Christine Grant, professor and inaugural associate dean for faculty advancement in the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University, has been elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for 2024.
A professor in NC State’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering for more than 33 years, Grant served as associate dean for 12 years. In this role, she was responsible for faculty development, promotion and tenure processes in the College of Engineering.
Grant has been a lifelong advocate for broadening participation, promotion and retention of men and women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. She has served as a mentor and role model for women, particularly women from underrepresented groups, in engineering from students to faculty members and has been recognized widely for her mentoring efforts. A prolific speaker nationally and internationally, she also engages in career coaching, and professional development workshops.
Grant was elected by AAAS “for outstanding contributions to colloids, surfaces, and interfacial phenomena of solid films and surfactants, and for extraordinary support for advancing women and minorities within faculty and students in science and engineering.”
Grant’s awards for mentoring activities include the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, an award established by the White House in 1995; the AAAS Mentoring Award; and the Women in Engineering Pro-Active Network (WEPAN) Bevlee A. Watford Inclusive Excellence Award, which honors individuals or groups who actively and creatively support the success of women of color in engineering at the undergraduate, graduate, faculty and/or administrative levels.
Grant is a Fellow, Life Member and the 2022 President of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), a global organization of 60,000+ members in 110 countries. She previously served the AIChE as a member of the Board of Directors, Chemical Technology Operating Council (CTOC), Environmental Division, National Awards and Nominating Committees and the Henry & Melinda Brown Endowment Steering Committee. She also served as the chair of the Minority Affairs Committee.
Grant received a Sc.B. in chemical engineering from Brown University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, both in chemical engineering, from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She has also served as a visiting professor at Duke, Caltech and the University of Minnesota.
Grant is one of six NC State faculty members to be honored this year by AAAS, the world’s largest scientific society and the publisher of the journal Science.
Each year, the AAAS Council, the policymaking body of the society, elects members who have shown scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. Fellows are nominated by their peers and undergo an extensive review process.
Grant said that she recently learned that her selection comes 120 years after the selection of the prolific African American scholar W.E.B. Du Bois as an AAAS Fellow in 1904.
“It means even more now,” she said.
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