Meet Assistant Teaching Professor Kelly Kyker-Snowman
Kelly Kyker-Snowman joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) as an assistant teaching professor in the summer of 2023. Previously, she had been a postdoctoral researcher at both the Robert Woods Johnson Medical School and the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. She has also collaborated with BME professor and Rutgers Vice Provost for University Affairs David Shreiber on a New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research pilot project exploring cellular transitions associated with ovarian cancer metastasis to the peritoneum.
Four Questions for Assistant Teaching Professor Kelly Kyker-Snowman
What fueled your passion for BME?
The intersection of approaching pressing human health problems with an engineering mindset and applying that theoretical framework to biological processes is what first brought me to BME. This is what fuels my passion for instilling some of that knowledge and understanding in my students.
What are you teaching?
I’m teaching BME201 Introduction to BME and BME401 Senior Design. In Introduction to BME, I'm developing a laboratory component focusing on practical applications of biomedical engineering skills, including 3D printing, biomechanical testing, and cell culture.
What are you looking forward to?
As a teaching professor I'm looking forward with Rutgers Office of Teaching Evaluation and Assessment Research (OTEAR) to develop some discipline-based education research around the new approaches I’m developing in Introduction to BME – such as the laboratory component focusing on practical applications of biomedical engineering skills, including 3D printing, biomechanical testing, and cell culture –.
I’m also available as a collaborator and mentor for bench research, and to assist the undergraduates in my courses in finding great mentors within the department to work with.
What do you most enjoy about the BME department and the SoE?
The BME department specifically and the SoE generally have been such collaborative and supportive spaces. I’ve also received enthusiastic support from colleagues for the improvements I’m making to the courses I’m teaching in order to better support our students in learning and developing as engineers.
