A Message from the Department Head

Welcome and thank you for taking the time to learn more about our program. We are a joint degree partnership between Virginia Tech and Wake Forest University that is called the School for Biomedical Engineering and Sciences. We offer MS and PhD degrees in biomedical engineering as well as a joint DVM-PhD degree in collaboration with the Virginia - Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.

Our involvement in biomedical engineering started in 1978 and was highlighted in 1990 when Virginia Tech hosted the first Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) conference in Blacksburg Virginia. Prior to this conference, BMES had always held joint conferences with other groups, so 1990 was the first stand-alone BMES conference. For the recent BMES conferences we bring over 100 faculty and graduate students who present over 100 papers and posters. If you are traveling to BMES, I hope you will have the opportunity to see one of these presentations as I strongly believe that research excellence is the best demonstration of successful growth in any academic field.

Our biomedical research and educational programs continue to grow and expand at a dramatic rate. Recently, we have taken ownership of three new facilities over the past year for a total of over 80,000 sq ft of dedicated biomedical engineering research and teaching space at both campuses. Our rapid growth is fueled by strong and sustained commitments from both Virginia Tech and Wake Forest University. Currently we have 76 tenure track faculty (25 primary and 51 joint) as well as an additional 68 affiliate faculty appointments in our biomedical program. We have an ambitious growth plan that has added 45 faculty in the past 3 years. Over the past academic year, our biomedical engineering faculty listed on these pages published 200 journal papers (an average of 4.7 for our 39 faculty) and an additional 200 conference papers.

Our partnership between Virginia Tech and Wake Forest University is highlighted in many areas of our web site, but allow me to draw your attention toward two areas in particular. First, the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine is a thriving example of the collaboration between the two schools. Second, this year we announced the new Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma which was made possible through the generosity of Richard and Judy Childress. Researchers at Virginia Tech and Wake Forest University are combining to make these two Institutes world leaders in tissue engineering and pediatric trauma.

I hope that you will take a few minutes and read about the exciting research in all of our biomedical programs. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Stefan Duma,
Harry C. Wyatt Professor and Head
Email: HeadBiomed@vt.edu