Minnesota's strength in neuroengineering and fellowships draw Ph.D. student

Q&A with grad student Kenna McRae

Story by Pauline Oo; interview by Kristin Kelker

After a long and circuitous path across the nation, including a stint in the United States Congress as a tech ethics fellow, Kenna McRae is back in her home state of Minnesota. 

McRae, a first-year biomedical engineering Ph.D. candidate on the Twin Cities campus, is the newest member of the Neural Netoff Laboratory. Led by Professor Tay Netoff, the University of Minnesota research lab is focused on developing approaches that optimize neuromodulation therapies to maximize the performance of deep brain stimulation on neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, depression, and spinal cord injury.

“I’m excited to join a lab,” said McRae. “Most of the work is computational, and I'm still onboarding this winter. I hope to start working on my own research in the spring semester and will have a dedicated lab space, too.”

In the video and Q&A below, McRae—a 2024-25 recipient of College of Science and Engineering Lawler-Pray Family Fellowship and the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) Excellence Award—talks about her interdisciplinary journey to the University of Minnesota and the importance of fellowships to support graduate students.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I grew up in Minnesota, but I left the state for seven years—first to Arizona, where I studied physics and global health. During my time there, I also studied abroad in Edinburgh for a year, completed internships at Mayo Clinic and Harvard. I volunteered with a refugee women’s health group in Phoenix. That’s where I started to be very interested in the intersection between health equity and how we think about science in society at large, and how biomedical research can lead to health solutions for people. 

When Covid hit, I decided to pursue two different master’s degrees—one at Duke in bioethics and science policy, and Stanford for bioengineering. 

Why did you choose the University of Minnesota?

When I was searching different Ph.D. programs, I found the BME department on the Twin Cities campus. It was bursting with amazing faculty doing work that was right up my alley! At that time, I was debating whether to go into tissue engineering or neuro engineering. They’re two very different areas, but I had dipped my toes into both before. When I came for a campus visit one weekend, I got to meet different people across the department and got a sense of the community. It’s very warm and welcoming, and supportive. The BME community here is also fairly tight knit, which solidified for me that the University of Minnesota was my top choice. 

There’s a plethora of BME research that’s translational here—people working to get devices from lab to patients in many areas including neuroengineering, tissue engineering, maternal health, and women’s health. This is really important to me, and the University of Minnesota is particularly strong with that translational work. 

Have you settled on a focus area?

Yes. I’ve settled on neuroengineering for my focus area within BME. The reasons for that are several fold. 

One of them is that I studied physics in undergrad, and I really wanted to figure out how to blend my favorite parts of physics with biomedical research. Neuroengineering has physics-like components to it. You’re studying electric fields and how they pertain to different parts of your body, and it also has a lot of computation to it. Those elements, combined with the clinical aspects and the clinical opportunities in this BME department, make it very appealing. 

Another part that I like about neuroengineering is it has so many different applications. There’s research at the University of Minnesota on epilepsy, Parkinson’s, PTSD and other mental health conditions, chronic pain, the immune system... and so many opportunities to help patients by stimulating the brain or stimulating other parts of the nervous system. This is a great time to be in the field of neuroengineering because there has been a ton of progress in medicine, as well as in electrical engineering and medical device design. 

Did getting a graduate fellowship impact your decision to enroll in the College of Science and Engineering?

Yes. A fellowship makes it easy to focus on what matters in a graduate program, instead of worrying about cost of living. I didn’t see a ton of merit-based funding or grant-based funding from other programs. So first-year graduate fellowships at the University of Minnesota are definitely unique, or at least, special. 

And it totally makes sense—if you are a university that has amazing research and you’re trying to attract top talent to advance that research even more than it already is, first-year fellowships at the doctoral or Ph.D. level make a huge difference. It really does matter to students. I’m so grateful to have my both my donor-supported and department fellowships—and I’m very excited for what they enable me to do while I’m here. 

What are you looking forward to doing the most at the University of Minnesota?

The University of Minnesota is a huge institution with a medical school and with a ton of connections to industry. With my science technology studies and public health backgrounds, I am eager to see if I can connect my program to other parts of the University that maybe haven't been as strongly connected to biomedical engineering in the past. 

There is no question in my mind that I made the right choice. By choosing the University of Minnesota, I will be able to work with inspirational faculty on projects that bridge disciplines and move toward cutting-edge solutions that expand our knowledge of the human body—and help people live healthier lives.


If you’d like to support students or research at the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering, visit our CSE giving page.

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