2022 GMiS Luminary Honorees

As an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of South Florida and the Director of USF’s Smart and Sustainable Systems Laboratory, Dr. Nancy Diaz-Elsayed conducts and directs research on smart and sustainable systems with real world applications in advanced manufacturing.  She also teaches design and manufacturing courses and pursues collaborative partnerships with international and regional partners in manufacturing, sustainability, and education.

Over the course of her still-young career, she’s published 14 journal papers, 11 peer-reviewed conference publications, and four book chapters.  Her impressive list of accolades includes awards from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, the Florida Education Fund, and Great Minds in STEM, who honored her with its Student Leadership Award in 2011.

As notable and far-reaching as her research and achievements may be, it’s her impact on her students that’s perhaps most impressive.  In addition to driving them to excel in their academic work, she actively engages her students to develop their team-oriented skill sets and build confidence in their ability to solve complex engineering problems.

As a first-generation college student who emerged from an English as a Second Language program in grade school, she knows first-hand about the barriers that can discourage students from underserved communities from pursuing STEM degrees.  With an undergraduate degree from M.I.T. and two graduate degrees from U.C. Berkeley, including her Ph.D., she also knows how to smash through those barriers. She sees dismantling obstacles faced by her underrepresented minority students on their own unique STEM career journeys as an absolutely fundamental requirement of her job as an educator.