Amplified: Race and Reality in STEM—Gaslighting in the Academy and Actually Making Black Lives Matter

After an overwhelmingly positive response, we brought back Manu Platt to discuss racial inequities within STEM and how to transform academic culture.

Manu Platt received his PhD from the Georgia Tech and Emory University joint program in biomedical engineering in 2006, where he returned as a faculty member in 2009 after completing his postdoctoral training at MIT in orthopedic tissue engineering and systems biology. Now a tenured professor, his research centers on proteolytic mechanisms of tissue remodeling during disease progression using both experimental and computational approaches. In addition, Platt is a champion for diversity in science and engineering. He is co-founder and director of Project ENGAGES, a program that provides African American high school students research opportunities at Georgia Tech.

This event was part of Amplified: Race and Reality in STEM, which aims to give a national platform to speakers to have candid conversations around race and diversity in the STEM fields. Launched in 2020 as part of Gladstone’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, this series is hosted in partnership with Georgia Tech, the Molecular Engineering & Sciences Institute at University of Washington, and The University of Texas at Austin. We hope these discussions spark change throughout the sciences.