Professor Vicki Colvin has spent just over a year serving as the inaugural Institute for Biology, Engineering, and Medicine (I-BEAM) Director. Now, she is onto the next exciting chapter in her career: the Baton Rouge native will return to the south as Louisiana State University’s Edward K. Barton Dean of Engineering. 

Professor Colvin has been a member of the Brown community for a decade and has directed the University’s biomedical engineering program since 2016. She was critical in launching I-BEAM — helping craft the institute into a place for innovation and impactful research that crosses the boundaries between biomedicine, medical practice, and engineering. 

Professor Colvin also served a key role in advancing I-BEAM’s diversity, equity, and inclusion goals by working with Columbia University, Yale University, and Johns Hopkins University to earn a multi-million dollar National Science Foundation (NSF) grant focused on increasing biomedical engineering faculty diversity. Visit the website to learn more about the grant: ARISE Alliance. 

Perhaps Professor Colvin’s most profound mark at Brown has been on her impact on students. Professor Colvin has taught everything from undergraduate Introductory Chemistry to graduate-level technology entrepreneurship and commercialization courses. She has served hundreds of students and mentored Ph.D. and undergraduate researchers. Her students conducted research in low-field magnetic separation, microbially engineered E. Coli, and magnetic resonance imaging, among other topics. 

Those students followed in Professor Colvin’s footsteps. A renowned and accomplished scientist in her own right, Professor Colvin was named one of Discover Magazine’s “Top 20 Scientists to Watch” in 2002 and is known for her meaningful research in nanotechnology. Colvin’s work influenced the manufacturing of device components essential to energy production. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers and holds five patents for her work. Before Brown, she conducted research, taught, and served as Vice Provost of Research and director of the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology at Rice University. 

Professor Colvin is dedicated to spreading scientific knowledge in any way possible. She is an editor of the nanotechnology journal Small, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. Professor Colvin is also committed to supporting the advancement of women in STEM, serving as a Director of the Schlumberger Foundation.

We are grateful for all Professor Colvin has given in her time at Brown. We look forward to watching her continue to flourish as she enters her new role at Louisiana State.