Dr. (James) Kwasi Kumi-Diaka
Wednesday, Sep 01, 2021
Dr. (James) Kwasi Kumi-Diaka Associate Professor of Biological Sciences in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science has a research focus in Phyto-chemotherapeutics, Carcinogenesis, and Reproductive Pathophysiology. He earned his Ph.D. in repro pathophysiology in 1981 and his DVM in veterinary medicine in 1974 at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, a research university in Nigeria. He joined FAU in August of 1994 and says that his greatest accomplishment as an FAU professor over the last 27 years is the number of students he has mentored and successfully graduated.
“As faculty, I have developed and taught many biological-biomedical science courses and labs -- undergraduate and graduate—in different institutions of higher learning- spanning from A.B. University, University of Wisconsin Madison and Florida Atlantic University,” Dr. Kumi-Diaka said. “My current research is in Phyto-chemotherapeutics, Carcinogenesis, and Reproductive Pathophysiology,” said Dr. Kumi-Diaka, Along with active support from my collaborators, I have trained and mentored many undergraduate and graduate students; authored and co-authored over 85 peer reviewed national-international journal articles; and given seminars/conferences on aspects of phytochemicals, carcinogenesis and health.”
Dr. Kumi-Diaka also serves as an Editorial Board Member and peer reviewer of manuscripts for many international peer review journals.
“Currently, I am mentoring three PhD and two MS graduate students, and at least three undergraduate research students per semester. I have trained over 250 undergraduate and 13 graduate (MS + PhD in FAU & NSU) student researchers to date over the course of my tenure at Florida Atlantic University,” he said.
Dr. Kumi-Diaka says his favorite experience at FAU was that period of time many years ago when the Broward campuses were administratively autonomous. “The social and academic activities were interactive and responsive to the needs of everyone. I miss the social meetings, seminars and monthly movies,” he said.
Dr. Kumi-Diaka arrived to FAU 27 years ago from the Department of Medicine in the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison. He did his post-doc as a research associate at the Ontario Veterinary College, Guelph Ontario Canada. In 2013, Dr. Kumi-Diaka was awarded the Doctor of Science (DSC) Honoris Causea degree by the College of Medicine University of Science, Arts and Technology, Montserrat BWI.
Dr. Kumi-Diaka was born in Ghana, grew up in Canada, and currently lives in Sunrise, Florida. During his limited free time he enjoys the outdoors relaxing at home, and watching comedies.
