When attends a major conference of electrical engineers in England this fall, he will be one of nearly 5,000 delegates.
鈥淏ut there won鈥檛 be many who look like me,鈥� says the professor of electrical and computer engineering. He estimates only about 10 of the participants at the IEEE conference will be black.
鈥淚t doesn’t bother me now as much as it did before,鈥� Doyley says. 鈥淣ow, I am a senior member, I have worked my way up, people know me, we have common experiences to talk about. But I鈥檒l be looking at someone else who is a minority just starting to come up, who will be standing at the back, hesitant to speak or ask questions.鈥�
Doyley is embarking on a mission to help address the glaring underrepresentation of minorities and women in STEM fields. He is one of 20 faculty members nationwide who have been selected for the first cohort of the , a program aimed at helping STEM faculty from underrepresented backgrounds ascend to leadership roles at colleges and universities.
鈥淢arvin is a great faculty colleague and over the years he has contributed tremendously to ECE鈥檚 research profile and teaching mission,鈥� says Mark Bocko, chair of the 鈥淗e clearly already possesses the skills and energy to be a wonderful leader for our department and the University, and the IAspire program is an excellent opportunity for him to hone those skills and prepare to take on new challenges in academic leadership.鈥�
The academy, housed at the University of Georgia, is backed by the National Science Foundation and offered by . The one-year core curriculum includes in-person sessions, peer coaching sessions, a concurrent individual learning component, and an institutional action project.
Doyley鈥檚 chosen project: Grow a pipeline to help diversify graduate students and faculty in his department. Doyley, for example, is the only black faculty member in the department, and only two women have primary appointments.
He鈥檒l approach this in two ways.
- Apply for National Science Foundation funding for an REU (research experience for undergraduates) program that would bring underrepresented minority and women students from other colleges and universities to his department to do mentored summer research projects. The hope is they would then return to the department to do graduate work.
- Apply for National Institutes of Health funding for training grants to help support underrepresented minority and women graduate students in the department. 鈥淎nd if they鈥檙e great, we would hire them (as faculty members),鈥� Doyley says.
Doyley hopes his participation in the academy will connect him with other participants, especially those from historically black colleges without graduate programs of their own, who could recommend top students from their institutions to participate in the REU and NIH training programs Doyley hopes to establish in his department.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a slow process; it鈥檚 not a quick fix,鈥� Doyley acknowledges.
But it鈥檚 a start.
A focus on mentors
Doyley, who was born in England, grew up in Jamaica and then returned to England at age 17 to attend college. He enjoyed math and science in school and from an early age wanted to be a doctor, just like Ben Casey, the idealistic young neurosurgeon in a TV series that was popular when Doyley was growing up.
However, he quickly became disabused of becoming a medical doctor after his guidance counselor at Brunel University in London suggested he do voluntary service at Greenwich Hospital.
鈥淚 lasted two days,鈥� Doyley says. 鈥淭hey put me on the geriatric ward, and I could not handle it鈥攁ll the people who were incontinent, or unable to do anything. It was a sad thing to see.鈥�
Instead, he majored in applied physics. He then earned his doctorate in medical physics鈥攗sing the principles of physics, mathematics, and engineering to solve medical problems鈥攆rom the University of London. And then served as a post-doctoral researcher at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and then a research assistant professor at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College.
He joined the University of Rochester in 2008, at the invitation of Kevin Parker, the William F. May Professor of Engineering who was then dean of engineering.
鈥淚鈥檝e been lucky,鈥� Doyley says. 鈥淢y PhD advisor [Jeffery Bamber] was fantastic, always challenging me to ask the right questions and thinking outside the box. My advisors [Keith Paulsen, John Weaver, Ton Van Der Steen] at the Erasmus University and Dartmouth were also fantastic鈥攖eaching me the value of excellence in research. And when I came here, Kevin was like a mentor to me鈥攎y sounding board, who gave good and honest advice.鈥�
Mentoring would be an important part of the REU and graduate training programs he hopes to establish.
Until now, Doyley鈥檚 primary focus has been on his research interests, which include cardiovascular imaging, breast cancer imaging, ultrasound beamforming, contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging, ultrasound elastography, magnetic resonance elastography, and pancreatic cancer imaging.
鈥淚 love research, and my dream, from a research standpoint, is to increase the diversity in our graduate students and professors. That鈥檚 where my interest is right now.鈥�
