Noel Mayo is professor emeritus with Ohio State’s Department of Design and owns Noel Mayo Associates, Inc., the first African-American industrial design firm in the United States.
During his time at Ohio State, Mayo taught product and graphic design and was responsible for recruiting and funding the largest number of African-American graduate students in the department’s history. Mayo advocates alternative methods for education and has a personal interest in developing synergistic learning products that include music, color, light and psychology.
In 1989, Mayo was named the Ohio Eminent Scholar in Art and Design Technology. The Eminent Scholar program is designed to attract nationally and internationally known scholars to further strengthen outstanding academic programs that deal with compelling statewide issues.