STEM Fields

Southern Illinois University Carbondale and the Illinois Institute of Technology have partnered with the Oakland-based Kapor Center to launch the Illinois SMASH Academy, a 5-week, all-expenses paid STEM summer camp for high school students from underrepresented groups.

In 2018, the Association of American Medical Colleges cited the City University of New York School of Medicine as the fifth top medical school in the country for recruitment of Black and African-American students, exceeded only by the four historically Black medical schools.

The new publication will be an open access journal that provides quality peer-reviewed articles written by academic and professionals in the fields of aviation, nuclear technology, cybersecurity, and information technology. The articles will provide technical and soft-skills information aimed at helping women, African Americans and professionals from other underrepresented groups succeed in these fields.

The study found that 82 percent of the deans at the nation's 300 or more accredited engineering schools are men and 74 percent are White. For faculty, only 2.3 percent of all faculty at accredited schools of engineering are Black.

The African nation of Rwanda has a population of more than 12 million. Yet there are only 40 registered dentists in the country. A new program established with the assistance of scholars at Harvard University and the University of Maryland aims to help reduce the shortage.

Bianca Marlin is a postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience at Columbia University in New York City and Elizabeth Ransey is postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Clemson University will recruit these students from its own master’s and undergraduate programs as well as at historically Black colleges and universities throughout the South.

A new report from the Association of Public Land-grant Universities found that Blacks earned 3.9 percent of all bachelor's degrees in engineering in 2016. They received 2.2 percent of all master's degrees awarded in engineering fields and 1.9 percent of all Ph.D.s in engineering that year.

Johns Hopkins University, Morgan State University, and Coppin State University have established the Academic Success via Postdoctoral Independence in Research and Education program, an intensive effort that bridges engineering, medicine, and biology for translational research that address challenges related to human health.

Southern Company, one of the leading energy companies in the country, has made a gift to Mississippi State University that will help students from underrepresented groups pursue an engineering degree at the university's James Worth Bagley College of Engineering.

The Inclusive Graduate Education Network (IGEN) will partner the School of Education at the University of Southern California with over 30 professional organizations to increase diversity in STEM doctoral degrees.

Dr. Gates, Ford Foundation Professor at Brown University, has been named to the presidential line of the American Physical Society, a nonprofit organization that represents more than 55,000 physicists worldwide. Dr. Gates will serve as vice president in 2019, president-elect in 2020, and president in 2021.

Professor Dean, who holds three of the nine patents in the earliest development of the personal computer, joined the faculty at the University of Tennessee in 2013. Earlier, he was chief technology officer for the Middle East and Africa for IBM.

At the College of Engineering and Architecture at Howard University, 43 percent of students who earned engineering degrees in 2016 were women. This is more than double the national average. The percentage of women assistant professors in the college increased from 9 percent in 2015 to 39 percent today.

Dr. Thompson is currently the Richard E. Balzhiser Collegiate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan. He also serves as the director of the Hydrogen Energy Technology Laboratory at the university.

Two of the three new Black members of the National Academy of have current academic affiliations. They are Lynden A. Archer, the James Friend Family Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Cornell University and Gary S. May, the chancellor of the University of California, Davis.

Alcorn State students who excel in pre-pharmacy courses and who have been active participants in community service programs will be able to take advantage of the University of Mississippi College of Pharmacy's Preferred Admission Program.

The KUEST (KU Engineering, Science and Technology) program aims to expand and fill the pipeline of underrepresented engineers, including women and minorities, with an array of programs aimed at students as young as middle school.

Dr. Grant is an internationally recognized burn care and fire safety expert and oversees the nationally acclaimed North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center at the University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill. He also teaches at the university's School of Nursing.

The African STEM Network or AFRISNET, will be an online resource that will provide resources, information, and assistant to African students seeking educational opportunities or internships in the United States.