Biological engineering or bioengineering is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically viable products. Biological engineering employs knowledge and expertise from a number of pure and applied sciences, such as mass and heat transfer, kinetics, biocatalysts, biomechanics, bioinformatics, separation and purification processes, bioreactor design, surface science, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and polymer science. It is used in the design of medical devices, diagnostic equipment, biocompatible materials, renewable energy, ecological engineering, agricultural engineering, process engineering and catalysis, and other areas that improve the living standards of societies.
Valerie Daggett is a professor of bioengineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, United States.
Russ Biagio Altman is an American professor of bioengineering, genetics, medicine, and biomedical data science and past chairman of the bioengineering department at Stanford University.
Frances Hamilton Arnold is an American chemical engineer and Nobel Laureate. She is the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). In 2018, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for pioneering the use of directed evolution to engineer enzymes.
Marjolein Christine Hermance van der Meulen is an American engineer who served as the James M. and Marsha McCormick Director of Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University. She is a Swanson Professor of Biomedical Engineering and a Senior Scientist in the Research Division of the Hospital for Special Surgery.
Rebecca Richards-Kortum is an American bioengineer and the Malcolm Gillis University Professor at Rice University. She is a professor in the departments of Bioengineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering, and she is the Director of Rice 360°: Institute for Global Health, and the Founder of Beyond Traditional Borders. She is the Director of the Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering, and serves as the advisor to the Provost on health-related research.
Douglas C. Noll is an American bioengineer currently the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Professor of Bioengineering at University of Michigan, where he also is professor of radiology and co-director of the Functional MRI Laboratory.
Jennifer Hartt Elisseeff is an American biomedical engineer, ophthalmologist and academic. She is the Morton Goldberg Professor and Director of the Translational Tissue Engineering Center at Johns Hopkins Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Wilmer Eye Institute with appointments in Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science and Orthopedic Surgery. Elisseeff's research is in the fields of regenerative medicine and immunoengineering.
Merryn Tawhai is a New Zealand engineering scientist. She is a professor at the University of Auckland, director of the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, where she was a fellow from 2002, and a former director of MedTech CoRE. She is known for the development of mathematical models of the lungs that will help scientists understand differences between physiologically normal lungs and the pathological changes that might occur in a disease. She was inducted into the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering in June 2018. In November 2018, Tawhai was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.
Alison Lesley Marsden is an American pediatric cardiologist and bioengineer. She is the Douglass M. and Nola Leishman Professor of cardiovascular disease in the departments of Pediatrics (Cardiology), Bioengineering, and, by courtesy, Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. She is the daughter of Canadian-American mathematician Jerrold E. Marsden.
Kathryn Radabaugh Nightingale is an American biomedical engineer and academic in the field of medical ultrasound. She is the Theo Pilkington Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University, and an elected fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).
Tanja Kortemme is a bioengineering professor at University of California, San Francisco. She has been recognized for outstanding contributions in computational protein design, including energy functions, sampling algorithms, and molecules to rewire cellular control circuits. She was an inaugural Chan Zuckerberg Biohub investigator and was inducted into American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering College of Fellows.
Jennifer L. West is an American bioengineer. She is the current Dean of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia. She was the Fitzpatrick University Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University from 2012-2021. In 2000, West cofounded Nanospectra Biosciences in Houston to develop a cancer therapy based on gold nanoparticles that destroy tumor cells and has been listed by MIT Technology Review as one of the 100 most innovative young scientists and engineers world wide.
Denise R. Aberle is an American radiologist and oncologist. As a professor of radiology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a professor of bioengineering in the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, Aberle was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine and Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Ellen Kuhl is the Walter B. Reinhold Professor in the School of Engineering and Robert Bosch Chair of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. She is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and, by courtesy, Bioengineering. Kuhl is known for her research on Living Matter Physics, the design of theoretical and computational models to simulate and predict the behavior of living systems including the human brain and the living heart.
David A. Vorp is an American bioengineer, researcher, entrepreneur, and academic administrator noted for his contributions to aortic aneurysm biomechanics and pathobiology, and tissue engineered vascular grafts. He currently holds the titles of Associate Dean for Research at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering and the John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering, with secondary appointments in the departments of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Surgery, Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, and the Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. He also serves as the co-director of the Center for Medical Innovation., the acting director of the university's GRID Institute, and the director of the Vascular Bioengineering Laboratory.
Beth L. Pruitt is an American engineer. Upon completing her master's degree in manufacturing systems engineering from Stanford University, Pruitt served as an officer in the United States Navy. She is a full professor of mechanical engineering, biological engineering, and biomolecular science & engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is a fellow of both ASME and AIMBE.
Joshua Makower is an American biomedical engineer and physician.
Todd Prentice Coleman is an American electrical engineer and associate professor at Stanford University. He is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Jill Startzell Higginson is an American biomechanical engineer and an expert on gait. Her research involves the observation of gait, the contributions of different muscles to gait, and the diagnosis of muscular problems involving gait. She is George W. Laird Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Delaware, and the head of the university's Neuromuscular Biomechanics Lab.
