Dr. Brian Cullum is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and serves as an iCubed Faculty Mentor for freshman students majoring in Chemistry or Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.  Dr. Cullum’s research involves the development of novel sensing tools and strategies for the monitoring of biological and environmental systems at both the nano- and macro-scales.  On the nano-scale, they are developing implantable sensors capable of being inserted into individual cells and optically positioned for the monitoring of cellular response to various external stimuli.  This work has direct implication to both bio-medical and bio-defense related applications, such as pre-symptomatic disease diagnosis.  On the macro-scale, they are developing new spectroscopic techniques for real-time disease (e.g., cancer) diagnosis in clinical and surgical settings.

What is your mentoring philosophy?  Generally speaking, mentoring is about sharing experiences with others to open their eyes to possibilities that exist and helping them to find their own path based upon their unique personal situation and desires.  I personally believe that anyone is capable of achieving any goal they set for themselves, but they must realize that along the way they will need to make decisions about their priorities in achieving these goals.  As long as they are clear what their priorities are and are happy with them then life’s decisions are relatively easy.  The difficult part of this is sometimes determining those priorities and a key role of a mentor is to be an open minded sounding board during this process.

In terms of mentoring students in STEM fields, I believe that one of the most important things to do is to first talk to them about the nearly infinite possibilities that exist for them in the job market when they graduate and to ask them what they would imagine doing everyday for the rest of their life if they were already independently wealthy and did not need a job.  Based on their response, I try to provide any additional opportunities that exist that they may not have known.   From this we continue on discussing what potential difficulties or hurdles may lie ahead along that path and discuss ways of possibly approaching those obstacles.  Ideally these discussions continue throughout the student’s entire academic career and even beyond.  In the end, I believe that a mentor’s role is simply to expose students to new possibilities and provide them with information to allow them to make their own informed decisions.

What do you enjoy most about mentoring freshman students?  The thing that I enjoy most about mentoring freshman or new college students is the satisfaction that I receive for helping them find their own path and realize that they can achieve it.  This is actually a very personal thing for me.  I grew up not far from UMBC and after high school did not know what I wanted to do or even what was available.  I was working full-time at the time and decided to go to a nearby community college since I had a scholarship that made it free.  At the time, I had no particular thoughts about what I wanted to do when I graduated college and was more focused on my job than school.  After a year at the community college, I needed to declare a major since I had only one year left for my AA degree.  Still without much thought about what I wanted to do when I graduated, I picked the major that I was closest to satisfying the degree requirements for Chemistry.  After I got my AA degree, I went on to get my bachelor’s degree since that is what was expected.  When I had to declare a major for my bachelor’s degree, I picked Chemistry since that is what I got my AA degree in.  Luckily for me, I accidentally stumbled into Analytical Chemistry and Instrumental Analysis classes that first year and absolutely loved Chemistry for the first time.  As I continued that year, one of my professors talked to me about going to graduate school and how the school that I went to would pay me to get a Ph.D.  After graduating with my bachelor’s degree, I went on to graduate school and later a postdoctoral stint at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.  During these experiences, I learned a great deal and was lucky enough to have some excellent mentors.  By telling others about the work we were doing and their interest in the instrumentation and techniques we were developing, I was able to meet with cabinet secretaries (Secretary of Homeland Defense, Secretaries of Energy), members of the joint chiefs of staff and other military officials, FBI personnel, world-renowned medical doctors and surgeons, etc.  These experiences opened my eyes to the possibilities and impacts an everyday person can have.  I never imagined that me, a small town kid with no particular plans for the future would have worked on projects that have had and currently are having significant impacts on millions of people.