Saterbak Receives Lifetime Faculty Mentor Award

Ann Saterbak, a professor of the practice in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University, was awarded the Biomedical Engineering Lifetime Faculty Mentor Award from the American Society for Engineering Education Biomedical Engineering Division. Given once every two years, this award is intended to highlight faculty who have helped advance engineering education through outstanding mentorship on a nationwide scale.

“Ann is an outstanding educator and one of our best teachers in Duke BME,” said Libby Bucholz, the Claude B. Williams and David M. Hessee Associate Professor of the Practice in Duke BME. “She leads our students with a calm efficiency that I envy and try to replicate in my own classes, and I feel lucky to be down the hall from her to witness how she interacts with and guides our students throughout their engineering education.”

A nationally recognized engineering educator, Saterbak focuses on creating undergraduate programs that broaden student’s problem-solving skills using real-world problems, inquiry-based learning and hands-on experiences. In her role at Duke, Saterbak serves as the founder and director of the Duke Engineering First-Year Experience, an introductory engineering program that immerses students in hands-on, community-driven design projects in their first months in the engineering program.

Saterbak’s work in engineering education extends beyond the walls of Duke. In 2021, she worked with a team of collaborators to launch Biomedical Engineering Education, a journal from the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) that shares research articles, teaching tips and other advances that are useful for biomedical engineering educators.

For her numerous contributions to the field, Saterbak was elected a fellow in the Biomedical Engineering Society and the American Society of Engineering Education, and she is a frequent presenter of educational materials at the annual ASEE and BMES conferences.

“I have been very gratified with the growth in the emphasis on BME education and in the number of teaching focused BME faculty members across the country during the last 25 years,” said Saterbak. “Biomedical engineering education is a growing and thriving community with faculty constantly developing new programs and pedagogies, and I’m thankful to be a part of it.”