Worcester State University will welcome Dr. Imo Aisiku ’92 as its 136th Commencement speaker, Saturday, May 12 at the DCU Center in Worcester.
Dr. Aisiku serves as vice-chair and chief of critical care in the neurosurgery department of the University of Texas Medical School at Memorial-Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas. He is part of the team that provided care for U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
Last April, Dr. Aisiku visited the WSU campus for the lecture “Developments in Medicine and Neuroscience: A Physician’s Perspective,” He also presented two research awards that he established for Worcester State biology majors during last year’s Academic Achievement awards.
“We are so proud to be welcoming Dr. Aisiku back to our campus,” said WSU President Barry M. Maloney. “He demonstrates all that is possible for our graduates. I am certain the class of 2012 will be inspired by his story.”
After earning a bachelor’s degree in biology from WSU, he earned a medical degree from the UMass School of Medicine, a master’s degree in clinical research from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and an MBA from Emory’s Goizueta School of Business. He also completed postdoctoral fellowships in critical care and was recognized by the National Institutes of Health as a sickle cell research scholar in 2008. When he was accepted into UMass Medical School, Aisiku was concerned that coming from a small state college might be a disadvantage. “Many of my classmates were from places like Harvard and Boston College,” he explains. “I soon realized that I was very well prepared for the medical program.”
Aisiku, whose father is a professor emeritus in WSU’s Education Department and whose mother was a special education teacher at Burncoat Middle School, moved with his family to Auburn, Massachusetts from Brooklyn, New York when he was in high school.