Case Western Reserve University’s biomedical engineering (BME) graduate program bounced back from three years outside the top 10 to reclaim its place as one of the nation’s leaders in the discipline this month.
In U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings of graduate and professional programs, Case Western Reserve’s BME offerings tied with the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania in the No. 10 spot, with its peer score just one-tenth of a point behind programs at Rice University, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the University of Washington (all of which tied for seventh).
“We appreciate this recognition from our academic peers in biomedical engineering,” Dean Jeffrey Duerk said of the improved ranking. Duerk, who chaired BME from 2008 through the beginning of this year, noted that the department recently saw significant progress in terms of faculty recruitment and research achievements. “A powerful sense of momentum exists here, and we look forward to building upon it in the years to come.”
Among recent appointments to the department are:
- Assistant Professor A. Bolu Ajiboye, PhD, who specializes in creating brain-computer interfaces aimed at assisting those who have suffered debilitating illness or injury to regain motor function.
- Assistant Professor Jeffrey R. Capadona, PhD, who focuses on developing biomaterials that can be used in the brain without provoking rejection or damaging existing tissues.
- Assistant Professor Nicole Seiberlich, PhD, who focuses on advanced signal processing in imaging.
- Assistant Professor Nicole Steinmetz, PhD, who concentrates on how viral nanoparticles can be used in tissue engineering, imaging and drug delivery.
“These additions, coupled with our existing outstanding faculty, position the department extremely well,” Duerk said. “From here we will work to raise the school’s overall profile as well as the standing of individual units within in it.”