Status: PhD candidate

Hometown: Bowie, MD

Department: Industrial and Operations Engineering

Donald Richardson, PhD candidate in industrial and operations engineering, has found his passion in helping others. He has his hands full doing research at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, and collaborates with the center to improve the timeliness of drug preparation for chemotherapy patients and reduce staff workload. He eventually wants to work in the healthcare industry and lead a career with positive impact.

Donald received his bachelor of science in mathematics at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and was involved with the National Society of Black Engineers as an undergraduate, volunteering to serve food at sports events and helping grade school students compete in the First Lego League Competition. He participated in the Meyerhoff Scholars program at Maryland, where he was exposed to research opportunities and mentorship programs for younger students. With the program’s support and mentorship, he realized he wanted to pursue graduate studies in applied mathematics.

He participated in the Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) at Michigan and worked on operations research projects in aviation and healthcare, witnessing the importance of collaboration between operations researchers and healthcare professionals in improving patient safety. He said, “My SROP experience, having a personable advisor who welcomed me back to the group, and witnessing the amazing community in Ann Arbor lead to my decision to come to UM. I knew with the resources in my department and access to multiple healthcare facilities that this would be a great place to pursue my research in healthcare engineering.”