2023 Outstanding Undergraduate Leadership Award

Britney Chen is a BS/MS student in Biomedical Engineering. She is a graduate research assistant in Dr. Yan-Ting Shiu’s Lab in the Department of Internal Medicine, studying novel treatments for hemodialysis vascular access failure using computational fluid dynamics modeling. She first became interested in biomedical engineering at 12 years old after watching a biotechnology documentary on a 14-hour flight. Britney has been heavily involved in the department as a student leader during her time at the university. She has been a part of the Biomedical Engineering Society Student Chapter at the U, first as the treasurer and then as co-president, where she worked with the students, faculty, and industry professionals to provide professional development and mentoring opportunities for BME students. She was also a teaching assistant and student mentor in the department for three years and was a student ambassador for the Price College of Engineering. As recognition for her efforts, she has received the Outstanding Undergraduate Student Leadership Award from the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Her time at the university has been full of ups and downs, but she has learned a lot about being a better student, engineer, researcher, and friend. She is grateful to everyone she’s met and learned from at the U. Her advice to other students is to remember to do things in college simply because you enjoy them and not just because they will help you in your future career. College is a unique experience most won’t repeat so make use of the time while you’re here.

When not in the lab, she enjoys reading, hiking, and going to concerts. After finishing her thesis defense, she plans to work as an engineer in the medical device industry.