SUNO professor recipient of presidential award for excellence

13th April 2015   ·   0 Comments

By Charmaine Jackson
Contributing Writer

President Barack Obama’s announcement of recipients for the prestigious Presidential Award of Excellence in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Mentorship (PAESMEM) last month included Dr. Murty Kambhampati, a biology professor at Southern University of New Orleans (SUNO), along with 13 other individuals and one organization.

The mentors and organizations announced represent the winners for 2012 and 2013.

Established in 1996, PAESMEM “recognizes individuals for mentoring persons from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, women, persons with disabilities, persons from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, and early career scientists and engineers.”

“These educators are helping to cultivate America’s future scientists, engineers and mathematicians,” President Obama said in a released statement. “They open new worlds to their students and give them the encouragement they need to learn, discover and innovate.”

Specifically, Dr. Kambhampati’s nomination profile states he is being recognized for preparing underrepresented minority high school students for college and undergraduate students for graduate programs through intensive research mentoring, including hands-on and minds-on, as well as scientific competition, through presentations and research conferences. His mentoring methods are designed to expose students to research and the professional environment as early as possible, while instilling student character and confidence in skill development.

For Dr. Kambhampati, who has earned doctorate degrees from Jackson State University in Environmental Science and Andhra University of India, in Ecology, mentorship seems to be second nature, and as a result, the accolades have followed. He was awarded the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research and Mentoring, in 2005 and the National Role Model Faculty Award for Minority Access, Inc., in 2008, for his work as a mentor.

Dr. Kambhampati has used several resources to help aid with mentoring efforts, such as his professional expertise, partnerships with other educational institutions and involvement in a scholastic organization. He has established collaborations with Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island, New York; Downing College, Tulane University, Louisiana State University’s Louisiana Biomedical Network, and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), to place students for summer internships and ecological field trips. Additionally, he also serves as the Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator on funded state and federal grants and is SUNO’s Beta Kappa Chi/Na­tional Institute of Science chapters’ sponsor.

Over the past 12 years, Dr. Kam­b­hampati has personally mentored 65 minority biology majors, in addition to several high school students. All mentored within that period have graduated. Of 27 graduates tracked since 2002, 71 percent have pursued graduate and professional schools.

“Several of my student mentees earned advanced degrees in STEM fields and some are currently pursuing graduate and professional degrees, such as masters, doctorate, doctor of pharmacy, and medical doctor degrees. A few mentees have chosen the teaching profession, which I highly admire,” Dr. Kambhampati stated.

Derrick Ambrose, former Brook­haven intern, says Dr. Kamb­hampati gave him a chance to do research, which led to an opportunity to attend graduate school. “If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be in the doctoral program right now,” Ambrose said. He credits the professor for mentoring him, in addition to guiding him on how to get funding and also writing reference letters. As a Ph.D student, Am­brose is studying biomedical engineering at Louisiana Tech Univ­ersity.

All recipients will receive a paid trip to Washington, D.C., a certificate signed by the President of the United States, and a $10,000 presidential honorary award from the National Science Foundation. Additionally, awardees will have the opportunity to attend celebratory receptions, be recognized at an award ceremony at the White House and partake in professional development programs and discussions with policy makers on ways to encourage others to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields (STEM).

“I am honored and thrilled by the receipt of this prestigious and once-in-a-lifetime king of award,” Dr. Kambhampati said of receiving the highest national mentorship award. “This award is an accolade for the efforts of mentoring students in the Department of Natural Sciences at SUNO in bio­logi­cal/environmental sciences.

Dr. Kambhampati wants to dedicate the award to his parents for their lifelong and unconditional love, wisdom and mentoring. “My parents are my real and unsung heroes,” he said. “I also thank Joe Omojola, Professor of Mathe­matics and Physics and a recipient of the Presidential Award in 2007, for the nomination for this award.”

This article originally published in the April 13, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.