*********************************
There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
*********************************
Atlanta, GA | Posted: March 10, 2011
Georgia Tech Media Relations
Laura Diamond
laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu
404-894-6016
Jason Maderer
maderer@gatech.edu
404-660-2926
Summary Sentence:
Program helps 300 minority students earn science and engineering doctorates.
Full Summary:
As Georgia Tech celebrates the 50th anniversary of the matriculation of African-American students, the Institute is proud of the achievements of the FACES program in bringing diversity to science and engineering education.
Manu Platt biomedical engineerAs Georgia Tech celebrates the 50th anniversary of the matriculation of African-American students, the Institute is proud of the achievements of the FACES program in bringing diversity to science and engineering education.
Since 1998, more than 300 minority students earned their doctorate in science, technology, engineering and math, thanks in part to the FACES program.
Georgia Tech ranked no. 1 in the U.S. last year for awarding the most engineering doctoral degrees to African-American students and all minority students, according to Diverse Issues in Higher Education.
Georgia Tech oversees the FACES program, which stands for Facilitating Academic Careers in Engineering and Science, in partnership with Emory University, Morehouse College and Spelman College. The National Science Foundation funds the program.
“Over the last decade, the FACES program has contributed significantly to the formation of an environment at Georgia Tech in which the completion of a STEM doctorate and consideration of an academic career are valued by talented minority students and supported by the campus," said Gary May, Georgia Tech’s Steve W. Chaddick School Chair of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "We are very proud of what has been created here and look forward to the contributions of our students as they pursue their careers."
A shining example of the FACES program’s success is Manu Platt, assistant professor of biomedical engineering in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.
Platt not only received a FACES grant that allowed him to pursue professional development while a postdoctoral fellow at M.I.T., but also received the FACES Career Initiation Grant when he joined the Georgia Tech faculty in 2009 to kick-start his research.
Platt, who this fall received a $1.5 million NIH Director's New Innovator Award to support his research on reducing stroke in children with sickle cell disease, said the prestige of being a FACES recipient has enriched his career.
“Georgia Tech is a special place to be such a top-quality engineering school and to have a diverse faculty,” Platt said. “I probably wouldn’t be as happy as a professor as I am today without the FACES program. Truly, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to be mentored by the African-American professors who helped me build a community and have showed me how to avoid the brick walls that you inevitably run into."
Today, Platt sits on the FACES steering committee that oversees the program and helps mentor African-American undergraduate and graduate students from Georgia Tech, Emory, Morehouse and Spelman, who will become the next generation of STEM professors.
“I enjoy just talking to them and selling them on why being a professor is so great,” Platt said. “You get to see students develop, learn and grow, and eventually move forward with their career.”
The FACES program includes three components:
All of the pieces of FACES contribute to the program’s success, May said.
“At Georgia Tech, we’ve seen that a key factor for motivating students to pursue advanced degrees and research careers in science and engineering is fruitful research experiences,” he said. “Quality interactions with engineering faculty can have a significant impact on a student’s decision to pursue graduate education.”
