Delaware State University Faculty Member Wins National Mentor of the Year Award

News SREB News Release
Dr. Mukti Rana and NASA scholar Jessica Patel

Mukti Rana, a professor of engineering and director of the Optical Science Center for Applied Research, was awarded one of six national Faculty Mentor of the Year awards at the 26th annual Institute on Teaching and Mentoring in October in Atlanta, Georgia. The Institute is the nation’s largest annual gathering of underrepresented Ph.D. students and college faculty members of color.

Rana was nominated by Delaware State University doctoral student Jessica Patel, who said Rana ”encouraged me to learn that there are good days and there are bad days, but every day offers a new learning experience.”

To address the nation’s continuing shortage of African-American, Hispanic and Native American faculty, the SREB-State Doctoral Scholars Program hosts the annual Institute on Teaching and Mentoring, a collaboration of programs across the country that support minority Ph.D. students.

The Institute on Teaching and Mentoring is the largest gathering of minority doctoral scholars in the country. Now in its 26th year, the Institute gives the issue of faculty diversity a national focus and provides minority scholars with the strategies necessary to survive the rigors of graduate school, earn the doctoral degree and succeed as members of the professorate.

Contact: Veronica Johnson 404-879-5536

Or Ansley Abraham 404-879-5573