Grant receives 2011 Winifred Burks-Houck leadership award

Dr. Christine Grant, associate dean for faculty development and special initiatives and professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at North Carolina State University, has received the 2011 Winifred Burks-Houck Women’s Professional Leadership Award from the National Organization for Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE).

Grant is being honored for her leadership experience, commitment to the community, and her professional success in the discipline. The award will be presented at NOBCChE’s 38th Annual Conference that begins April 19 in Houston, Texas.

The mission of NOBCChE is to build an eminent community of scientists and engineers by increasing the number of minorities in these fields. The award honors the late Winifred A. Burks-Houck, the first female president of NOBCChE.

Grant has been honored with several NOBCChE awards. She received the Graduate Student Fellowship, sponsored by Eastman Kodak, in 1987-1988; the Lloyd M. Fergusson Young Scientist Award in 1997; and the Professional Award in Chemical Engineering in 2008. Grant has also had three mentees receive NOBCChE Graduate Student Fellowships.

In her work as associate dean, Grant develops programs and initiatives such as on-campus professional development seminars and trips to funding agencies that foster faculty success and boost collaboration. Her research focuses on surface and interfacial phenomena related to the areas of biomaterials, electronic materials and polymer thin films. She is widely recognized as a leader in mentoring and has received numerous top honors, including an National Science Foundation Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring and a National Technical Association Top Women in Science and Engineering Award.

She is also the founder and director of the Promoting Underrepresented Presence On Science and Engineering Faculties (PURPOSE) Institute, an organization dedicated to increasing the number and success of engineering faculty members from underrepresented groups.

Grant received her BS in chemical engineering from Brown University in 1984 and her MS and PhD in chemical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1986 and 1989, respectively. She joined the NC State faculty in 1989.