. Wyatt has received numerous teaching awards throughout her OHIO tenure. She is the immediate past chair of Faculty Senate and previously led Ohio University’s interdisciplinary graduate program in molecular and cellular biology. At Ohio University, Dr. Wyatt makes a daily difference with her relentless support of the research enterprise by collaborating and working to build research infrastructure. 

Dr. Wyatt is deeply engaged in advancing the educational mission of both her profession and Ohio University. She founded and continues to lead the Tech Savvy Ohio program, which highlights women in STEM fields, and has contributed to national education initiatives through the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology’s Space Biology Education Committee. She also established Ohio University’s Science Café and the Young Scholars OHIO program and has been an active participant in campus outreach efforts that promote scientific learning.

Most recently, Dr. Wyatt has brought the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program to Ohio University. The program, run by NCESSE, provides students with the opportunity to work in teams to develop an experiment to fly to the International Space Station (ISS), write a proposal and compete with their peers for the experiment to fly. To date, one experiment has flown with another scheduled for this summer and a third waiting for its turn to launch. In addition, she is a dedicated mentor to both graduate and undergraduate students, many of whom have gone on to co-author scholarly publications with her.

During the March 18 lecture, Dr. Wyatt will discuss her research, teaching and lessons she has learned throughout her career. Students, faculty, staff, alumni and area resident who would like to attend the lecture and portrait unveiling can register online at this registration page.  

The Distinguished Professor Award is the highest distinction for faculty members at Ohio University. Established in 1958 by Edwin and Ruth Kennedy as a designated component of the John C. Baker Fund, the award recognizes exceptional research and scholarly or artistic achievements. Since the award’s inception, it has been understood that recipients also must be conscientious teachers.