Biomedical Engineering Desk Reference

Buddy D. Ratner, Michael L. and Myrna Darland Endowed Chair in Bioengineering and Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington, received his Ph.D. (1972) in polymer chemistry from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. From 1985-1996 he directed the NIH-funded National ESCA and Surface Analysis Center for Biomedical Problems (NESAC/BIO), and in 1996 he assumed the directorship of University of Washington Engineered Biomaterials (UWEB), an NSF Engineering Research Center. He is the editor of the Journal of Undergraduate Research in Bioengineering, a past president of the Society for Biomaterials and author of 400 scholarly works. Ratner is a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), the American Vacuum Society and a Fellow, Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE). He served as president of AIMBE, 2002-2003. He is vice president of the Tissue Engineering Society International (TESI) 2003-2005. In 2002 Ratner was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering, USA, and in 2004 he won the Founder’s Award for the Society For Biomaterials. His research interests include biomaterials, tissue engineering, polymers, biocompatibility, surface analysis of organic materials, self-assembly, nanobiotechnology and RF-plasma thin film deposition.

Summary of Buddy Ratner’s awards and honors:

1989 Clemson Award for Contributions to the Biomaterials Literature
1990 Burlington Resources Foundation Faculty Achievement Award for Outstanding Research
1991 Perkin-Elmer Physical Electronics Award for Excellence in Surface Science
1991–1992 President, Society For Biomaterials
1993 Founding Fellow, American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE)
1993 Fellow, American Vacuum Society; Vice President, AIMBE
1993 Fellow, Society For Biomaterials; Van Ness Lecturer, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
1998 C.M.A. Stine Award in Materials Science (AIChE); American Vacuu

Sverre Grimnes graduated in 1963 as an electronic engineer from the Technical University of Trondheim. He spent four years at SI, Oslo followed by a year at Sorbonne in Paris before moving to the University of Oslo’s Department of Chemistry. From 1973-2001 he was Head of the Department of Biomedical and Clinical Engineering at Rikshospitalet and since 1984 has also been Professor at the Department of Physics at the University of Oslo.

His research interests include electrical and physiological properties of human skin, patient electrical safety, and bioimpedance basic theory and instrumentation.

Professor Grimnes authored a hugely successful Norwegian book series on Medical Technology and has been awarded the Herman P Schwan Award and the Kings Gold Medal of Merit.

Professor Daniel A. Vallero is a renowned environmental scientist and engineer with four decades of experience. He has advised U.S. government agencies on critical issues like PBTs, climate change, acid rain, and chemical risks. At Duke University, he led the Engineering Ethics program and taught courses on air pollution, sustainable design, and ethics. Vallero has served on the National Academy of Engineering’s Online Ethics Committee and the National Institute of Engineering Ethics. An expert in emerging technologies, he focuses on societal, ethical, and public health challenges related to nanotechnology and environmental biotechnology. His work also encompasses emergency response and homeland security, making him a leading voice in environmental risk and ethics.

John Semmlow was a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering of Rutgers University and in the Department of Surgery of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School UMDNJ for 32 years. Over that period he published over 100 review journal articles and has been appointed a Fellow of the IEEE, the AIMBE, and the BMES. He retired in June of 2010, but still remains active in research, particularly cardiovascular diagnosis and human motor control. He is actively pursuing a ‘second career’ as an artist, designing and building computer controlled kinetic art: sculptures that move in interesting and intriguing ways.

Reinaldo Perez is Senior Engineer and Member of the Technical Staff at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. For the past three years, Dr. Perez has also been working with Lockheed Martin Astronautics (LMA) on the Mars Surveyor series. His primary work has been as a designer of spacecraft (or satellite) subsystems and ground support hardware for increased reliability in space environments, focusing on wireless communications hardware with built-in immunity to many kinds of noise and interference problems. He is a senior member of the IEEE, AIAA, and AIP, and serves as a board member of the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES). In addition, Dr. Perez is an associate editor of the IEEE EMCS Journal, as well as Editor of the ACES Newsletter.