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Stephanie Bryant is a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and has been a part of this university since 2005. She currently serves as the associate director of the Materials Science and Engineering Program and has recently been elected to be the director starting in July. 

Her research explores biomaterials for functional regeneration, specifically in designing hydrogel-based materials for musculoskeletal applications. Her group also focuses on leveraging material design to guide cell development and creating temporary scaffolds that can dissolve into the body once the cells are grown and effective.

Coming from an academic family with backgrounds in biology and math, Bryant has always enjoyed math and science, particularly chemistry. A conversation with a relative who was an electrical engineer at NASA became the catalyst for Bryant to study chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. After completing her undergraduate studies, she continued into graduate school at the University of Colorado Boulder and even completed a postdoc at the University of Washington before returning to ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder as a professor. 

Bryant said she has always been thankful for her support system throughout her career, especially her mother, who helped instill many important values. Her mother was an engineer herself and was even the first female manager at the telephone company she worked for. However, she experienced struggles including not being listened to by her male colleagues and not being taken as seriously as her other colleagues. Because of these experiences, her mother was steadfast in supporting Bryant and encouraged the mindset of being able to accomplish anything she felt strongly about. 

Because of her determination and perseverance through difficult situations, Bryant never thought about the disadvantages when she was going through them. She explained that it was not until reflecting on those times years later that she realized there were some situations that may have been more difficult and saw those situations in a different light. 

In the future, Bryant said she hopes to see a lot more diversity in the department and the university as a whole. She explained that the university should be more representative of the broad community in Colorado and emphasized the importance of having different perspectives, especially in engineering where problem-solving is the focus. She hopes that ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä will continue the mentality of wanting to help others and succeed together as a community. 

¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä the Author

My name is Sarah Kim, and I am currently a senior studying chemical and biological engineering and minoring in biomedical engineering. I chose to interview Stephanie Bryant because she was such an accomplished professor in my department, and I wanted to learn more about her journey in biomaterials and tissue engineering.