Both in the classroom and through professional societies, Samina Akbar, Ph.D., a professor of microbiology and Chair of the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology at Marian University (MU) Wood College of Osteopathic Medicine (MU-WCOM), works hard to create a more welcoming and equitable community for the microbial sciences and related fields.
Akbar's passion for science and service stems from an early interest in education and self-imposed high standards of success. "I was always very much into studying and getting good grades," she explained. Akbar was born and raised in Pakistan. When girls come of age, they typically enter arranged marriages, starting families soon after. Fortunately for Akbar, her value for education was generational, giving her the freedom to pursue her studies in a society where most girls were expected to ultimately abandon careers to become wives and mothers. "I never thought that [my family] would disagree with me, or they would not allow me [to finish my education]," she recalled. After all, Akbar's mother pursued a higher education and had a 30-year career as a grade school teacher-a career she held in tandem with being a mother to Akbar and her 2 brothers.
But this value for education actually started with Akbar's grandfather. Born in 1906, Akbar's grandfather earned a bachelor's degree, which was uncommon for people of his generation. When it came time for Akbar's mother to marry, he approved her request to continue her education instead. "She set the precedent because she finished her education, and then she got married to my dad," Akbar said. Growing up, marriage was never a subject mentioned by her parents. When Akbar expressed her desire to pursue medical school, her father denied marriage proposals to honor her decision.
At the time, it was particularly difficult for women to be accepted into medical school, "because the idea was that most girls end up getting married and never practicing medicine," Akbar said. To ensure that seats were not "wasted," as Akbar put it, women competed for a limited number of seats through a quota system. Akbar applied but lost by 2 points.
Unable to pursue her initial goal, Akbar explored other science-based degree programs. Akbar considered pharmacy school, but her father advised against it, due to the impracticality of women being pharmacists in Pakistan at the time. If she pursued pharmacy school, Akbar would likely become a door-to-door sales rep post-graduation-a risky occupation for women in Pakistan at the time. Instead, Akbar's father-a former accountant for a hospital in the Middle East-who interacted with many clinical microbiologists, suggested that Akbar might enjoy the field of microbiology. His assumption was correct. "I got into the microbiology program at Karachi University in Karachi, Pakistan. The very first day, as soon as I had my first [microbiology] class, I completely fell in love," Akbar said. She earned her bachelor's degree in microbiology, with minors in biochemistry and physiology, and a master's degree in microbiology, both from the University of Karachi.
Akbar wished to pursue a Ph.D. but was uncertain whether she could afford to. She sought a scholarship to cover the expenses. In the event she did not acquire funding, her father made provisions to ensure she could still go-instructing her mother to sell the small piece of land her family had purchased to build a house. Akbar's father was terminally ill at the time, passing before she graduated from her master's program. Though he was not around to see it, Akbar is certain he would be proud to know that she received a full scholarship to pursue her Ph.D. at the University of California Davis (UC Davis).
Having never been outside Pakistan, continuing her studies in the U.S. was difficult. "I missed my home and my mom a lot, but I think, over time, I got adjusted to living [there]. And [Davis] is a perfect town for international students because the people are very, very welcoming," Akbar said. She also found a community of fellow Pakistani international students to lean on. "UC Davis is an agricultural school as well. There are a lot of people who come from Pakistan who have agricultural degrees and want to pursue more." Her support system at UC Davis would continue to grow when her former classmate from the University of Karachi and future husband transferred from UC San Diego.
At UC Davis, Akbar studied the general stress response of Bacillus spp. in the lab of Chet Price, Ph.D. "When facing harsh conditions, Bacillus subtilis has options before committing to sporulation. Instead of immediately forming spores-an irreversible process-these bacteria can enter a state where they slow their metabolism and growth while remaining viable. This represents a strategic waiting period where the bacteria can either resume normal growth if conditions improve, or proceed to sporulation if conditions worsen further. Our lab studied this critical intermediate phase, focusing on how B. subtilis regulates its response to stress while maintaining the flexibility to adapt to changing environmental conditions," she explained.
Akbar authored 5 publications during her time at UC Davis. As she was finishing her Ph.D., Price encouraged her to pursue a postdoctoral program. "My Ph.D. supervisor [Price] was always [saying] 'You guys have to try to move up the ladder. So, try to go to bigger universities, bigger labs," she said. Taking his advice, Akbar extended her visa for the maximum of 3 additional years and moved to Boston to study Salmonella species in the lab of Cathy Lee, Ph,D., at Harvard Medical School.
When that visa expired, Akbar moved to Canada to work on Chlamydia species at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Center for Disease Control. It was another difficult adjustment, this time due to the working environment. "I immediately lost all the intellectual stimulation that you get from being in an academic institution," Akbar found. At Harvard, Akbar could regularly engage with new and varied research topics, while UBC's environment was more focused on clinical sample analysis. Akbar remained at UBC for around 7 years, growing her family and eventually acquiring Canadian citizenship. Despite this, she still had plans to return to the U.S. "[Being in Vancouver] was really fun, but we always knew that we would come back because the academic setting of [the] U.S. is very different. In Vancouver, there are only 2 universities-UBC and Simon Fraser University-so, you don't really get the same kind of intellectual input that you get in the U.S with multiple academic and research institutions in one city."
To return to academia and maintain a better work-life balance, Akbar sought a teaching position in the U.S. Her first faculty position was at Des Moines University (DMU) in Iowa. Akbar taught courses on bacterial infections for 6 years and then transitioned to the newly opened College of Osteopathic Medicine at Marian University (MU). "[MU] was starting a brand-new medical school, and a lot of people from [DMU] were moving here," Akbar shared. Like many of her colleagues, Akbar moved her family from Iowa to Indiana to take up a teaching position at MU. As of 2025, she has been teaching at MU for over 11 years.
"There are teachers who are born teachers, and then there are teachers who have to
work very hard at it," Akbar asserted. "I was definitely not a natural teacher." She struggled greatly in her first position, seeking feedback from colleagues on her presentation, content and teaching style. "Whenever I see my students from DMU, especially from the first few years of [teaching], I always say 'I apologize. I did my experimenting of learning on you guys,'" she said. MU had already hired a microbiologist to teach on bacterial diseases at the medical school, so Akbar was assigned to teach on diseases caused by viruses, parasites and fungi. She had no previous teaching experience with viruses and fungi and had very limited education in parasitology.
"The first few years I actually had to learn all of this material myself, too. I felt like I was only 1 step ahead of the students, and I was always [freaking] out," she admitted. "What if they asked me something that I have no idea how to answer? But I think it ended up being OK. They learned what they needed to learn, and they were happy about it. And I kept learning." Akbar read many books and academic publications and continues to stay informed on global diseases and outbreaks through sources like the U.S. Center for Disease Control and ProMED email alerts so that she provides her students with the latest information on infectious diseases. Her efforts have not gone unnoticed. In 2023, Akbar received an award in teaching excellence from MU.
More recently, Akbar has been working to make her and other courses at MU's College of Osteopathic Medicine more socially conscious. She recognizes the disparities in health care and wants to ensure that her students, many being future health care providers, will understand this and provide equitable care to all their patients. In accordance with this goal, Akbar participated in the inaugural cohort of ASM's Training of Leaders (ToL) Scholars Program. Throughout the program, the scholars gained the skills necessary to make a positive impact in their sphere of influence and put these skills toward developing a proposal to enact change. For her proposal, Akbar has focused on updating course curriculums, leveraging MU's values as a Franciscan university to promote belonging, equity and representation. "If you define the Franciscan values, it's dignity of the individual, responsible stewardship, peace and justice and reconciliation," she explained. "We basically have reworded [our goals] so they align with Franciscan values to make them acceptable to all stakeholders."
Akbar, along with her colleagues and a dedicated faculty member, will review the biomedical science curriculum and then revise it to try to naturally incorporate belonging, equity and representation. "If it looks artificial to the students, then there is no buy-in from them," she said. These changes include showing pictures of skin conditions across multiple skin tones and understanding how diseases manifest in patients residing in the global south, as compared to the U.S. Once the changes are finalized, the curriculum will be implemented and evaluated based on self-reported impact on the students year-to-year.
In addition to her proposal, Akbar volunteers with professional societies, like ASM and the Indiana Academy of Science (IAS), to promote positive change in STEM outside of MU. At ASM, Akbar is a member of the ASM Subcommittee on the Status of Historically Excluded Groups (SSHEG). Through SSHEG, she helps to organize webinars to highlight the journeys and accomplishments of microbiology faculty belonging to historically excluded groups. At IAS, Akbar served as chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee from 2021-2024. The IAS DEI Committee, established in 2020 in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, awarded small grants to projects that promote STEM at Indiana academic institutions to groups not usually found in these fields. She is the current president of the Indiana Academy of Science (2024-25).
Akbar's work as a professor and a volunteer emphasizes how important a welcoming and nurturing STEM community is to her. When discussing her work, Akbar spoke of her experience as a member of multiple historically excluded groups. She finds that she is often used as a token in advocacy settings, being chosen for committees to check multiple diversity "boxes," due to being a Pakistani, Muslim woman scientist. "I still go do it because I feel like I could still make a difference even if I'm token; like my voice is at least being heard," Akbar said. "So, I think that's very important to [continue] those and to implement [progressive practices], not just with your fellow faculty members and administration, but also with students to promote [social consciousness in health care]." Akbar will continue working diligently to ensure that the future of the microbial sciences and STEM is one that incorporates and serves everyone, regardless of background.
ASM celebrates the achievements and contributions of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) scientists to the field of microbiology.
