Grant receives AAAS Mentor Award

Dr. Christine Grant, associate dean of faculty advancement for the College of Engineering and professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at North Carolina State University, has been selected to receive the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS) Mentor Award.

Grant was recognized for facilitating dramatic education and research changes that are leading to a significant production of African-American doctorates and females in chemical engineering.

Her charges included girls, women and engineering students of color ranging from middle school to faculty level. She has directed undergraduate projects for eight students, Ph.D. dissertations for two students and has served as a Ph.D. committee member or personal mentor to 10 minority Ph.D. students in chemical engineering, chemistry and physics at NC State University and nine undergraduates from other universities who went on to obtain their Ph.Ds.

She also established a nationwide peer-mentoring network for female engineering faculty members that collaborates with women and minority junior faculty to provide the support that is essential for the successful recruitment, retention and promotion of engineering faculty members. Her projects, ADVANCE-ENG Girls to Women and ADVANCE ENG Boyz to Men, focused on encouraging middle school students to consider and commit to careers in STEM-related fields for the future.

Grant has received numerous awards and honors, including the Council for Chemical Research (CCR) Diversity Award (2009) and the American Chemical Society Stanley C. Israel Regional Award (2012). She is an American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Fellow (2013) and received the 2003 NSF Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Math and Engineering Mentoring; AIChE Pioneers of Diversity Award (2015); and Council for Chemical Research National Diversity Award (2009). Grant also received the Inaugural Pioneers of Diversity Award from the AIChE Minority Affairs Committee (2015).

She earned a B.S. in chemical engineering from Brown University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The AAAS Mentor Award honors AAAS members who have mentored significant numbers of underrepresented students (women, minorities and persons with disabilities) working toward a Ph.D. in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, and who have also demonstrated scholarship, activism and community building on behalf of underrepresented groups in STEM fields. This award is granted to individuals in the mid-stage of their careers who have demonstrated commitment and extraordinary effort as mentors for 25 years or more.

Grant will receive the award at the 182^nd AAAS Annual Meeting in February 2016.