Cornell hosts Rising Stars in Engineering in Health

October 15, 2023

This fall the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering was honored to co-host the annual Rising Stars in Engineering in Health workshop on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, NY. The in-person, interactive workshop was held Friday-Saturday, September 22-23, 2023 and featured rapid-fire research talks, educational presentations, intensive workshops, mock interviews and panel discussions with faculty from the three hosting institutions: Cornell's Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins Biomedical Engineering and Columbia University.

Now in its fourth year, the workshop selects the best and brightest young researchers working at the intersection of engineering and biomedicine. The 2023 Rising Stars were carefully selected from more than 200 talented applicants from across the United States and Canada, and included postdoctoral fellows, research scientists and graduate students who are typically one to two years away from applying for a faculty position.

“It was wonderful to bring together and meet the 2023 Rising Stars, who are going to be the future leaders in biomedical engineering,” said Alex Kwan, an associate professor in the Meinig School, who was the lead organizer of the program, which highlighted communication skills. "Science communication is key to what we do as faculty members, and workshop participants have the unique opportunity to learn and to practice these important career skills with established faculty in the field.”

Another goal of the workshop was to demystify the faculty hiring process for talented biomedical researchers. Networking and panel discussions offered participants valuable insight into the journey of a prospective new faculty researcher.

“Meeting this outstanding cohort of Stars was inspiring,” said Meinig School professor and director Marjolein van der Meulen. “I always come away thinking how incredible the future of our field is.” van der Meulen was instrumental in Cornell’s joining the event’s institutional partnership by attending the 2022 event hosted by John Hopkins in Baltimore, MD and in bringing the event to Ithaca for 2023. This year’s event saw another institutional partner, Boston University, join the organizing committee. The 2024 event will be hosted by BU in Boston, MA.

Rising Stars benefitted greatly from the event, as conveyed in the following participant feedback highlights:

“I really enjoyed the Rising Stars Workshop and would enthusiastically recommend it to prospective faculty candidates. The lightning talk workshop proved incredibly beneficial; it has given me a clearer understanding of how to kickstart my job talk. I'm grateful for the diverse networking events. Meeting many faculty members was a delight; they were all approachable and kind. I discussed potential collaborations with faculty members at Cornell, and this experience played a pivotal role in shaping my future research plans. It was an immensely constructive and inspiring event. This workshop has significantly boosted my confidence in the job search process.”

-- Anqi Zhang, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University
I thoroughly enjoyed the Rising Stars meeting - it was easily the most impactful pre-faculty event that I have attended. Opportunities for abundant interactions/feedback from an entire room of faculty are rare, and learning about scientific communication and the faculty job search from a committee's perspective was incredibly informative. Needless to say, my writing and presentations will not be the same going forward. On top of that, it was refreshing to meet so many peers at a similar career stage with similar goals. We had a chance to connect, learn from each other, and share common experiences that are not so common outside of the academic world. And, it was a lot of fun.”

--Kayla Wolf, NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University
I had a very positive experience at the Rising Stars event. It was great meeting other postdocs in the same field with the same career goals. It was also nice meeting the faculty and getting advice and feedback on how to successfully land faculty positions. Their advice, guidance and examples helped to make the faculty hiring process feel less mysterious and more feasible. Overall, it helped to increase my confidence and knowledge of applying for faculty positions that I don't think I would have gotten otherwise.

--Marissa Gionet-Gonzales, President’s Postdoctoral Fellow (PPFP) and American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) eFellow, UC Santa Barbara

For more about the individual awardees, please visit the 2023 Rising Stars in Engineering Health event page.