June 8, 2020
Left to right: Danielle Benoit, Laurel Carney, Diane Dalecki, and Amy Lerner of the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Dear members of the Hajim School community,
We have all been struggling to make sense of the events of the last couple weeks. The deaths of black and brown people at the hands of those sworn to protect us is reprehensible. Systemic racism plagues our country; we must all acknowledge this, and work to overcome its grasp on our lives and communities. I am committed to making the Hajim School more equitable, inclusive, and welcoming for all members of our community, and I welcome your ideas for ways we might achieve this goal.
As President Mangelsdorf noted in her message last week to the University community: “We have all been witness to egregious acts of hate and intolerance in recent days, but these incidents follow years—centuries—of injustice.” The University has resources to help if you are struggling. For students, the University Counseling Center (UCC) and the CARE Resource Center are available to help. For employees, you can find services and support through the Employee Assistance Program.
We will continue to work to do better.
Before COVID-19 threw a monkey wrench into our lives, we embarked on a celebration of women who have made special contributions to engineering and computer science at our University. This was part of a larger Celebration 2020 observance the University initiated, coinciding with the 200th anniversary of Susan B. Anthony’s birth and the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote.
I don’t want us to lose sight of that celebration — precisely because of the challenges we’re now facing. I hope we can draw strength from how these women have overcome obstacles and be inspired by their innovative achievements.
So, let us continue the celebration by recognizing four faculty members who have contributed greatly to our Department of Biomedical Engineering — Danielle Benoit, Laurel Carney, Diane Dalecki, and Amy Lerner. Though it is our youngest department, BME is our only department to achieve gender equity among its faculty and in its undergraduate enrollment (52.5 percent of BME graduates in the Class of ’19 were women). All four of these faculty members have contributed to the department’s academic and research strengths and to its remarkably collegial spirit.
As one of Danielle Benoit‘s former students writes: “The more time I spend in academia the more amazed I am with how (she) manages to keep up with so many things.” And to do them so well! Danielle is a recognized leader in therapeutic biomaterials for drug delivery and regenerative medicine, an outstanding teacher who has provided research experiences for more than 80 undergraduates in her lab, and an enthusiastic ambassador for science. As if that were not enough, last year she became director of the University’s Materials Science Program, which includes more than 50 affiliated faculty members from across the River Campus, Medical Center, and the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. Read more here.
Laurel Carney, the MaryLou Ingram Professor of Biomedical Engineering, joined the department in 2007 after serving as a faculty member at Boston and Syracuse Universities. She has set a great example for our other departments through the mentoring she provides for her BME early career colleagues — and more recently mid-level faculty as well — in applying for grants and managing labs. She is eminently qualified to do so. The first National Institutes of Health grant she received in 1999, “Auditory Processing of Complex Sounds,” has been continuously renewed ever since for a total of $9.2 million. Read more here about how she uses a deck of cards to keep her students attentive during her lectures — and how she probably wouldn’t be here if not for an erroneous job posting!
“Rochester through and through.” That’s how Diane Dalecki was aptly described by Donald Hall, the Dean of the Faculty of AS&E, when she was installed as the Kevin J. Parker Distinguished Professor in Biomedical Engineering. Diane earned all three of her engineering degrees here, mentored along the way by Kevin Parker and Edwin Carstensen. She now directs the Rochester Center for Biomedical Ultrasound where she cut her teeth as a graduate student, and is chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, which she helped build from the ground up. She excels as a teacher and researcher. As you will read in this profile, if you add up all that she received as a student from the University, it will be greatly exceeded by all she has done for the institution in return.
Amy Lerner can draw on a wealth of industry and academic experiences to inspire her senior design teams. A glove coating she designed as an undergraduate was later adopted by the NASA space program for use by astronauts. Amy implemented the department’s capstone senior design courses, partnering with companies and Medical Center clinicians to give students real world problems. She is founding academic director of the department’s CMTI master’s degree program in designing medical devices. She co-chairs the independent Commission on Women and Gender Equity in Academia, which urged increased transparency regarding sexual harassment complaints and received the University’s Presidential Diversity Award.
Notably, these four fellows of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) have 15 awards between them for outstanding teaching and mentoring of students. We are fortunate, indeed, to have them on our faculty.
Most of us can also remember one or more teachers from high school who inspired us, opened up new possibilities we had never imagined, or had a major impact on our subsequent academic paths. Two of the high school teachers awarded Singer Family Prizes by our University were nominated by Hajim students.
Tania Cano ’20 of electrical and computer engineering nominated Stephen Cardoso, an electronics technology teacher at William M. Davies Jr. Career and Technical High School in Lincoln, RI. “In Mr. Cardoso’s class, I was one of only four female students out of a class of about 30. . . Yet I never once felt like I didn’t belong in an engineering field because of my gender and ethnicity,” she says.
Ryan Hayter ’20 of chemical engineering nominated Sarah English ’95, a chemistry teacher at Sweet Home High School in Amherst, NY. “Dr. English provided a spark in our chemistry classroom that I never expected to experience,” Ryan says. “She had a major influence on my decision to attend Rochester, as she completed her undergraduate degree here (in biology). I decided to make a campus visit after her glowing recommendation.”
Have a great week!
Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman
