MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR
Our next BIG challenge
ive
years ago, Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
had little more than a phone number and an E-mail address. Since then,
we have achieved a great deal in very little time. Begun by a dedicated
group of professors in the 1970s as an interdisciplinary MS degree program,
Biomedical Engineering introduced the BS and PhD in 1998 as a result
of student demand and the initiatives of farsighted faculty, staff and
ad-ministrators who recognized its importance. We became a full-fledged
department in 1999 and moved into our permanent home when the Engineering
Centers Building opened in November of 2002. Today we have 140 undergrads
(not including freshmen pre-engineers) and 90 graduate students. For
the first time, our undergraduate program is ranked 18th in U.S.
News & World Report. There are already 220 alumni with degrees
in biomedical engineering, and the numbers continue to grow.
BME is one of the most interdisciplinary departments
at the UW-Madison, bringing together faculty members in engineering
with faculty in basic science and clinical departments to solve some
of the most challenging problems in medicine. We have 15 core faculty,
with another 30 affiliate members from the College of Engineering and
the Medical School who collaborate on research, advise our students,
give lectures and teach courses. The faculty consists of an excellent
mix of outstanding senior and junior members, including 10 fellows of
the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers, 11 NSF Young
Investigators (CAREER, NYI, PYI), 14 Whitaker Foundation Investigators,
and two who were named among the world’s 100 top young innovators
in MIT’s Technology Review.
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The Engineering Centers
Building (which is the BME department's new, permanent home)
(33K
JPG) |
According to our External
Advisory Board, we have now achieved all of our short-term goals:
We have developed an outstanding educational program and assembled a
highly distinguished faculty. But they also challenged us to take the
next step toward becoming national leaders in the field. We are ready
to take on that challenge.
We have already devised ways to expand our
educational programs into four new emphasis areas: neuroengineering,
biomedical imaging, cellular-scale bioengineering, and technology for
disability and aging. These expansions will enable us to prepare biomedical
engineers to deliver the promises of the biotechnology and genome revolutions
to health care and medicine. Our graduates will be called upon to design
new medical devices to manipulate molecular, cellular and tissue interactions,
medical diagnostic instruments that analyze at the gene and molecular
levels, treatments that employ cell- and tissue-based therapies, and
technologies to assist an ever-growing aging population. New industries
will arise, requiring an increasing number of biomedical engineers,
and they will look to UW-Madison for the best and the brightest.
You will be hearing much more about our efforts
to expand these areas with new undergraduate courses, graduate training
programs, faculty hires and research initiatives. Join us as we chart
our course into the future.
Robert
G. Radwin
Room 2130 Engineering Centers Building
1550 Engineering Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1609
Tel: 608/263-4660
Fax: 608/265-9239
E-mail: bme@engr.wisc.edu
