Biography
Yousif Shamoo is a professor of biosciences at Rice University. He earned his B.S. in biology from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1983 and his Ph.D. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University in 1988. He is an infectious diseases researcher and was the lead scientific adviser for designing, implementing and managing Rice University’s COVID-19 response for then-university President David Leebron. His research group studies the continuing rise of antibiotic-resistant pathogens, “hospital superbugs.” Resistance to antibiotics is one of this century’s most pressing biomedical problems. As bacteria become resistant to antibiotics over time, they can eventually become pan-resistant, meaning that no antibiotics are effective against them. Unaddressed, the ascent of pan-resistant strains would bring us into a “post-antibiotic” era in which all modern medicine would be threatened. Shamoo is one of Rice University’s most distinguished lecturers and won the university’s highest teaching award, the George R. Brown Prize for Excellence in Teaching, in 2015. Only one faculty member per year receives this award. In addition to that award, he was awarded the second-highest university teaching award on four other occasions, most recently in 2019.