Corning's Eric Biribuze received high honors earlier this month during the 2018 Black Engineer of the Year Award STEM conference in Washington, D.C. Eric received a 2018 Black Engineer of the Year Award for Professional Achievement in the Industry category recognizing his 20 years of contributions and accomplishments at Corning.
Currently the business operations director for Glazing in Automotive Glass Solutions, Eric grew up in Burundi and attended college in China on a merit-based STEM scholarship. He said the key to his success was in turning each challenge along the way into an opportunity.
"My life journey has been a stream of challenges that became golden opportunities," Eric shared with the gala attendees during his acceptance speech.
"I came to this great country to further my education and landed a career with Corning. My passion is to make a positive impact, and, for 20 years, it has been a privilege to contribute to Corning's innovative journey, while solving some of the world's toughest problems and helping transform people's lives."
Eric was introduced at the ceremony by Marty Curran, executive vice president and Corning innovation officer.
"He's a collaborative Corning leader in both the communications and auto sectors, delivering strong results in diverse functions and cultures, including teams in the United States, Mexico, and China," Marty said.
"He's linked the connections between research, development, manufacturing and commercial teams - creating new, exciting and life-changing innovations. And the thing I love most about our Honoree is his belief that you and your organization can always improve, that we will win, and that you do it by being a great teammate."
The 2018 Black Engineer of the Year Awards and Minorities in Research Science (BEYA/MIRS) convened an unprecedented crowd of nearly 11,000 professionals from industry, academia, and government for the event. The conference is designed both to foster a talent-rich environment for recruiting and development and to shine light on the technical contributions made by leaders from communities of color around the nation. One of the marquee events at the conference each year is the BEYA Gala which highlights the accomplishments of the year's top honorees in science, technology, engineering, and math.