Michelle Olsen named I.D. Wilson Chair in the College of Science

Mark Owczarski

20 May 2024

Michelle Olsen, professor of neuroscience and director of the School of Neuroscience in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, will hold the I.D. Wilson Chair in the College of Science. The appointment was recently approved by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.

The I.D. Wilson Chair, established in 2014 by the late Luther Hamlett, an alumnus and dedicated supporter of the College of Science, honors the legacy of I.D. Wilson, a long-time faculty member and administrator in Virginia Tech’s Department of Biology.

A member of the Virginia Tech community since 2016, Olsen is an internationally recognized expert in astrocyte biology as it relates to disease pathologies such as epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease. Her research has identified numerous unanswered questions in neurobiology and has applied her expertise to make a number of fundamental discoveries. She has published more than 40 articles as a faculty member and contributed to more than $16 million in extramural research grant funding, with more than $6 million coming to her own laboratory.

She has served her scientific discipline in many ways, including as a reviewer on national and international grants for the National Institutes of Health, the Medical Resource Council (UK) and the Dutch Research Council; as an editor and associate editor for the Wiley WIRES Mechanisms of Disease and Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience; and as a reviewer for more than 40 top journals in the field.

In addition to running her internationally recognized laboratory, Olsen is passionate about directing research for both undergraduate and graduate students. At Virginia Tech, she has received a Dean’s Faculty Fellow Award and an Excellence in Teaching Award. She has been instrumental in the growth and development of the School of Neuroscience. In her role as director of graduate studies, she developed the Ph.D. program in neuroscience and stewarded the program through university governance and external review by academic and industry experts and the State Council for Higher Education of Virginia.

She also served as co-director of the molecular and cellular biology Ph.D. program where she developed and directed an interdisciplinary degree program with concentrations in cell signaling and cancer, inflammation and immunity, microbiology, and neurobiology.

Olsen received her bachelor’s degree from Southern Oregon University and a Ph.D. from University of Alabama at Birmingham.

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