Personal Profile
Dr. Getenet Beyene Gebrie was born in May, 1966 at Zemero town, Mehal Meda district and Semen Shewa province currently found in Amhara Region, North Showa Zone. He attended Elementary and Junior high school at Zemero. For his high school education he went to Mehal Meda in Shewa, Faseledes in Gondar and Entoto Comprehensive Senior Secondary School in Addis Ababa. He received his BSc in 1987 from Addis Ababa University in Biology and MSc in Bioscience from the University of Roorkee, India, in 1994. He received his PhD in 2009 in Medical Microbiology from Medical Faculty of Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.
His research area is mainly focused on pathogenic microorganisms which cause different human diseases. His studies focus on drug resistance, characterization of virulent factors and type of disease they cause, their distribution among different sectors of communities like children, food handlers, pregnant women, admitted patients and isolated from different environments and food items as well. He published more than 38 articles on reputable national and international journals. After he was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor, he published a total of 20 articles (two as first and five as corresponding author). He also served as reviewer of different national and international journals.
Teaching and student supervising
He served for 33 (thirty three) years in Jimma University as academic staff in different ranks:- as Graduate Assistant, Assistant Lecturer, Lecturer, Assistant professor, Associate professor. He taught and is still teaching different basic and advanced courses related to Medical Microbiology (General microbiology, Immunology, Bacteriology, Mycology and Virology) to different UG and PG students of Health Sciences programs. He supervised, and is still supervising, more than 30 MSc and 8 PhD students. In addition to teaching he has served in different positions at Health Institute, such as head of Department of Laboratory, Head of Radioimmunoassay laboratory, coordinator of Academic Quality Assurance office. Currently he is serving as coordinator of Research and Post Graduate program of the University’s Health Institute in Faculty of Health Sciences.
Community services
He has played an important role in educating and awareness creation on HIV related to its pathogenicity, transmission and prevention to communities living in Ginjo kebele and financially supported people with HIV/ AIDS. He has given training for youths who were members of HIV club in the Kebele. He has also served in different functions such as conducting health education sessions on food borne diseases to Jimma town communities by using mass media (JU Community Oriented Radio, FM 102.0), giving training to food handlers who were working in different hotels and restaurants and were involved as study subjects during conducting of research on food handlers. He has also been involved in developing curriculums for MSc and PhD programs in Jimma University and involved as external evaluator of Curriculum in MSc medical microbiology at different sister institutions and served as external examiner for UG (medicine students), MSc and PhD students in different sister institutions. He has served as Member of JU Research and Innovation Task Force for COVID-19 and also involved at different activities of ERCS Oromia branch. Moreover, he played an indispensable roles in supervision of UG and PG students during their DTTP, CBTP and TTP activities. Last but not least, he is a life-long member of Ethiopian Public Health Association and Jimma Red Cross and member of Ethiopian Family Guidance Association, Ethiopian Society of Microbiology, and Ethiopian Medical Laboratory Association.