Caroline Dugopolski Named 2024 BME Alumni Merit Award Recipient
Dugopolski was honored with other College of Engineering department recipients during alumni awards activities on Homecoming Weekend.
Congratulations to Caroline Dugopolski, B.S.E. 2000 Chemical Engineering – U-M, and M.S.E. 2001, Biomedical Engineering – U-M, who is the 2024 BME Department Merit Award recipient.
The College of Engineering established the Department Merit Awards to honor alumni who personify Michigan Engineering’s tradition of excellence and who have achieved significant accomplishments in their professional lives. The awards are given each year to graduates from each academic department.
Dugopolski is Vice President, Head of Bioprocess & Technical Operations at Cellino Biotech. She was honored with other College of Engineering department recipients during alumni awards activities on Homecoming Weekend, which was Friday, September 13 through Sunday, September 15.
“I felt both surprised and honored to have been selected for this award,” Dugopolski said. “There are countless paths that can be taken in a biomedical engineering career, and I appreciate the opportunity to represent a biomanufacturing path.”
Dugopolski said that she knew she wanted to pursue engineering when entering college, but was initially unsure of which area in the profession she wanted to focus. “At the time, there was no undergraduate BME program, so I ended up choosing to study chemical engineering (ChE) and found myself drawn less to traditional ChE applications and more to the biological interfaces,” she said.
Dugopolski had several undergrad experiences that fostered her interest in leaning toward BME: a UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program) project in which she worked in a lab at the medical school; a ChE lab class in which she took on a project that had biomanufacturing applications; and a seminar in which she learned about biotechnology. “When I found out that there was a CUGS (Concurrent Undergraduate/Graduate Status) program that would allow me to earn a BME Master’s within five total years of study, I went for it,” she added.
Dugopolski credits U-M for teaching her critical thinking and effective communications skills. “Critical thinking skills play a significant role in biomanufacturing operations in everything from troubleshooting technical problems to long-term strategic planning,” she noted. “Communication skills that I practiced in school, such as technical writing, data illustration, and verbal presentations, remain a key part of my day-to-day job. On a technical level, the introductory knowledge that I gained in topics such as bioprocess unit operations, process controls, drug development, and regulatory guidelines helped to get me started in industry.”
In her work, Dugopolski aims to demonstrate the core values of her employer, Cellino, which encourages teams to: seek unity, be brave, and show kindness.
She advises that U-M BME students aspire to these values in their education and future professional endeavors. today can aspire to these values in their education and future professional endeavors.