BIOE Graduate Program Receives Mentoring Excellence Award

The University of Maryland's Fischell Department of Bioengineering has received the Graduate School's 2025-26 Graduate Program Mentoring Excellence Award, recognizing the department's commitment to inclusive, high-quality mentoring for doctoral students. The award includes $1,000 to support future mentoring activities.

The honor goes to programs that make mentoring a central responsibility through evidence-based practices supporting student success, belonging, and career preparation.

BIOE's graduate program spans engineering, biology, and medicine through interdisciplinary research in biomaterials and tissue engineering, drug delivery, diagnostics, biomedical imaging, biomechanics, biosensors, and vaccine development. The department offers Ph.D., M.S., and M.Eng. degrees, as well as joint programs with the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

BIOE’s graduate program was recognized for a mentoring structure that supports students throughout every stage of their doctoral experience, beginning before they officially enroll and continuing through research training, professional development, and career preparation.

“The department prides itself on its sense of community, collegiality, and educational excellence, and these values are central to how we mentor our Ph.D. students,” said Melanie Prange, BIOE program director for academic and student affairs. “Mentoring is a shared responsibility of faculty, fellow students, and staff members.”

One of the program’s defining features is its first-year lab rotation system, which allows incoming doctoral students to work in multiple research groups before selecting a permanent advisor and laboratory. The department has continued to prioritize rotations even as some peer institutions scale back similar programs because of financial pressures.

“The department prides itself on its sense of community, collegiality, and educational excellence, and these values are central to how we mentor our Ph.D. students. Mentoring is a shared responsibility of faculty, fellow students, and staff members.”

-Melanie Prange

"The rotation program enables our new Ph.D. students to find the research that resonates with them as well as the mentor relationship that will give them the best opportunity for a productive and rewarding Ph.D. experience," said Ian White, professor and director of graduate studies.

Faculty maintain lab-specific expectations documents outlining research responsibilities, mentorship practices and professional standards, which students and advisors revisit regularly. White said those structures help students develop the independence and leadership skills needed for careers both inside and outside academia.

"A good mentor will know the student's career plans, work with the student to assess what skills they need to acquire, and advise them on how to improve those skills through their research," White said.

Graduate students also play an active role in welcoming and supporting newcomers through recruitment events, peer mentoring, and community-building activities organized by the Bioengineering Graduate Student Society.

Support begins before students officially enroll. During BIOE Graduate Visit Day, prospective doctoral students take part in a multi-day open house introducing them to faculty research and the department's collaborative culture.

"Even prior to enrolling, BIOE Ph.D. students begin the mentoring process," Prange said. "BIOE Graduate Visit Day not only showcases faculty and student research but also engages the whole department to welcome students and help them understand the experience of being a doctoral student here."

The Graduate Program Mentoring Excellence Award builds on the Graduate School’s 2022 initiative requiring graduate programs to establish formal Statements of Expectations for Graduate Student Mentoring. BIOE’s mentoring framework is outlined in the department’s graduate handbook and includes commitments to accessibility, inclusion, advocacy, professional development and scientific rigor.

“BIOE has built a culture of mentoring excellence into its program requirements and organizational structure,” Prange said. “The department is committed to its doctoral students’ success.”

Published June 4, 2026