Yasmin Roye has committed to Duke University’s biomedical engineering Ph.D. program as a William M. “Monty” Reichter Fellow and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow. She was also accepted to Yale University in New Haven, Conn.
Roye attributes her success to experiences at UMES, which led her to a Leadership Alliance internship at Brown University conducting surgical and immunology research. While at Brown, Roye attended the Samuel M. Nabrit Conference highlighting early career scholars. There, she met Dr. Samira Musah, a 2019 Samuel Nabrit Early Career Scholar, whose lab at Duke studies kidney disease using the same microfluidic methods that she learned as a researcher at UMES in Dr. Kausik Das’s lab. In the Das Lab, Roye explored microfluidic fabrication and the application of nanomaterials, which sparked her interest in biomedical engineering.
“My correspondence with Dr. Musah, the Musah Lab and Duke’s Biomedical Engineering Department made me feel the most welcome and respected,” Roye said. Musah is a top researcher, Roye said, and was recently featured as one of 100 Black Inspiring Scientists in America by Cell Press and frequently publishes in the Nature Scientific Journal.
A native of Prince George’s County, Roye was first inspired to pursue a career in healthcare based on her concern over the Syrian Civil War refugee crisis while she was high school. Her intentions in coming to UMES were to ultimately practice as a medical doctor through Doctors without Borders. Over the years, her focus, she said, turned to biomedical engineering “that will advance healthcare technologies and assist doctors.” Her intentions now are to participate in the Engineers without Borders, which impressed the graduate schools she applied to.
Undergraduate mentors at UMES who helped Roye along her journey were Dr. Tracy Bell, who accepted her into the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program and has “been a champion of my success for many years,” Dr. Uche Udeochu, who advised her first research project and publication in the Journal of Spectroscopy, and Das.
Taylor Robinson-Brown was recently accepted to Johns Hopkins University’s Whiting School of Engineering where she plans to pursue a master’s degree in applied biomedical engineering.
Robinson-Brown is among four undergraduate students working in the lab of Dr. Tracy Bell, a biology/physiology professor at UMES, where they study human kidney function through zebrafish. The tropical fish from Southeast Asia share 70 % of similar genetic material to humans making the perfect research specimen. Their goal is to investigate the role of insulin in regulating sodium and water transport in the kidney.
Along with Bell’s influence, Robinson-Brown was encouraged by her peers and professors such as Dr. Victoria Volkis. Volkis showed her that she could help people without being a physician; she could develop tools, procedures and prosthetics applied by and supplied by physicians.
“The students in the Department of Natural Sciences have been the driving force for why I applied to JHU,” Robinson-Brown said. “No matter how many times we said we were going to change our majors (in times of difficulties), someone always reminded us of why we have chosen it.”
For Robinson-Brown, it wasn’t always a clear path. If she could give advice to others, her advisor Dr. Jennifer Hearne said, it would be: “If you feel like your degree program isn’t for you, nine out of 10 times you aren’t looking at it the right way. Your program is the foundation for many potential directions in which to grow. Believe in yourself and apply to a graduate program that really interests you. Plans change from freshman year to senior year. Hang in there, you many get lost along the way, but you will find your way.”
A native of Bear, Del., Robinson-Brown is a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success, the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and president of the Eta Beta chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority.
