Department of Biomedical Engineering

Professor Taner Akkin Receives UMN's McKnight Land-Grant Professorship

Taner was 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.

Professor Bin He's Research Featured in "Driven to Discover" TV Spot

Bin's research on brain-machine interfaces, which has the potential to allow mind control of prosthetic devices, is being featured in TV spots on the Twin Cities major TV stations in early October. This is part of the the University's "Driven to Discover" campaign to inform the public of exciting, high-impact research being performed at the University of Minnesota. This TV spot can be viewed at http://www.discover.umn.edu/viewCampaign/televisionNew.php

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.

Professor Chun Wang Receives UMN's McKnight Land-Grant Professorship

Chun was 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.

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.

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.

Following a review that occurred Fall 2003, our Bachelor's of Biomedical Engineering Program received accreditation from the organization ABET that accredits bachelor's programs nationally. The accreditation is retroactive to degrees granted since October, 2002.

Archived News