Spring 2008 NewsletterWelcome from the ChairOur 10th Birthday
Our spring, 2008 Department of Bioengineering E-newsletter is focusing on the celebration of our 10th Birthday this past fall during Homecoming, 2007. My message is adapted from my "welcome note" included in our tenth Birthday Brochure. While 10 years perhaps seem like a long time, it is really but as a moment in the long histories of the University of Pittsburgh and our Swanson School of Engineering. The University is itself celebrating its 220th birthday, and the Swanson School of Engineering can trace its origins back to the 19th century. But regardless of whether we consider 10 years to be a long time or but a moment, our Department has achieved many academic milestones in its first decade of existence. Foremost among them is educating many outstanding students whose professional accomplishments bring us pride. More than 200 students have graduated from our department with their Bachelor of Science. degrees. Our Master of Science awardees now number more than 150. And, we can point with pride to more than 70 PhD graduates (including 11 M.D., PhD graduates). Graduate AchievementsOur graduates are making their mark in academia, industry, and government service. One of our M.S. graduates was cited recently as the "Engineer of the Year" by the Food and Drug Administration (upwards of 10 of our graduates at the B.S. and M.S. levels are employed by the FDA!). One of our Ph.D. graduates now holds a prestigious faculty chair at a sister university, and another holds a leadership position in a multinational medical device corporation. And our baccalaureates, many of whom have pursued advanced academic degrees, can now affix PhD, MD, or JD to their signatures! Equally compelling, one of our baccalaureates has practiced bioengineering in third world country hospitals where patients have little or no access to even the most basic medical equipment and technology. Department HappeningsProfessor Mark Redfern organized a very exciting weekend of activities to celebrate our 10th birthday, highlighted by a first symposium entitled, "Bioengineering at Pitt: Past, Present and Future," and a second symposium entitled, "Bioengineering Research at Pitt." We were particularly pleased that Professor Jerome Schultz, the founding chair of our Department, delivered the keynote lecture in the A.M. session. Other activities coincided with Pitt Homecoming and culminated with a Pitt victory over Cincinnati (Bearcats not Bengals!) in the football game at Heinz Field. Newsletter HighlightsAs part of our 10th Birthday Program eight of our alumni made outstanding presentations to the current students, faculty and staff on their professional careers post-degree. The comments of two of these alumni, Ben Novak and Madhavan Raghavan, are included in this e-newsletter. You will also find a very interesting article about the translational research being conducted by two of our bioengineering faculty, Tracy Cui and Mingui Sun. The recognition received by four of our senior faculty at the annual Swanson School Board of Visitors Meeting is also detailed. I wish everyone a pleasant spring term. Sincerely, Professor and Chair of Bioengineering, |
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