The White House last week named Tufts professors Karen Panetta and Peggy Cebe as recipients of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring for their work with students from underrepresented groups.
Panetta, a professor in the School of Engineering's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Cebe, a professor of physics in the School of Arts and Sciences, were two of nine individuals and eight organizations honored.
Panetta was recognized for her work with the international Nerd Girls program, and Cebe was recognized for the research group she leads composed of deaf and hard−of−hearing students.
It is rare for a university to get more than one award of this type, according to School of Engineering Dean Linda Abriola.
"That just shows how outstanding these two individuals are," she said.
The award includes a $25,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to further mentoring efforts, according to the Nov. 15 White House press release.
Individuals responsible for mentoring students from any grade level were eligible for the award and could be nominated by students, faculty and administrators.
Panetta founded the Nerd Girls program because she noticed a lack of female students and faculty in her department and a series of negative stereotypes associated with female engineers.
Nerd Girls is designed to foster female participation and success in the field of engineering through participation in a diverse range of projects, Panetta said. For example, participants have worked on LED technology development and have also assisted a partially paralyzed woman with multiple sclerosis train a monkey to help her do chores, Panetta explained.
The Nerd Girls program has expanded internationally to countries such as South Korea, Venezuela and Australia. Participants now work on international projects, including the construction of India's first database system for tracking autism and blindness in children, according to Panetta.
She takes pride in the fact that the Nerd Girls are well−rounded individuals who excel in activities aside from science and engineering.
"Some people don't understand that to be a good engineer, you need creativity as your number one skill," Panetta said. "When you see someone who dances or sculpts or does some other extracurricular activity, that complete person is what makes you a better engineer."
Those who nominated Panetta for the award celebrated her victory.
"We're delighted for her, and this brings a lot of visibility to Tufts and the School of Engineering, and particularly women in engineering," Abriola said.
Cebe embarked on her mentoring career for those in the deaf community after she began to lose her hearing at a young age. She was exposed to deaf and hard of hearing students at Gallaudet University, the world's only university specifically designed for deaf and hard−of−hearing students.
Her proposal to teach and work alongside four deaf and hard−of−hearing student interns at Tufts was approved by the National Science Foundation in 2003. This resulting program was called the Cebe Research Group.
"The goal is a very simple one and that is to provide opportunities for deaf and hard−of−hearing students to work in an environment in which they would be able to work with other deaf and hard−of−hearing students," Cebe said.
Putting deaf and hard−of−hearing students in one group rather than dispersing them throughout random laboratories provides them the ability to sign to each other and makes them feel that they are not alone, she noted.
Student interns have researched topics ranging from polymers and clay to fuel cell applications, she explained. Out of the 103 students she has mentored, 34 of them were deaf or hard−of−hearing and two−thirds were non−white women, according to Cebe.
As a result of the program, many of the student interns have continued their studies after receiving their undergraduate degrees by going to graduate school or getting jobs in science−related fields, Cebe noted. Some have also co−written publications in prestigious journals around the country.
"They felt that in some ways the program was a key in getting a job or being accepted into school for many of them," Cebe said.
"I'm absolutely thrilled and deeply honored to have been selected for this award," Cebe said. "The Presidential Award for mentoring is a great way to bring attention to the important role that individual mentoring can have in shaping students' lives ... This is especially true for the deaf and hard−of−hearing students who don't have as many opportunities for internships in the ‘hard' sciences."
Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy Roger Tobin, who helped teach the student interns in the classroom component of Cebe's program, said that she should be commended not only for her outreach to the deaf and hard−of−hearing, but also for mentoring more graduate and undergraduate students than anyone else in the department.
"For every individual student, she works with that student and his strengths and weaknesses, holds him to the highest possible intellectual and scientific standards and gets him as far as she possibly can," he said.