I am very pleased to have the opportunity to guide the Department of Biomedical Engineering in this transition period. We look forward to solidifying our recent gains as well as moving in new directions.

We are most thankful to the great and energetic leadership of the Founding Chair, Bill Ditto, who created the department, hired all the current faculty and staff, and was instrumental in securing the J. Crayton Pruitt Family endowment and the opportunity for the Department to move to the new Biomedical Sciences Building. We wish Bill all the best in his new position as the Chair of the Bioengineering Department at Arizona State University (http://hdbe.fulton.asu.edu/)

Progress in the first six years of our Department has led to the current size of ten core faculty members and a very large set of affiliate faculty. We have conferred 30 PhDs and 60 MS degrees and currently have 57 PhD and 22 MS students enrolled. The Department Endowment stands at nearly $20M, with gifts and donations from the J. Crayton Pruitt, Sr., Family, the Shepard Broad Foundation and the Alpha One Foundation, plus matching funds from the State of Florida. Research funding is strong, with research expenditures in excess of $1 million per year. We will be moving into the Biomedical Sciences Building in August of 2009.

The Department is ready to tackle new challenges. An undergraduate program is being planned with the first students to enroll in Fall of 2010. An aggressive schedule of curriculum development, including substantial participation by sister departments, is under construction. The planning will include explicit addressing of critical needs in this time of economic difficulties and increasing health costs. Curricula will engage students wit education based on both established engineering approaches and cutting edge biomolecular science, and emphasizing translational and entrepreneurial applications so as to contribute engineering solutions to Florida’s and the nation’s biomedical needs.

We are searching for new faculty to help us grow new connections to the UF College of Medicine and Health Sciences, as well as to grow our highly demanded undergraduate degree program.

Spring 2009 Bruce Wheeler