William M. Reichert
Professor of Biomedical Engineering & Chemistry and Director, Center for Biomolecular & Tissue Engineering
William Reichert doesn't think it's that hard to be a good mentor to graduate students, as long as you have the right students. Reichert, a biomedical engineering professor at Duke since December 1988, modestly credits much of his mentoring success to his graduate students. Over the past 22 years, he has advised at least 25 budding young academics at Duke and the University of Utah as they have developed into full-fledged scholars. “I have a wonderful group of students,” he said. “It's a lot easier to be a good mentor if you have good people to work with.”
The feeling is mutual. Last month Reichert became one of three university faculty members to earn the Graduate School's second annual awards for excellence in mentoring. (The other winners were Linda George of sociology and psychology and Alexander Rosenberg of philosophy and biology.) Reichert, known as “Monty” by most of his students, particularly stands out for his commitment to increasing the diversity of the biomedical engineering pool. After receiving tenure at Duke about 10 years ago, he took a sabbatical at North Carolina Central University, a historically African-American university, to learn how to boost the number of minority students in the sciences and engineering. “Diversity and excellence can and should co-exist,” he said. “It's one thing to say that and another thing to do that. I decided to lead by example.”
Since then, he has recruited and retained a number of African-American, Native American, women and disabled students. While he was director of graduate studies for the biomedical engineering department, for instance, the number of underrepresented minorities in the program tripled. “In improving the diversity in engineering at Duke, Monty has taken an approach that supports minority students by being an informative source for financial aid opportunities, maintaining accessibility, and recognizing the importance of being considered a competent scientific peer,” wrote one African-American female student in nominating him for the award. “In my opinion, Monty has found a formula from which other science and engineering disciplines with low minority enrollments could benefit.”
Beyond his commitment to diversity, Reichert said he treats his graduate students with courtesy and respect. For instance, he strives to create an open atmosphere in his labs so that students feel free to collaborate on research, discuss projects and experiment with new ideas and materials. “The first thing that you've got to do is recognize the value these people bring to the table,” he said. “They're very intelligent people that have the potential to do great things.”
Although known as a demanding mentor, Reichert tries not to impose too many fixed requirements on his younger charges. For instance, he avoids handing them weekly lists of set tasks to perform. “I'm not a micro-manager,” he said. “I try not to torment them. I try to give them latitude.” Reichert's students praise his approach. They say he treats every student as an equal, maintains an open door policy, shows interest in their personal lives and provides honest and constructive feedback, often in a humorous way. “It is an atmosphere where you are expected to work hard, but questions are appreciated and help is always available,” wrote one graduate student in support of Reichert's nomination. “It is also an atmosphere based on the philosophy that graduate work is independent work, and Monty is there to mentor and guide, not to tell us which experiments to run or how to run them.”
Reichert also encourages his graduate students to seek out other experts and mentors when he can't help them with a research problem. Students say he often introduces them to other researchers that he knows, even if it means less work for his own labs. “He is always looking for other collaborators to help mentor and teach his graduate students,” wrote another student. “He also keeps great company, so working with the people he suggests has been both easy and fruitful.”
An award-winning scholar known for his research on biosensors, protein- mediated cell adhesion and wound healing, Reichert knows the importance of graduate students getting their work published. He said he always gives his students an initial project related to one of his research grants so that they can contribute immediately. He also urges them to “add something unique” at the end of their theses to help them stand out. “I get to see people come in as sort of blobs of clay with a lot of potential and watch them transform into people who are really on top of their games and firing on all cylinders,” he said. “When a graduate student develops intellectual ownership of a project, a new person walks through that door.”
-Alan Breznick
Reprinted from Dialogue (April 29, 2005) with permission from Duke News Service.