Biology Professor Linda Dybas Retires

When Linda Dybas joined the Knox College faculty in 1977, she was the first, and for nine years the only, female professor in the "male-dominated world" of Umbeck Science-Mathematics Center, said Stuart Allison, professor of biology, at a reception in June in honor of her retirement. Allison recounted how Dybas was paid less than male faculty and got stuck in a dingy, isolated basement office.

However one might characterize the atmosphere for women at that time -- oppressive or opportunity -- Dybas knew what she was in for: she had graduated from Knox in 1964, and most of the men who were her colleagues had once been her professors. At least Knox had an open door. "One reason I didn't go to graduate school right after Knox -- Ph.D. programs in science didn't want women. There was this idea that a woman 'wouldn't use the degree.'"

Between her careers as Knox student and Knox faculty, Dybas bootstrapped herself from office worker to lab tech, and eventually graduate student, developing skills in cell biology and electron microscopy. She earned a doctorate at the University of Ulm in Germany, noted for its strength in science and technology and its emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration. She brought both to the Knox biology department.

Just before Dybas was hired, Knox had purchased an electron microscope. But an unexpected faculty resignation meant nobody knew how to run it. Dybas had overseen two electron microscope labs, and integrated electron microscopy into the Knox curriculum. She also introduced ecological topics into her courses prior to the creation of the environmental studies program, landed major grants to update equipment, and collaborated extensively with colleagues and her students. Dybas was always "at the cutting edge in her research and publishing in the best journals in the field," Allison said.

Dybas chaired the biology department three times, served as president of the Illinois State Academy of Science, and as Faculty Marshal led processions at Knox's convocations and Commencements. She was named to an endowed chair in 1997 -- the Watson Bartlett Professorship in Biology. Continuing even now an avocation she had in college, Dybas plays cello in the Knox-Galesburg Symphony. "I would have majored in biology and music. I was told that I could only have one major on the diploma," she recalls.

In addition to pioneering and persevering through the challenges that women faced in academia, "Linda is something of a perfectionist" -- said then-Dean of the College John Strassburger in 1993, when Dybas was promoted to full professor.

Dybas "focused her scholarly energies on becoming an expert at electron microscopy, [with] an extraordinary deftness at close observation," Strassburger said. "Her skills are impressively passed along to her students who themselves over and over demonstrate that they have learned the way of scholarship."

When alumni return to campus, "they always journey to the basement [of the Umbeck Center] in search of Linda, to say thank you and to tell her how much her advice and willingness to listen and to help meant to them," Allison said. "Linda's selfless devotion to helping others sets her apart as an inspiration and as a great professor."

Dybas, who was named Watson Bartlett Professor Emerita of Biology, will continue her electron microscopy research at Knox into the regenerative capabilities of nerve systems in Sipunculid marine worms.

Below, Linda Dybas in lab with Knox student; teaching College for Kids; walking on the Knox campus with famed geneticist Sewall Wright and Knox biology professor Bill Geer in 1985...