A Message from the Chair
Welcome! As Chair of the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington, I'm proud to belong to a department that is internationally recognized for leadership in outstanding, interdisciplinary research and education. I am pleased that you are interested in learning more about our department.
Equally grounded in both the School of Medicine and College of Engineering since its inception in 1967, the Department has grown in size, stature, and recognition under the leadership of bioengineering pioneers like Dr. Robert Rushmer, Dr. James Bassingthwaighte, and Dr. Lee Huntsman. With 29 core faculty, 33 adjunct faculty, 114 graduate students, 63 undergraduate students and 80 staff members, including 35 postdoctoral research fellows, the Department of Bioengineering is one of the fastest growing departments on campus and also one of the most diverse in terms of research.
Currently there are five major areas of research and training within the Department: (1) Distributed Diagnosis and Home Healthcare; (2) Engineered Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering; (3) Molecular Bioengineering and Nanotechnology; (4) Medical Imaging and Image-Guided Therapy; and (5) Computational and Integrative Bioengineering. Within each area there are centers of excellence that include the NSF Engineering Research Center on Biomaterials that Heal (UWEB), National Simulation Resource (NSR), The National ESCA and Surface Analysis Center for Biomedical Problems (NESAC/BIO), Resource Facility for Population Kinetics (RFPK), Center for Nanotechnology, Center for Industrial and Medical Ultrasound (CIMU), Cell Systems Initiative (CSI), and the Image Computing Systems Laboratory (ICSL). Unique integration of biology and information technology is fully underway inside and around our department, creating unexplored frontiers and opportunities in both research and education. Our research programs receive more NIH funding than any other bioengineering department in the country, and annual research funding totaled more than $21.7 million (July 1, 2002 - June 30, 2003).
A unique aspect of our research is our tie with industry. The University of Washington is a national leader in technology transfers and corporate research partnerships, and no department has been more experienced and active in this arena than Bioengineering. We have been prolific in our invention disclosures (439), patents (139), patents pending (120), license agreements (82), and entrepreneurship. With untold economic benefit to business, the faculty, students and staff of the Department have fostered the development of 30 start-up companies as a spin-off of our research endeavors. The inventions from the Department include ultrasound machines, rotational atherectomy, microfluidics, smart biomaterials, medical imaging algorithms and applications, and high-performance computing. This bioengineering/private sector relationship points to the exciting nature of the Department's research and demonstrates that bioengineering is very much at the cutting edge of the nation's need for new knowledge creation and competitive technology development.
With strong research programs and funding, and innovative partnerships with industry, the Department of Bioengineering is an exciting place to be as a student. Our graduate and undergraduate programs are central to everything we do, and we consider our students our greatest asset and accomplishment. New discoveries and technologies arising from rapidly advancing multidisciplinary endeavors including nanotechnology, genomics, biotechnology, modern biology, physiology, computation and informatics, imaging, and communication will soon revolutionize the healthcare system and our students will be there to help make it happen. Unexplored frontiers will continue to emerge probably at an even faster rate than they are now, and bioengineers are poised to be key players because of their interdisciplinary training and experience with collaborative problem solving. The Department of Bioengineering is well positioned and committed to training first-class interdisciplinary professionals who are equipped with skills and philosophy to provide 21st century bioengineering leadership.
I encourage you to take a few minutes to view our BIOE Video, which gives you an overall perspective of the Department of Bioengineering, our degree programs, and research. Thank you very much for your interest in the University of Washington Department of Bioengineering.
-- Yongmin Kim, PhD
Professor and Chair