Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering
Name	Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering
Established	2018
Type	Public research
Parent	Purdue University
City	West Lafayette
State	Indiana
Country	United States
Dean	Amy B. Smith
Students	800
Undergrad	500
Postgrad	300

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering is an academic unit within Purdue University that integrates engineering, life sciences, and clinical translation. It emphasizes interdisciplinary education and research linking Purdue University with regional and national partners including Indiana University School of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Johns Hopkins University. The school advances biomedical innovation through collaborations with industry leaders such as Siemens Healthineers, Medtronic, GE Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson, and Stryker.

History

The school's formation built on long-standing programs at Purdue University and was accelerated by philanthropic support from the Weldon family and corporate gifts from Cook Group and Eli Lilly and Company. Early roots trace to faculty hires affiliated with centers like the Birck Nanotechnology Center, the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience, and the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering's predecessor units in the College of Engineering and the Department of Biomedical Engineering collaborations with Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. Strategic planning involved external reviews by panels including members from National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and representatives from DARPA and NIH Clinical Center. Significant milestones include the creation of joint degree pathways with Harvard Medical School, establishment of translational partnerships with Purdue Research Foundation, and accreditation processes engaging ABET evaluators.

Academic Programs

Weldon offers undergraduate and graduate programs including a Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, PhD, and professional degrees in partnership with Purdue University Global and international collaborators at Tsinghua University, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and ETH Zurich. Curricula incorporate courses referencing frameworks from American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Biomedical Engineering Society, and foundational texts used at Stanford University, California Institute of Technology, and University of California, Berkeley. Students may pursue concentrations in areas connected to centers such as tissue engineering aligned with work at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, neural engineering linked to MIT McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and biomedical imaging influenced by University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Joint degrees include MD/PhD collaborations with Indiana University School of Medicine and industry-focused MS tracks co-developed with Eli Lilly and Company and Caterpillar Inc.

Research and Centers

Research themes span biomedical imaging, biomaterials, biomechanics, systems biology, and translational therapeutics, coordinated with centers like the Bindley Bioscience Center, the Birck Nanotechnology Center, the Center for Cancer Research, and the Vaccine Research Center. Faculty lead programs funded by National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, U.S. Department of Energy, and foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Collaborative projects connect to initiatives at Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, Broad Institute, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Salk Institute, and Rockefeller University. Translational units partner with Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization, Indiana Economic Development Corporation, Indiana Biosciences Research Institute, and consortia including Life Science Illinois.

Faculty and Administration

Faculty include scholars recruited from institutions such as Massachusetts General Hospital, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Stanford Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, and Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Administrative leadership has engaged advisory boards with members from Kaiser Permanente, Pfizer, Roche, Novartis, and academic leaders from University of California, San Diego, Yale School of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Faculty hold honors from organizations including the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and recipients of awards such as the Lasker Award, the MacArthur Fellowship, and the Gairdner Foundation International Award.

Facilities and Resources

Laboratory space includes wet labs, cleanrooms, imaging suites, and fabrication facilities housed across facilities like the Birck Nanotechnology Center, MSEE Building, and the Innovative Center for Advanced Technology. Resources encompass MRI and CT scanners similar to platforms at Mayo Clinic, mass spectrometry cores akin to those at Argonne National Laboratory, and supercomputing access via Purdue Research Computing. Core facilities provide bioinformatics pipelines interoperable with databases like GenBank, Protein Data Bank, The Cancer Genome Atlas, and tools used at European Bioinformatics Institute. Clinical translation leverages partnerships with Indiana University Health, Eskenazi Health, and regional hospitals including Methodist Hospital and Lutheran Health Network.

Student Life and Organizations

Student organizations include chapters and collaborations with Biomedical Engineering Society, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Society of Women Engineers, Association for Women in Science, National Society of Black Engineers, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and student entrepreneurship groups linked to Purdue Foundry and Elevate Ventures. Extracurricular research opportunities connect students to internships at NIH, FDA, NASA, Eli Lilly and Company, and startups incubated through IU Ventures and BioCrossroads. Career services coordinate recruiting events with employers including Medtronic, Abbott Laboratories, Stryker Corporation, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and alumni networks across institutions like Duke University School of Medicine and University of Chicago Medical Center.

Category:Purdue University