Cullen Buie

Cullen R. Buie is an African American mechanical engineer specializing in microbial fuel cells.

Life and career

Education Buie's passions changed during high school when he attended an engineering camp that gave him the opportunity to receive college credits and scholarships. This led him to study mechanical engineering at Ohio State University, receiving his Bachelors of Science in 2003. He then went on to earn a Master of Science (M.S.) in 2005 at Stanford University, as well as his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) in 2009 in mechanical engineering.

Awards Cuie has received the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award to investigate the challenge of getting genetic material into bacterial cells. He has also received the NSF CAREER Award and the Presidential Early Career Award named by Barack Obama.

Personal life Buie's older sister, Simone, is the motivation for his research as she had died due to a bacterial infection, sepsis. In disbelief that individuals were still dying from common bacterial infections, Buie and his team are actively researching to eliminate this issue.