UB will be home to an innovative new program in fall 2009, one that only about 40 universities in the U.S. call their own.
The Biomedical Engineering program was announced Wednesday as a degree that will combine elements from the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Students in the program, which will encompass bachelor's, master's, and doctorate degrees, will bring engineering skills to the field of medicine to foster new medical technologies and therapies.
"This discipline will attract students with very strong academic credentials who want to study and work in this innovative and life-transforming field," said Satish Tripathi, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs, in a statement.
A fairly new field of study, the UB biomedical engineering program will compete with other schools like University of Michigan, Stanford University, and Johns Hopkins University. According to the Buffalo News, job growth in the field is expected to jump 31 percent in the next three years.
The Department aims to hire an internationally esteemed chair along with eight full-time faculty to the program and 20 current professors from other programs as affiliates, according to a release from the UB News Service.
The induction of the program is made possible in part by a $3 million grant from The John R. Oishei Foundation, a Western New York organization that awards grants to local venues to support economic change in the area. Another $1 million needs to be raised to support the initiative.
Local biomedical companies were pleased to hear about the new program, hoping that it would bring skilled workers in the field to Western New York as well as new ideas from the research to be conducted here.
The university expects as many as 80 students to graduate annually with a degree in biomedical engineering in the coming years.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
