The First Black Woman to Earn a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics at Florida State University
A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Kalisa Villafana decided at the age of 12 that she would be a physicist.
STEM Fields
Aug 14, 2019 | 2 comments
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University of Wisconsin Looks to Raise Number of Black Students in Chemistry Doctoral Programs
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has partnered with the American Chemical Society to train more students from underrepresented groups in chemical research. The goal is to increase the number of these students in chemistry doctoral programs.
Jun 12, 2019 | 0 comments
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Liselle Joseph’s Milestone Achievement at Virginia Tech
Liselle Joseph was awarded a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg. She is the first woman from an Eastern Caribbean nation to earn a Ph.D. in the field.
May 29, 2019 | 0 comments
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University of Maryland Baltimore County to Expand Meyerhoff Scholars Program to California
The Meyerhoff Scholars program is recognized as one of the most effective models in the country to help inspire, recruit, and retain underrepresented students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees in STEM disciplines.
May 07, 2019 | 0 comments
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University of Massachusetts Partners With the University of South Africa
The University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the University of South Africa have signed a memorandum of understanding that will establish a framework for future research, faculty, and student exchanges between the two universities.
May 01, 2019 | 0 comments
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Harvard University Making Strides In Faculty Diversity
Since 2004, tenured-track appointments at Harvard University are up 54 percent for underrepresented minorities, which is particularly striking since the overall number of tenure-track faculty has decreased by 18 percent over the same time period.
Apr 23, 2019 | 0 comments
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Texas Tech Medical School Will No Longer Use Race as a Factor in Admissions Decisions
This is the first agreement reached between the Trump administration and a college to forgo using race as a factor in the admissions process.
Black Role Models Play a Large Role in STEM Retention Rates for African American Women
According to the research, Black women earn only 2.9 percent of all STEM bachelor’s degrees in the United States. This is far below the rate of White women, despite the fact that White women and Black women are equally likely to express an interest in STEM fields at the beginning of their college careers.
University of Alabama at Birmingham Faculty to Train Nursing Students in Jamaica
The University of Alabama Birmingham School of Nursing has partnered with the World-Health Organization Collaborating Center at the University of West Indies-Mona Campus in Kingston, Jamaica, to improve how they train nursing students by using simulators.
Mar 27, 2019 | 0 comments
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Four Black Scholars With Current Ties to Academia Elected to the National Academy of Engineering
According to an analysis of the new membership list by JBHE, there are six Black scholars among the 86 new members of the National Academy of Engineering. Thus, Blacks make up 7 percent of the new members. A year ago, there were three African Americans among the 83 new members of the Academy.
Mar 18, 2019 | 0 comments
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University of Minnesota Partners With the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences
Under the agreement, University of Minnesota faculty members and graduate students will travel to Africa to serve as lecturers and to mentor students. Officials hope that the new partnership will funnel African students to graduate programs in mathematics at the University of Minnesota.
Feb 19, 2019 | 0 comments
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Illinois Schools Collaborate to Launch STEM Tech Camp for Teens From Underrepresented Groups
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.
Feb 05, 2019 | 0 comments
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The CUNY School of Medicine is a Leader in Producing Minority Physicians
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.
Jan 29, 2019 | 0 comments
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Thomas Edison State University Launches the Journal of Women and Minorities in Technology
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.
Jan 29, 2019 | 0 comments
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Study Finds Academic Engineering Remains Largely the Domain of White Men
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.
Jan 14, 2019 | 0 comments
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Two American Universities Help Build Dental Surgery Program in Rwanda
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.
Jan 02, 2019 | 0 comments
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The First Cohort of E.E. Just Postgraduate Fellowships in the Life Sciences
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.
Jan 02, 2019 | 0 comments
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Clemson Aims to Increase the Number of Black Ph.D. Students in Chemical Engineering
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.
Jan 02, 2019 | 0 comments
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African Americans Making Slow Progress in Engineering Degree Attainments
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.
Dec 24, 2018 | 0 comments
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Johns Hopkins Partners With Two HBCUs to Increase Diversity in Biomedical Professions
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.
Dec 07, 2018 | 0 comments
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New Scholarships for Mississippi State Engineering Students From Underrepresented Groups
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.
Dec 04, 2018 | 0 comments
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University of Southern California’s New Program to Boost Diversity in STEM Graduate Education
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.
Oct 10, 2018 | 0 comments
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Sylvester James Gates to Lead the American Physical Society
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.
Mark Dean Is the New Leader of the College of Engineering at the University of Tennessee
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.
Aug 27, 2018 | 0 comments
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Howard University Makes Great Strides in Gender Diversity in Engineering
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.
Aug 24, 2018 | 0 comments
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Levi Thompson to Be the Next Dean of College of Engineering at the University of Delaware
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.
Aug 06, 2018 | 0 comments
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Three African American Men to Be Inducted Into the National Academy of Engineering
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.
Jul 30, 2018 | 0 comments
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New Agreement Will Ease Transition of Alcorn State Students to the College of Pharmacy at Ole Miss
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.
Jul 20, 2018 | 0 comments
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University of Kansas Aims to Increase Diversity in Its Engineering Programs
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.
Jul 17, 2018 | 0 comments
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Ernest J. Grant Will Be the First Man to Lead the American Nurses Association
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.
Jul 09, 2018 | 19 comments
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Two Rwandan Scholars in the U.S. Seek to Broaden Opportunities for Other African Students
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.
Jun 06, 2018 | 3 comments
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School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Names Its Next Dean
Currently, Dr. Martin is the Bob Benmosche Professor, chair of the department of civil engineering, and the founding director of the Risk Engineering and Systems Analytics Center at Clemson University in South Carolina.
Apr 09, 2018 | 0 comments
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Stephanie Adams Will Lead the American Society for Engineering Education
Stephanie Adams is dean of the Frank Batten College of Engineering and Technology at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. She will serve one year as president-elect of the American Society for Engineering Education beginning in June and will become president of the organization in June 2019.
Apr 02, 2018 | 0 comments
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New Study Aims to Identify Best Practices in Mentoring to Increase Diversity in STEM Fields
Angela Byars-Winston, professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been selected to lead a committee of the National Academy of Sciences that will seek to identify the best mentoring techniques to bring more women and members of underrepresented groups into STEM fields.
Dilliard University’s Nursing Programs Getting Back on Track
In the spring of 2016, Dillard University announced that it would suspend admissions to its bachelor’s degree nursing programs. Now it has received initial approval to implement its restructured baccalaureate nursing programs for the spring semester in 2019.
Bowie State University Launches the New Department of Technology and Security
The new department offers a bachelor’s degree program in computer technology, the only such program within the 12-campus University System of Maryland. The inaugural chair of the new department is Professor Lethia Jackson.
Mar 02, 2018 | 2 comments
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