Dr. Melissa Harrington to Receive the 2013 SMART Woman of the Year

The Strengthening the Mid-Atlantic Region for Tomorrow (SMART) organization has awarded its 2013 SMART Woman of the Year Award to DSU’s Dr. Melissa Harrington.

 

Dr. Harrington, professor of biological science and director of the Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (a joint DSU and University of Delaware research collaboration), presented the award at the June 6 SMART Women in Science & Technology Reception in the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C.

Dr. Melissa Harrington has added her SMART Award to the other ones she has been honored with over the years.

 

A DSU faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences for 12 years, Dr. Harrington was promoted to associate professor in 2005 and was promoted to the rank of professor in August 2010. In her role as the chair of the DSU Biology Curriculum Committee, Dr. Harrington was the driving force behind the successful development of the Neuroscience Ph.D. Program and the Forensic Biology Program.

 

Since coming to DSU, Dr. Harrington been a principal investigator or co-PI on 19 successful research and infrastructure grants that have brought over $23 million in federal funding to DSU. That includes her PI achievement in attracting a $10.5 million grant from the National Institute of Health from the establishment of a Delaware Center for Neuroscience Research – a research collaboration between DSU and the University of Delaware.

 

In 2011 she was honored as the Neuroscientist of the Year by the Delaware Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience.

 

Dr. Harrington earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Molecular Biology from Purdue University and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Stanford University.

 

Previously, Dr. Harrington has been honored with a 2005 DSU Faculty Excellence Award in Research and Creative Activity, a 2011 Delaware Neuroscientist of the Year Award from the Delaware  Chapter of the Society of Neuroscience, and a 2012 INBre Research Summit Award.

 

SMART is a regional organization that provides Mid-Atlantic leadership of integrated public/private advocacy for actions on national and international science and technology topics.