Directors
Winston O. Soboyejo received his Ph.D. in materials science from Cambridge University in 1988. He then worked as a research scientist with McDonnell Douglas from 1988 to 1992, before joining the staff of the Edison Welding Institute in Columbus, Ohio, for eight months. From late 1992 to 1999, he was on the faculty in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Ohio State University. He was also a Visiting Martin Luther King Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT from 1997 to 1998. In 1999 he joined the faculty of Princeton University as a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Professor Soboyejo is the chair of the African Scientific Committee and the director of the U.S./Africa Materials Institute. He is the recipient of two National Science Foundation National Young Investigator awards and the American Society for Metals Bradley Stoughton Award for young teachers of materials science. The author of numerous papers in journals and proceedings, Professor Soboyejo has also edited books and conference proceedings, and has written textbooks on the mechanical properties of engineered materials and advanced structural materials. His current research focuses on biomaterials, MEMS/nanostructures, and alternative strategies for global development.
Makeba Clay, director of the Carl A. Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding, oversees all programmatic, budgetary, and physical space aspects of the Carl A. Fields Center. She collaborates with student organizations on programs and activities, provides advice and mentoring for individual students, and consults and collaborates with others in the university community to enhance the climate for students of color. Ms. Clay came to Princeton from the University of Maryland-College Park, where she served as director of the Maryland Leadership Institute for International Public Policy and also as the associate director of student affairs in the School of Public Affairs.
Ms. Clay previously served as assistant director of residential life at Johns Hopkins University and at Western Maryland College. She also has been a faculty member with the Maryland Governor's Commission on Volunteerism and Service.