Almost half of the recent graduates from the New Mexico State University Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering are women, and a national publication has noticed. According to Washington Monthly’s list of America’s Best and Worst Colleges for Women in STEM, NMSU ranked No. 16 for Best Chemical Engineering undergraduate program. NMSU was the second-ranked public institution on the list.
“The success is being driven by the strong female faculty role models we have in our department. We have Professors Martha Mitchell, who recently retired, Jessica Houston, Catie Brewer and Hongmei Luo as instructors and researchers in our department,” Department Head Joseph Holles said. “The students of New Mexico are able to see their future selves in our faculty. A large number of diverse faculty in a small faculty department like ours provides the critical mass for our students to feel at home and be successful.”
Factors used to calculate the findings include percentage of recent program graduates who are female, 49.2% at NMSU, percentage of an institution’s student body that is female, 58.4% at NMSU, and median earnings five years after graduation for women and men, $89,216 for NMSU graduates. Additionally, twice in the last five years more women than men have been enrolled in the department’s undergraduate program.
“The data showed that the women students in our department had very strong perseverance during COVID and beyond,” Holles said. “This is a strong indication of their desire to succeed.”
As a program graduate in 2000, Professor Jessica Houston has experienced both aspects of the department.
“I have been a faculty member for 15 years at NMSU,” Houston said. “During this time, I have observed a strong collaborative culture among faculty and students. We emphasize research opportunities, mentorship and interdisciplinary projects, which foster innovation and engagement. Additionally, our commitment to diversity and inclusion ensures a supportive learning environment.”
Holles said he believes this ranking can have a positive impact on the entire department.
“We want to continue to draw in strong, capable students from New Mexico and the surrounding area,” Holles said. “This shows students that they should look at us because they can get a top ranked education right here. We already have great industrial partners that recruit and hire our students because of our diversity. These rankings allow them to justify within their own company why they should continue to come and hire all NMSU students, not just chemical engineers.”
To learn more about NMSU’s Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, visit chme.nmsu.edu.
