News and Events

Recent News

New Faculty Member Hired: Prof. Matthew Johnson

Matt Johnson is currently an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cleveland Clinic under the advising of Drs. Jerry Vitek and Cameron McIntyre. He earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at Michigan in 2007 under the advising of Dr. Daryl Kipke. His general research areas are development of implantable microelectrodes for functional stimulation (Ph.D.) and deep brain stimulation, both FEM modeling and neurophysiological recordings, to improve treatment of Parkinson’s disease (Postdoc). His research plans include extending his Postdoc studies to understand adaptation of the brain to long-term DBS, to optimize DBS parameters based on improved understanding from the recordings and modeling, and to develop novel microelectrode arrays as part of the optimization. Dr. Johson will join our department in December, 2009.

(posted 10/22/2009)

Rebecca Szarkowski Awarded National Astronaut Foundation Scholarship

Rebecca is one of 17 students nationwide selected to receive the 2009-2010 scholarship award. The scholarship is given to top engineering and science students who exhibit motivation, imagination and exceptional performance in their field of study. It is the highest monetary award given in the United States to science and engineering students at the undergraduate level based soley on merit.

Prof. David Odde selected for the George W. Taylor Award for Distinguished Research

Dave was selected for this honor which is awarded annually to one member of the faculty of the UMN Institute of Technology to recognize the outstanding research of a mid-career faculty member. Dave's selection reflects his pioneering research in the molecular mechanics of cell growth and division, including, most recently, the mechanochemical basis of chromosome segregation and of cell migration, which underlie cancer progression.

Prof. Bin He Named Distinguished McKnight University Professor

Bin was selected as one of this year's four Distinguished McKnight University Professors. The purpose of the Professorship is to recognize and reward the University's most outstanding mid-career faculty. The awardees were chosen on the merit of their scholarly achievements and the potential for greater attainment in the field; the extent to which their achievements have brought distinction to the University of Minnesota; the quality of their teaching and advising; and their contributions to the wider community. Bin's selection reflects his international leadership in electrophysiological imaging, specifically, cardiac and neural imaging, including development of groundbreaking methods to map the origins of electrical signals from ECG, EEG, and MRI/BOLD images.

New Faculty Member Hired: Prof. Hubert (Hugh) Lim

Hugh Lim is currently a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at Hannover Medical University (Germany). He earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at Michigan in 2005 under the advising of Prof. David Anderson. His general research areas are neural prostheses and auditory neuroscience. Dr. Lim pioneered the auditory midbrain implant (AMI) at Michigan for direct functional stimulation of the brain to correct hearing loss of patients untreatable by cochlear implants. He is involved in clinical studies of the AMI at Hannover. His research plans at UMN include further development of the AMI in animal models (to elucidate information processing in the auditory system) and further clinical trials. He also proposes to treat tinnitus using the AMI. Dr. Lim will join our department in summer, 2009.

ABET Accreditation Renewed

Following a review that occurred Fall 2008, our Bachelor's of Biomedical Engineering Program received continuation of accreditation from the organization ABET that accredits bachelor's programs nationally.

New Faculty Member Hired: Prof. Alena Talkachova

Alena Talkachova earned her Ph.D. in Physics in 2003 at the Nonlinear Institute in Nice. She then shifted from nonlinear optics and laser physics into her current and future research area of cardiac electrophysiology / dynamics while a Research Associate at Duke from 2001-2004, where she modeled cardiac excitation dynamics, advised by faculty in physics (Dr. Gauthier) and biomedical engineering (Dr. Krassowska). She was most recently a Research Assistant professor at SUNY Upstate Medical University, where she also completed a postdoctoral stint working with a world leader in cardiomyocyte ion channels and their role in cardiac excitation (Dr. Jalife). Her training has thus uniquely prepared her to both measure and model cell properties and their tissue-level manifestation in normal cardiac function and in arrhythmias, with her particular interest being ventricular fibrillation (VF). Her research, which combines cardiomyocyte ion channel flux measurements to optical voltage maps of the heart, can lead to new drugs and pacing therapies to mitigate VF before it spirals to sudden cardiac death. Prof. Talkachova will join our department in summer, 2008.

New Faculty Member Hired: Prof. Shai Ashkenazi

Shai Ashkenazi earned his Ph.D. in Physics in 1997 at the Weizmann Institute and then worked for three medical device companies related to ultrasound and biomedical optics until 2003. He then joined the group of Prof. Matt O'Donnell in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Michigan as a postdoctoral researcher and most recently held the position of Research Scientist. He has focused on optoacoustic transducers for high-resolution imaging and photoacoustics for functional and molecular imaging. His research plans at UMN include the development of novel imaging devices for image guided therapy, including ultrasound probes for prostate cancer detection and for 3D intracardiac imaging to guide RF ablation. He also proposes to image tumor hypoxia with photoacoustic lifetime imaging. Prof. Ashkenazi will join our department fall semester, 2008.

Professors Chun Wang and Tanner Akkin Receive UMN's McKnight Land-Grant Professorship

Chun and Tanner were chosen for this highly competitive Professorship, whose major purpose is to nurture the careers of the University of Minnesota's most promising junior faculty members in order to strengthen the faculty for the future.  The program is designed to advance the careers of assistant professors who have the potential to make significant contributions to their scholarly fields.

New Faculty Member Hired: Prof. Theoden (Tay) Netoff

Tay Netoff is completing a 5-year postdoc at Boston University in the Department of Biomedical Engineering under the advising of Prof. John White and support from an NIH NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship. He earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from George Washington University working with Prof. Steven Schiff and supported by an NIH NRSA Predoctoral Fellowship. For his dissertation research he investigated the origin of nonlinear neural network dynamics using patch clamp recordings of hippocampal slices in vitro along with computational modeling. For his postdoctoral research, he developed dynamic patch clamping and simultaneous calcium imaging to further investigate these dynamics and extend his models, focusing on synchronization and its implications for epileptic seizures. Dr. Netoff will join our department fall semester, 2006.

Medtronic Provides Major Gift for Endowed Graduate Student Fellowships

The Medtronic Foundation and the Medtronic, Inc. Corporate Science and Technology division will jointly contribute $500,000 over five years to help build an endowment, matched by UMN funds, to support new BME graduate students as Medtronic Fellows for their first semester of study. This is the second major gift in a campaign aimed at local medical device companies, with the goal of an endowment that supports the entire class of BME graduate students each fall semester. Medtronic is the largest independent medical device company in the world, with major operations and its headquarters located in the Twin Cities, and historically employs the majority of graduates from the BME Graduate Program who join Medical Alley companies.

Professor Chun Wang Receives NSF CAREER Award

Chun was selected for this prestigious award based on his research proposal "Biomimetic Engineering of Responsive Biomaterials."  The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization.

Boston Scientific Makes Lead Gift for Endowed Graduate Student Fellowships

Chief Technology Officer, Fred Colen, has notified the UMN Foundation that Boston Scientific will contribute $500,000 over five years to build an endowment, matched by UMN funds, to support new BME graduate students as Boston Scientific Fellows for their first semester of study. This is the lead gift in a campaign aimed at local medical device companies, with the goal of an endowment that supports the entire class of BME graduate students each fall.  It reflects the growing presence of Boston Scientific, which acquired SciMed and is making a major expansion of the Maple Grove facility, in Medical Alley and at UMN.

New Faculty Member Hired: Prof. Taner Akkin

Taner Akkin is completing a 2-year postdoc at Harvard Medical School and Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital under the advising of Prof. Johannes de Boer. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas-Austin working with Profs. Thomas Milner and H. Grady Rylander III. For his dissertation research he developed the first non-contact optical measurement of transient neural surface displacement (i.e. sub-nanometer spatial resolution with microsecond temporal resolution). For his postdoctoral research, he is developing interferometric (OCT) techniques to image depth-resolved tissue microstructures and function, with applications in ophthalmology in particular. Dr. Akkin will join our department fall semester, 2005.

New Faculty Member Hired: Prof. Jonathan Sachs

Dr. Sachs is completing a 2-year NIH NRSA postdoc at Yale University in the Dept. of Biochemistry and Biophysics under the advising of Prof. Donald Engelman. He earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University where he held a Whitaker Foundation Graduate Fellowship working with Prof. Thomas Woolf. For his dissertation research he developed molecular dynamics simulations and implicit solvent models of ion penetration into lipid bilayers. For his postdoctoral research he is conducting Small Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS, no pun intended) experiments to determine how membrane proteins affect membrane thickness. His future research interests include the study of macromolecular interactions with biomembranes during drug delivery.  Dr. Sachs will join our department fall semester, 2006.

Professor Victor Barocas Receives George W. Taylor Career Development Award

Victor was selected as the sole recipient of the George W. Taylor Career Development Award, which recognizes exceptional contributions to teaching by a candidate for tenure.
See http://www.it.umn.edu/faculty/awards/taylor_career.html.  He was also a successful candidate, being promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.

Lynn Otten Scholarship in Biomedical Engineering Established

Kelly Dockendorf (senior) and Santhi Elayaperumal (junior) have been selected for the Lynn Otten Scholarship in Biomedical Engineering for the 2004-2005 academic year.  Dr. Lynn Otten, who pioneered the deep brain stimulator at Medtronic, established the scholarship endowment to encourage women students to pursue a degree in biomedical engineering at the University of Minnesota.  The  scholarship is awarded each year to an entering junior based on her academic achievement and is renewable the senior year.