Aya Osman is a Sudanese-American assistant professor at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York City, working in the Department of Pharmacological Sciences.[1] She is also a fashion model.
Osman was born in Saudi Arabia to Sudanese parents.[2]
Osman did her undergraduate training at Royal Holloway at the University of London. She earned her Ph.D. in neuropharmacology from the University of Surrey in the lab of Alexis Bailey, where she studied the effects of drinking milk on the gut microbiome and neural development of young mammals.[3] After graduating, Osman went on to do postdoctoral work with Drew Kiraly at Icahn, where her work was supported under a Seaver Foundation Fellowship.[4] During her postdoctoral appointment, Osman engaged in community outreach activities and science communications work around the COVID-19 pandemic, including an appearance on the podcast Black Girls Texting.[5] Osman has also advocated for action to address mistrust of the medical system by Black people that has resulted from medical injustices.[6]
Osman began her career in fashion modeling at age 17, when she was recruited at a hair salon to model clothes for SIKA Designs. Osman achieved a level of success, but was forced to reduce her modeling workload during her time at university, and was prevented from earning money for her modeling work during her postdoctoral fellowship by her visa status.