Dr. Laura Bottomley has more than 35 years of experience teaching STEM at all levels, pre-K through graduate school, all over the world. Referred to as Dr. B by her students, she engages those same students in bringing STEM activities to places in the world like Rwanda and Puerto Rico. Among her recognitions are two Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics, Science and Engineering Mentoring Awards (PAESMEM) from the White House (one programmatic and one individual) and an Informal Education Award from IEEE. She was also inducted into the YWCA Academy of Women for her contributions to eliminating racism and empowering women, and, in 2012, was named one of 125 Transformational Women at NC State. In 2021, she was named a semi-finalist for the Robert Foster Cherry Award for excellence in Teaching by Baylor University. She was selected as a TEDx speaker in 2022.
Bottomley calculates that she has influenced well over 1 million students in her career.
Most importantly (to her mother) Dr. Bottomley received her 15 minutes of fame when she starred in a Superbowl commercial called, “Doing Good with STEM.”