Ben is the founding President of the BMES chapter at the University of Colorado - Boulder. He is a member of the BMES National Student Affairs Committee, where he is responsible for ensuring strong connections between students and industry representatives across the United States. Ben also acts as Chair of the BMES Industry Relations Subcommittee. Lastly, Ben serves on the Colorado Bioscience Association's Education Committee.
Dr. Robert H. Davis has been dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado - Boulder since 2002. Before becoming dean, he served as chair of CU-Boulder's chemical engineering department from 1992 to 2002. He also served as the director of the Colorado RNA Center and co-director of the Colorado Institute for Research in Biotechnology from 1987 to 2001.
Dr. Philip P. DiStefano is the Chancellor at the University of Colorado Boulder. Prior to his appointment on May 5, 2009, Dr. DiStefano served in a series of academic and administrative positions, including Professor, Associate Dean, Dean and Vice Chancellor. He was appointed Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs in 2001.
Gilda Barabino is a Professor and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. She recently served as the inaugural Vice Provost for Academic Diversity and is credited for establishing a legacy to strengthen diversity and inclusion at Georgia Tech. Prior to her appointments at Georgia Tech and Emory, she rose to the rank of Full Professor of chemical engineering and served as Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education at Northeastern University. Her research interests include sickle cell disease, cellular and tissue engineering and diversity in science and engineering. She received her B.S. degree in Chemistry from Xavier University of Louisiana and her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Rice University. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the Biomedical Engineering Society. She is President of the Biomedical Engineering Society, serving a two-year term, 2012-2014. Dr. Barabino is a recognized innovator, researcher and consultant on faculty development and diversity in science and engineering and has led a number of initiatives in these areas including serving as the founder and Executive Director of the National Institute for Faculty Equity.
Racial and ethnic minorities and women differentially experience the academy in a manner that impacts career progression and outcomes. Identify formation provides a framework for examining these differences and gaining a better understanding of factors that contribute to them. Drawing upon lived experiences and extant literature, this presentation explores positioning in terms of race and gender in the academy and its relationship to career progression using identity as a lens. Potential strategies that can be employed to enhance the career progression of all groups will be addressed.
Eric Chwang is an assistant professor of philosophy at CU-Boulder. He received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University in 2003 and an M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine in 2005. Before coming to Boulder he was a bioethics postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health. His research focuses on ethical and bioethical issues.
Dr. Chwang's talk aims to illustrate the ethics and critical thinking that are important in medical technologies. To illustrate, he will present the following example:
In the 1990s, a pharmaceutical company chose to test its new HIV drug in an impoverished region of Africa--where the standard of care for HIV is nothing--so as to be able to test against placebo, which would not have been allowed in the US. This talk will examine whether this is wrongful exploitation, or rather an unproblematic, mutually-beneficial exchange.
Chuck graduated with a BS degree in biomedical engineering from Boston University in 1981 and received his MBA from the University of Phoenix in 2000. He has over 30 years of industry experience, which includes working as a biomedical engineer, engineering manager, and marketing manager. He currently works as the Director of International Marketing at CR Bard (formerly Medivance).
More details coming soon...