Martha Shumate Absher

Duke University | Durham, NC | 1996

Martha Shumate Absher Portrait Photo

The official biography below was current at the time of the award. Awardees may choose to provide their latest biographical information on their profile page.

Absher is Program Director of the NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Emerging Cardiovascular Technologies and has directed and administered educational and outreach programs involving graduate, undergraduate, high school, and grade school students, including programs focusing on minorities, women, and persons with disabilities. Absher's accomplishments include: I. Excellent mentoring of students with disabilities; II. Honors for work with hearing-impaired students; III. Providing quality research experience in the labs and developing mentoring relationships with students from six universities, including five Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); and IV. Impressive student outcomes -- of the 64 ERC fellowships awarded in the outreach program, 42 fellows have completed undergraduate degrees and 63 percent of them are in graduate school in SME fields, 29 percent are in industry, four percent in medical school, and four percent are teaching. Of those 42, 19 were disabled, and no such other opportunities existed for them.