BPE-Track 1: Conference: 2024 Rising BME Scholars Regional Conference

The proposed project is a three-day conference aimed at recruiting, retaining, and supporting underrepresented biomedical engineering (BME) PhD students through postdoctoral studies, and into academic careers. The project is significant because there is a great need for a more diverse faculty pool in BME to continue to educate and inspire BME undergraduates, a group that is becoming larger and more diverse every year.

In addition, diversity of BME faculty increases diversity among research projects, improving the field of biomedical engineering and seeking to assist in decreasing health disparities. A cohort of 25 diverse BME PhD students from all sexual orientations, racial and ethnic groups, socio-economic status and some who are first generation in their family college-bound, will be selected to participate, receive a $500 honorarium, and have their travel and lodging expenses reimbursed.

They will learn about the pathways to becoming a BME faculty member and the opportunities they then will have to make an impact on education and research. They will learn about the tools needed to build a successful academic career in BME, and they will meet a diverse group of mentors and future collaborators, expanding their professional network.

Over the past decade, biomedical engineering (BME) faculty nationwide have recognized significant attrition in graduating PhDs with an interest in careers in academia. This has manifested as fewer candidates for postdoctoral research associate positions, a critical period for the transition from student to independent scientist. The associated loss of postdoctoral researchers' talent greatly threatens the vitality of our research workforce in the US and our nation’s ability to broaden the representation of faculty from all sexual orientations, racial and ethnic groups, socio-economic and first generation to college status, and religions.

There has been a significant loss of talent within the mid region of the U.S. despite it being a haven for biomedical industry partnerships and startups begun by BME faculty. Initial discussions revealed that BME graduates in the Midwest did not believe it possible to identify career-building post-graduate research opportunities without uprooting partners and families or moving away from their deep community connections.

Thus, in June 2022, seven universities across the Midwest region came together to host the inaugural 2022 Rising BME Scholars Regional Career Conference at Washington University, and a second one in 2023 at the University of Minnesota. The goal of this regional conference is to “inspire, strengthen and diversify the next generation of academic researchers in BME” by encouraging underrepresented Ph.D. students and providing them with the practical skills and confidence needed to apply and succeed in academia.

In 2024 we propose to offer a new version of the conference at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), with significant modifications based on feedback from the first two events. Per previous participant feedback, new topics will include alternative career paths for BME faculty in academia, such as focusing on teaching and education research, as well as work/life balance.

RSC participants will also learn from BME faculty from UIC and the eight other sponsoring institutions about opportunities to engage in research and education to decrease health disparities. Looking forward, we expect to have a critical mass of prior participants we can survey annually to get their perspective on the conference’s impact and their current career trajectory.

We anticipate this conference will not only positively impact its participants, but through follow-up surveys will help us identify programming and strategies that have the lasting impact. The UIC environment is well-suited for this conference as it is among the nation’s top ten most diverse campuses and is designated a Minority Serving Institution (MSI) and Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI).

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.