Published Feb 14, 2023
The University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) made history when Valerie Sheares Ashby was honored as Technologist of the Year at the 2022 Women of Color in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Conference.
As a researcher, Dr. Sheares Ashby has focused on synthetic polymer chemistry with an emphasis on designing and synthesizing materials for biomedical applications such as X-ray contrast agents and drug delivery materials. She is the recipient of the National Science Foundation Career Development Award, DuPont Young Faculty Award, and 3M Young Faculty Award, as well as numerous teaching awards.
Sheares Ashby is the first college president to receive the technologist of the year award at the Women of Color gala. She was appointed to the presidency of UMBC on August 1, 2022, and is the first woman to serve in this role.
Previously, she served as dean of Duke University’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences. In this role, she led a 700-person faculty spanning nearly 40 departments and programs.
>p>Sheares Ashby came to Duke from UNC, where she served on the faculty and chaired the chemistry department from 2012 to 2015. In her role as department chair, she was instrumental in UNC’s collaboration with UMBC to launch the Chancellor’s Science Scholars Program, among the earliest Meyerhoff Scholars replication pilots at an R1 institution.She began her career at Iowa State University as an assistant professor in 1996 and was promoted to associate professor in 2002. While at Iowa State, Sheares Ashby was a mentor for the Iowa State University Program for Women in Science & Engineering, a summer research program for undergraduate and high school students.
THE TECHNOLOGISTS OF THE YEAR TIMELINE
