Dr. Amoako Receives Tenure and Promotion to Assoc. Prof. of Biomedical Engineering.
Tenured, Now What?
“Omnia Vincit Labor”, Latin for “Work Conquers All” was the motto of my high school St. Augustine’s College, and it still rings true today. I should add that the word “Hard” was always placed in front of the word “Work” by my administrators when the Latin language was translated into English perhaps to encourage discipline.
Here is to the past six years of a career in academia and to what the next six shall bring.
Some milestones worth highlighting include:
“Omnia Vincit Laboring” these six years and being awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering. It has been a great learning and developmental phase of constantly refining how to better train the next generation of biomedical engineers, exploring pedagogies and persuasive writing techniques; increasing leadership roles within the biomedical engineering and the sciences; defining and redefining my research terra firma; and building the right relationships.
An established and still growing Biomedical Engineering Program. We’ve gone from a zero alumni base to one who are placed in house-hold name biomedical engineering companies and doctoral degree programs, and to those that are addressing some challenging and unmet clinical needs through a well-funded startups. Five years into its development, major growth investments were made in new faculty hire and research footprint to bolster our medical devices, functional biomaterials, and tissue engineering research agenda.
An established and vivacious biomedical research program. We’ve tied program growth to major investments which have led to a solid bottom line for sustaining further growth. Our mint condition biomedical research and teaching labs and the Bergami Center for Science, Technology and Innovation are new spaces for experiential student learning, faculty research, and community engagement. Here, #chargers will continue to innovate medical solutions for the next 100 years to come.
Expanded professional network. This, by far, has been my most important milestone and I’m nowhere near my targets. Forming connections and maintaining relationships with professionals who have your best interest is critical for early career development. This is however not easily done and one learns to juggle all there are to the assistant professorship or career while squeezing in the time to nurture these relationships. Almost everything you take on would probably be new and would need more of your time. You mustn’t, however, squeeze in growing your professional network. As they say notworking is one letter away from networking so find the time, place building these relationships not at the bottom of your development goals, build your network early, continue to work at it, and avoid putting off building your network until later.
The next six years brings a new and fresh clean slate to be filled. But with what? Not entirely sure but I do think of service to family, friends, and acquaintances; service to the profession at the institutional, local, national and international fronts; service to organizations that uplift our communities; new ventures and partnerships that create value; and for sure broadening my professional circles.
They say the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago and the second best time is now. As a piece of advice to myself and early career professionals, go gung-ho on building your network now for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.
