The 2011–2012 academic year marks the Department of Biomedical Engineering’s 10th anniversary. Before that, research efforts in biomedical engineering were carried out through a graduate program that became active in the late 1960s.
The 2011–2012 academic year marks the Department of Biomedical Engineering’s 10th anniversary. Before that, research efforts in biomedical engineering were carried out through a graduate program that became active in the late 1960s. Since that time, numerous Ph.D. and M.S. degree holders have gone on to take positions within academic institutions, the health care field, and industry.
In the fall of 2001, The University of Texas at Austin formed a full-fledged academic department in biomedical engineering, offering undergraduate degrees in addition to graduate degrees. Today the department comprises 19 primary faculty members and over 60 associated professors working in diverse areas of biomedical engineering.
Former Department Chair and Professor Ken Diller and Professor Christine Schmidt were two of the founding members of the department. Here, they share their memories on how the department started.
Ken Diller
Ken Diller: Around 1997, it became obvious that to be nationally competitive we needed to form a department. Without that organizational structure, it would be near to impossible to recruit faculty, acquire space, and develop an undergraduate curriculum necessary to elevate UT BME to the top level.
Christine Schmidt
Christine Schmidt: As a graduate program, we didn’t have control over hiring faculty or hosting seminar programs, so a small cluster of us, Ken Diller, Rebecca Richards-Kortum, who is now a professor at Rice University, Marcus Pandy, who is now chair of biomedical engineering at the University of Melbourne, and myself, approached the dean of engineering at the time, Ben Streetman. We knew we needed to either start an institute or a department. Around that time, the Whitaker Foundation was giving funding to new biomedical engineering departments, so we moved in that direction.
Ken Diller: Another impetus for us to form a department came after we gained funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish an Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Bioengineering Educational Technologies. We formed a consortium with Vanderbilt, Northwestern, and the Harvard MIT Division of Health Science and Technology and received $22 million over 8 years to develop curriculum and learning materials. The ERC was a collaborative effort between biomedical engineers and scientists specializing in learning from all of the institutions. So our curriculum was scientifically based in its design. We presented this curriculum to UT administrators, including deans, vice presidents, and Provost Sheldon Ekland-Olson. They were impressed with our vision for building a state of the art educational system and appreciated the opportunity start a UT BME Department and undergraduate major, and we gained their support in this endeavor.
Christine Schmidt: The Whitaker Foundation was interested in departments that were affiliated with medical components, so we partnered with MD Anderson and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. There were countless plane trips back and forth between Austin and Houston during that time.
Ken Diller: Our core leadership team of four met on a daily basis for an entire year to put together a successful proposal to the Whitaker Foundation to help found the department. It was also around this time that we began working on plans for a BME building. That process took 10 years from conception to reality. We began recruiting faculty and identifying professors at the Cockrell School who were working in other engineering departments. We invited Dr. George Georgiou, Dr. Tom Milner, Dr. Grady Rylander, and Dr. A. J. Welch to join BME, and they became part of the planning process.
Christine Schmidt: Because we were a small group at the time, we were all really involved with faculty recruiting. Ken had been the chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and provided us with leadership. Rebecca Richards-Kortum was more senior, but still in the middle of her career. I was a younger assistant faculty member at the time, so it was unusual for me to play a larger part in recruitment. But because of our small size, most of us needed to be present at the faculty dinners where we were recruiting faculty. Keep in mind, at that time, we did not yet have the space and facilities we currently do. We only had a commitment that we would be constructing a building and acquiring more lab space. Our early faculty recruits, like Dr. Roy, Dr. Markey, Dr. Emelianov, and Dr. Peppas, really had to have faith in us.
Ken Diller: We began having weekly faculty meetings of the entire department faculty, and it was a major undertaking to design a curriculum and entire department structure from a blank slate. This was the first brand new department to form at The University of Texas at Austin in decades. And, in the middle of our planning, all of us were still conducting our research. Research space was also a challenge when we first started. Some senior faculty members gave up their existing space to accommodate for new recruits. Before our building was complete in 2008, we all faced major space and facility limitations.
Christine Schmidt: We spent the first year solidifying the BME curriculum. In 2002 we began teaching classes. Those early students and faculty were brave and flexible with us, because at that point everything was so new. We didn’t have the facilities that we do today. Every semester since that first one, we’ve made refinements.
Ken Diller: BME very quickly established its own identity after becoming a department. We are recognized for excellence in teaching and research. We have faculty starting biotech companies, winning major awards and holding prominent leadership positions on the national and international scenes. And, we have contributed to the economy by educating a bright workforce. I think this department will bear fruit for students, Texas, and beyond, well into the future.
