Milestone Moments

The Center for Faculty Success is pleased to host celebratory events to recognize faculty who have achieved the highest rank within their respective faculty tracks. The Milestone Moments program builds a tradition of honoring these accomplishments and giving faculty the opportunity to share their inspiring stories with the faculty, staff, and students who join us for these events.

Upcoming events

Milestone Moments: Maysam Chamanzar

When: Wednesday, November 5 at 3:30 PM
Where: Bosch Conference Room, Scott Hall

Maysam Camanszar is the Dr. William D. and Nancy W. Strecker Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Biophotonics and Neurotechnologies Lab and the Shared Photonics Laboratory. His active areas of research are at the interface of photonics, bioMEMs, and neuroscience. Using basic principles of physics and advanced engineering techniques, Chamanzar's group is designing and implementing novel devices and methods to address outstanding needs in biology and medicine.

Chamanzar received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2012. He was with the EECS department at University of California Berkeley as a postdoc researcher and later as a research scientist before joining CMU. Chamanzar has published more than 25 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers, and he holds three pending patents.

Past events

Rahul Panat

Mechanical Engineering Professor Rahul Panat shared simple yet powerful career advice with graduate students during his Milestone Moments talk in April 2025. Formulate a vision you want to work toward, develop a research identity that aligns with your interests, and surround yourself with the people you want to work with.

Mark Bedillion

In the same way that control systems compare inputs and make adjustments to achieve desired outcomes, Mark Bedillion’s unconventional career path has been a well-managed control loop that has led to success and happiness. The teaching professor and director of academic operations, mechanical engineering, described his journey during his March 2025 Milestone Moments talk.

Jana Kainerstorfer

Biomedical Engineering (BME) professor, Jana Kainerstorfer, credited friends, students, colleagues, and mentors in her journey to becoming a full professor during her Milestone Moments talk in November 2024. BME department head Keith Cook repaid the compliment by saying, “Every department head should be so lucky as to have faculty like her.”

Swarun Kumar

Swarun Kumar gave an inspirational talk as the inaugural speaker in the new Milestone Monents series in October 2024. He talked about having repeatedly passing on an industry career that promised what he called eye-popping amounts of money to pursue a Ph.D., a path that led to his eventual promotion to full professor.