Faculty are central to higher education and workforce development. Recent significant disruptions including the pandemic, student demographic shifts, and technology advancements in artificial intelligence are challenging faculty member's status quo in their teaching and research practices. Faculty members will need to actively engage in…

Many Graduate Medical Education Residents (GMERs) across American academic medical centers lack the necessary skills to research and publish their findings. This situation is critical as GMERs are future healthcare physicians who treat humans and strive to overcome disease, injury, and pain. Published biomedical research benefits physicians,…

This dissertation is in two parts: Part 1 of the study focuses on investigating the feasibility of delivering turn-on rhodamine-based fluorophores through Glucose transporters (GLUTs) for biomedical applications, both "in vitro" and in vivo. Fluorescent GLUT targeting probes are essential for analyzing transport activity, monitoring…

This exploratory sequential mixed-methods case study explores the relationship between perceived self-efficacy and faculty mentorship with biomedical sciences graduate students. The intent of the study was to understand the extent at which faculty mentorship contributes to self-efficacy development in the population of biomedical sciences doctoral…

The interaction of proximate research universities is a multifaceted and increasingly relevant phenomenon in today's higher education landscape. The three essays herein add to science policy and innovation literature by exploring the challenges, opportunities, and expectations that arise when multiple universities operate in a region. The first…

Biomedical engineering (BME) undergraduate students take courses that allow them to develop skills in multiple disciplinary areas (e.g., biology, medicine, chemical, mechanical, electrical engineering) and as such, have a wide array of career opportunities available to them upon graduation. While their broad curricular exposure lends itself to…

While more underrepresented minorities (URMs) are graduating with their PhDs, especially in the biomedical sciences, many leave the academy for non-academic related jobs (e.g., government, nonprofits, industry, etc.) instead of pursuing faculty positions. This is a problem because faculty racial/ethnic diversity impacts URM student recruitment and…

Background: Influenced by "Embrace the World," Pitt's strategic plan for its global vision the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) has enhanced its involvement in transnational knowledge sharing endeavors over several decades. The School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh has been directly involved in a global health education…

The implementation of curriculum change, and innovative pedagogical theory, can help educators and administrators in higher education further the learning gains of students in the sciences. But the introduction of new methods of teaching, or curricular restructuring, can be interpreted by students differently, potentially affecting students'…

The number of biomedical PhD scientists being trained and graduated far exceeds the number of academic faculty positions and academic research jobs. If this trend is compelling biomedical PhD scientists to increasingly seek career paths outside of academia, then more should be known about their intentions, desires, training experiences, and career…

The purpose of this study was first to determine factors associated with intellectual reputation, specifically among selected biomedical departments worldwide within the university setting. Second, the study aimed to examine intellectual reputation in relationship to doctoral graduates' productivity in the biomedical sciences and in relationship…

A mixed-methods research study was designed to test whether undergraduate engineering students were better prepared to learn advanced topics in biomedical engineering if they learned physiology via a quantitative, concept-based approach rather than a qualitative, system-based approach. Experiments were conducted with undergraduate engineering…

The tremendously huge volume of biomedical literature, scientists' specific information needs, long terms of multiples words, and fundamental problems of synonym and polysemy have been challenging issues facing the biomedical information retrieval community researchers. Search engines have significantly improved the efficiency and effectiveness of…

Biosimulation models are valuable, versatile tools used for hypothesis generation and testing, codification of biological theory, education, and patient-specific modeling. Driven by recent advances in computational power and the accumulation of systems-level experimental data, modelers today are creating models with an unprecedented level of…

One innovative, higher-education response to globalization and changing fiscal realities is the curricular joint venture (CJV), a formal collaboration between academic institutions that leverages missions through new joint degrees and research not previously offered by collaborating institutions (Eckel, 2003). In 1997, a pioneering biomedical…