Mentoring and Education: A Lifetime of Experience and Learning (2019)

As recipient of the 2018 Robert M. Nerem Education and Mentorship Medal from the ASME, I was asked to prepare an article to contribute my reflections on these topics that arise whenever we offer advice and guidance to our younger colleagues. This represents my personal views on Bob Nerem, after whom the award is named, my experiences that have impacted me as a mentor, and some words of advice, offered cautiously and with qualifications, with regard to best practices in mentoring.This is a paper of a different sort than normally appears in the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering. It initiates what the Editors and I hope will be a tradition of articles written by recipients of the Robert M. Nerem Education and Mentorship Medal. I was pleased, if a bit intimidated, by being the inaugural contributor, but in the end, found it to be a rewarding and satisfying experience. While each subsequent recipient will no doubt have their own interpretation of what is appropriate, I chose to follow a path that parallels my presentation at the 2018 World Congress of Biomechanics. I start with a section that describes what Bob has meant to me, including the traits of his that I so value and try to emulate. Next, a section describes some of my own personal experiences that helped to shape my thinking about the role of a mentor, as well as best practices. In the final sections, I discuss some of what I consider to be the most important responsibilities of a mentor, and what we need to consider as we attempt to set an example for our mentees and guide them down a path of success.It seems appropriate, as the first recipient of the Nerem Medal, to begin this paper by recognizing the individual after whom the award is named, and to write briefly about his characteristics as a mentor, an educator, and a friend, and how he has influenced so many throughout their careers. There is no award or recognition that could mean more to me than being the inaugural recipient of the Nerem Medal. After all, education and mentoring are two of the most important roles for those of us working in academia. In many respects, our success or failure as researchers and educators hinges on our ability to train our research students in how to progress through a successful project. The success of our academic “offspring” reflects back on ourselves and our lab environment. Bob Nerem epitomizes traits to strive for as educators and mentors.Bob Nerem has long been my role model and sage advisor. I first met Bob shortly after he had joined the University of Houston as Department Chair, long before he wound up at Georgia Tech. He had invited me there to give a seminar during my early days on the MIT faculty and to explore the possibility of my joining him in Houston. By that time, Bob was already widely recognized for the key role he played in unraveling the interactions between vascular biology and cardiovascular fluid mechanics. These were the days when mechanobiology (though it was not called that at the time) came into existence, and the basic tools needed to study how cell biology could be regulated by fluid shear forces were just being developed. Bob was instrumental in this process. The uniquely high degree of collegiality found in this field owes much to Bob's efforts to foster it, as well as the example he set through all his personal and professional interactions.Even in those early days, Bob was recognized not only for his fundamental research contributions, but also as a master-builder of programs in bioengineering. He later moved to Georgia Tech in 1987 to shape the bioengineering program there, establishing the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience. His vision, which soon after became a reality, was to build an institute which would bring the engineering and science communities together under the same roof as a means of removing barriers for collaboration—this was convergence in the truest sense, long before it became widely acknowledged. In building the program, Bob gave equal weight to research excellence, teaching abilities, and an open, collaborative attitude. The members he attracted to the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, and who eventually populated many of the life science departments at Georgia Tech, are ample evidence of his recruiting successes.As I reflect on what makes Bob so successful as a mentor, one attribute keeps coming to mind. Bob is more effective than anyone I know in connecting with another individual on a personal level and immediately establishing a rapport that facilitates an open, collegial relationship. On meeting someone new (even a waiter in a restaurant!), Bob will ask their name, and oftentimes, strike up a conversation. He does this in a way that demonstrates a genuine interest in this person as an individual, and not just another anonymous face. Without intruding on their “personal space,” he always elicits a smile. This is a trait that comes naturally to Bob, but I have yet to master it. This is, in my view, a truly unique and valuable talent for those who can achieve it.Bob has devoted much of his time and wisdom to mentoring others, providing an example to rising faculty on how best to succeed, not only in their careers, but in life in all its dimensions. Those who know Bob well have no doubt heard of his “Rules of Life.” But for many readers, this may be new. Bob generated this list over a period of many years. It gives some idea of how he has led his own life, and how he guides others toward success (see Box 1).During my career, I had the benefit to learn not only from Bob, but also from some of the other leading figures of our profession. At MIT, Forbes Dewey and Ascher Shapiro were my first mentors, Forbes for my Master's degree and Ascher for my Doctorate. Between the two of them, I learned the excitement of research and discovery, but perhaps more importantly, I came to recognize how a mentor can have lasting impact on one's career, long after the direct interaction ceases. I also had many memorable discussions with others who taught me important lessons: YC (Bert) Fung (the founder and elder statesman of biomechanics), Tim Pedley (a leading figure in cardiovascular fluid mechanics who had a tremendous influence on me during my early years on the MIT faculty), and Shelly Weinbaum (who taught me how a new perspective even on an old problem can lead to important new insights and discoveries). Every generation has its leaders, and it is important for young researchers to seek them out and benefit from their insights and advice.This article is a personal perspective, but it is my hope that you, as readers, will find certain parts that resonate with your own experience, or at least provide useful food for thought. By no means do I feel that I am any more qualified than the next person to mentor, but having received this award, it seems right that I should pass on some of my experiences, as well as some useful information that I have derived from the literature. While this paper is based primarily on personal experience, I also have also drawn upon several references, most importantly, from a publication from the National Academies Press: Adviser, Teacher, Role Model, Friend: On Being a Mentor to Students in Science and Engineering [2]. I found that this resonated with my own experience and consider it to be “required reading” for anyone starting an academic career. Another excellent source can be found at the NIH website on mentoring [3].Early in my career, I learned an important lesson when I came to realize the limitations of engineering (or any single discipline alone) in a field such as bioengineering, which draws so much from the neighboring disciplines of molecular and cell biology, physiology, and medicine. There had been a time when, as a fluid dynamicist, one could “pick the low hanging fruit” by identifying an important medical problem, extract the interesting fluid mechanics questions, and gain new insights into a fundamental problem of physiology or disease. Enormous and important contributions had been made to various medical fields, notably orthopedics and vascular physiology, simply by applying rigorous quantitative analysis to the human body. But the limitations of a purely engineering approach soon became obvious, as I embarked on one of my first forays into a medical problem, glaucoma appeared to have a clear cause related to fluid mechanics. Glaucoma results from increased intraocular pressure as a consequence of increased resistance to the outflow of aqueous humor in the anterior segment of the eye that leads to damage of the optic nerve and progressive blindness. The connection to fluid mechanics seemed natural. It was evident to a naïve engineer that glaucoma was simply a plumbing problem; a bit of analysis and experimental modeling would yield brilliant new insights, and perhaps even a cure for the disease! After several years and some remarkable students, it became increasingly clear that biochemistry had a role to play, and later yet, that the biological response of the tissues to flow and stress was also critical. This along with numerous other “learning experiences,” led to a transition in the way I viewed myself and how I sought to guide my students. Rather than being a fluid dynamicist with interests in human physiology and disease, I became a bioengineer with fluid mechanics as one of the several disciplines I could bring to bear on problems I felt were important and interesting to me. Recognizing bioengineering as a quintessential example of convergence fundamentally changed the way in which I approach a problem, as well as my goals and methods in mentoring students.Several years later, in the early 1990s, I found my work moving more in the direction of cell and molecular biology, a field in which I had no formal training. I was beginning to realize that cell culture work would be essential for me to advance my research into how airway epithelial cells respond to mechanical stimulus. I also felt that, if my lab was headed in this direction, I needed to gain some hands-on experience myself if I were to supervise students in related studies. While on sabbatical one year, I discussed this with a collaborator at the time, Jeffrey Drazen, then Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. Together, we devised a plan to conduct experiments entirely on our own. Jeff would do the surgery on rats to obtain tracheal epithelial cells and I would do the cell culture, subject the cells to stress, and observe their responses. Despite numerous setbacks, and near catastrophes (such as my discarding down the drain a vial containing cells that Jeff had just painstakingly extracted from a rat trachea!), we blundered through the experience, managing to get the study to a point that I felt confident in handing it off to a (much more competent) student. That work eventually blossomed into a collaboration involving Doug Lauffenburger (cell signaling) and Peter So (two-photon imaging) and a few highly talented students/postdocs. A publication resulted some years later [4]. The take-home message here is threefold: (1) one should not be overly hesitant to enter a new field, (2) peer mentors can be extremely useful, and (3) if one hopes to mentor students effectively, one's own basic knowledge and hands-on experience are essential.The term “mentor” comes from Mentor in Greek mythology, the advisor to Odysseus, and while times have changed some since then (although some might argue that the challenges faced by Odysseus are no more daunting than those of finding an academic position!), the role of a mentor remains much the same—to impart advice and knowledge to those less experienced than yourself. The role of a mentor, in the broad sense intended here, is someone who takes a special interest in helping another person develops a successful professional career, with an appropriate balance between their professional and personal interests. Much has been written on mentoring. While I provide some references that I have found useful, what follows is a more personalized perspective, based on my own experiences over my years on the MIT faculty. I hope it will be helpful.To start, it is important to recognize that mentoring is not a case of “one size fits all.” It is our responsibility to first identify the special needs of each student. 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