Five University of Rochester faculty mentors are the inaugural recipients of a new mentorship award from the University's David T. Kearns Center for Leadership and Diversity.
The David T. Kearns Faculty Mentoring and Teaching awards "recognize outstanding faculty members who excel at mentoring and teaching low-income, first-generation, and/or underrepresented minority students who participate in Kearns programs," says Anthony Plonczynski-Figueroa, director of operations for the Kearns Center. "All of these faculty members have shown an especially strong commitment to these students."
Two of the faculty members -- Laurel Carney, the Marylou Ingram Professor in Biomedical Engineering, and Roman Sobolewski, professor of electrical and computer engineering -- are being recognized for their mentorship of University undergraduates who do research each summer through the center's Xerox Engineering Research Fellows and the Ronald E. McNair program. The center also sponsors or helps administer three National Science Foundation-funded REU (research experience for undergraduates) programs that bring students to Rochester from other universities for summer research.
The other faculty members -- Maya Abtahian, an assistant professor of linguistics; Mark Buckley, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering; and Douglas Kelley, associate professor of mechanical engineering -- are being recognized for their work with the center's pre-college programs: Upward Bound, Upward Bound Math/Science, and Talent Search.