Dr. Olubayi Olubayi is an associate professor of microbiology and the chair of the biotechnology program at Middlesex County College in Edison, New Jersey. He is also a lecturer in Africana Studies at Rutgers University where he teaches the senior seminar on wealth, and a class on the contributions of Africans to science.
Dr. Olubayi earned his Ph.D. in plant biology from Rutgers University in 1995. His research focus was on the biology of bacteria-plant-cell interactions. He holds a United States research patent on the flocculation of bacteria, and he has published on bacterial physiology, the biology of plants, and the place of science in Africana studies.
He is the co-founder and president of the Global Literacy Project, Inc., a nonprofit organization that has already shipped more than one million books and hundreds of computers to economically disadvantaged countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia. In October of 2004, the Global Literacy Project co-sponsored the “Walk for Literacy” in conjunction with G.O.Y.A (Student Volunteerism at Rutgers) as part of Make-A-Difference Day. About 100 Rutgers students, New Brunswick residents and supporters from across the tri-state area came together on the Cook/Douglass Campus to raise awareness for international literacy efforts.
Dr. Olubayi is the founder and chair of the advisory board of the Pan-African Mentoring and Learning Organization (PAMLO) whose mission is to promote literacy and self-reliance on the continent of Africa. He is the adviser to the Youth Organization of Amagoro district in Kenya, and the founder of the Chamasiri Harambee Self-Reliance Project in Kenya.
Dr. Olubayi is the founder and CEO of Global Literacy PRESS, a new book publishing company based in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The company has just published a book entitled Wealth, Not Income: Student Discussions on Money and Freedom. Six students were chosen to publish on the topic of creating African-American generational wealth and how to build strong communities. The book will be used within the Africana studies department as required reading.
Dr. Olubayi is currently writing a book on protein purification and another on the responsibilities of educated Africans in rebuilding Africa. He and several colleagues are developing a plan to launch a micro-lending project in rural western Kenya and are designing a Pan-African Leadership Academy to train the next generation of African leaders to create solutions to the Continent’s problems.
Dr. Olubayi is strongly committed to the struggle to build a world culture in which all human beings are sisters and brothers, and in which individuals are judged not by race, or color, or creed, but as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “by the content of their character.
References/Citations
To learn more about the Global Literacy Project, please visit: www.glpinc.org To learn more about the Africana Studies Department, please visit: africanastudies.rutgers.edu