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April 14, 2003 Vol.74, no. 12S
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| CAL VETERAN:
Lee understands what it feels like to be a student at Cal after
completing his graduate and undergraduate studies here. Now, as
a professor, he helps struggling student by mentoring them in his
free time. |
Professor
Luke Lee says students should come before research
Luke Lee knows firsthand
that Berkeley isn’t just a hard school to get into, it’s a
hard school to get through.
After surviving undergrad and graduate school at Cal and then joining
the BioE faculty in 1999, Lee has the inside and outside scoop on how
to help students do better in school and he is proactive about spreading
his knowledge.
Last year Lee attended the meetings of the Hispanic Engineers and Scientists
(HES) student society to offer his services as a mentor to any student
who needed it.
The students who took him up on his offer have all succeeded in graduating
and are now working in industry and attending grad school.
“I want to make a bridge with underrepresented students. Very few
underrepresented students graduate from the Berkeley engineering program
and we have to help them succeed,” says Lee.
Lee worked in industry for 10 years, first at TRW Space and Technology,
and later at Conductus, Inc., where he created the first integrated
high-temperature Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID)
magnetometer, an exceptionally sensitive biosensor that measures brain
and heart signals without electrodes.
While his career in industry was successful and productive, Lee chose
to come to academia not for the research opportunity, but to help students
succeed, he says.
Lee doesn’t just give lip service to putting students first; he
actually does it. Appropriately, Lee delayed this interview while he
helped a student find a topic for her research project.
Lee says that when he was a student at Cal he could really have benefited
from a mentor. “Berkeley has a huge ratio of students to teachers,
so there should be mentoring services for students who are feeling lost.
I know of a few other professors who are interested in mentoring, but
it is hard to connect with the students who really need it.”
It’s the interaction with students that makes Lee feel the most
alive in his job, he says.
This year however, the demands of an extremely heavy research schedule
have monopolized his time. “Because I have been so busy I haven’t
had the time this year to work with students. I don’t want to lose
sight of my goal. I need to make more time for mentoring,” Lee
says guiltily.
Lee also does recruiting and outreach work with minority high school
students. He not only tells students about engineering as a career option,
but offers his mentoring services to anyone with an interest in engineering.
“Soon half the population of California will be Hispanic, but Berkeley
Engineering numbers don’t reflect that. Hispanic students will
lead this state one day, and we need to educate as many scientists and
engineers in the community as we can,” says Lee.
This year Lee is accepting a female Ph.D. student from Mexico in his
research group. He hopes to provide her with mentoring services not
just not just an advisor but as a professor.
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