Wake Forest, Virginia Tech seek joint school of biomedical engineering

BT Catalyst, Dec, 2001

Wake Forest University (WFU) in Winston-Salem and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Va., plan to establish a joint school of biomedical engineering and sciences.

The school will fill needs at both universities. Wake Forest has long sought to add an engineering program, and Virginia Tech wants access to a medical school and its researchers.

In addition, the universities anticipate that the new school will increase collaborations among researchers and educators and catalyze fundamental discoveries that lead to improvements in health care technologies.

"The school will strengthen Wake Forest's intellectual resources, thereby strengthening the capabilities of the Piedmont Triad Research Park," said Thomas K. Hearn Jr., WFU's president.

The recently established National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md., may provide a consistent source of funding.

To support the school, WFU's School of Medicine is establishing a Center for Biomedical Engineering with a total of $1.5 million provided by 13 departments. Virginia Tech already has a parallel Center for Biomedical Engineering with more than 20 active faculty members.

"This is a natural partnership between Virginia Tech, which has no human medical school and Wake Forest, which does not have an engineering school," said Charles W. Steger, Virginia Tech's president. "We are extremely excited about affiliating with a highly respected university like Wake Forest."

"We have set goals of ranking in the top tier of medical schools in NIH funding and in annual licensing revenues," said Dr. Richard Dean, senior vice president for health affairs of WFU. "Currently, all of the top NH-funded institutions have an engineering school or biomedical engineering department."

If the planning proceeds as hoped, the universities would jointly admit the first students in the fall of 2002. The plan envisions jointly awarding master of science, Ph.D. and M.D./Ph.D. degrees, with the names and seals of both institutions appearing on the diplomas. The planners envision a student body of at least 80 to 100 students within five years.