From our beginning as a fledgling program within other engineering departments at The University of Texas at Austin to becoming our own nationally-recognized department in our own right, the history of the Department of Biomedical Engineering continues.
50 Years of Biomedical Engineering at UT Austin
1960s
- March 31, 1966 - Dean John McKetta sends a memorandum asking a faculty committee consisting of E.A. “Rip” Ripperger (Department of Aerospace Engineering), Ernest Gloyna (Dean Emeritus, Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering), Kenneth Bischoff (Department of Chemical Engineering), and a few others to start the program.
- June 7, 1966 - Rip Ripperger becomes the first chair of the BME Program Committee.
- August 1966 - A set of graduate courses is selected, and the first students are enrolled in Electrical and Computer Engineering with a “Biomedical Engineering emphasis.”
- August 1968 - UT Austin receives its first National Institute of Health grant, awarded to Rip Ripperger.
- July 1968 - Thomas Runge requests that the St. David Hospital administration establish collaboration between the hospital and the “Bio-mechanical Department.”
- August 1968 - Fred Vogt becomes the second Chair of the BME Program Committee.
- September 1968 - AJ Welch, who arrived at UT Austin in 1964, becomes associated with the program.
1970s
- August 1970 - An official application is submitted by the BME Program Committee to the Graduate School, Faculty and Board of Regents for the establishment of the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in BME.
- August 1971 - Bob Popovich is hired from the University of Washington at Seattle as the first professor of biomedical engineering with an appointment in chemical engineering.
- August 1972 - Ken Diller is hired from MIT as the second professor of biomedical engineering with an appointment in mechanical engineering.
- May 1973 - The request for independent M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in BME is approved.
- August 1976 - Lee Baker is hired from Baylor College of Medicine as the first permanent director of the BME Program.
2000s
- 2001 - The University of Texas at Austin establishes the Department of Biomedical Engineering, so that it can offer undergraduate degrees.
- August 2002 - The department admits its first undergraduate class.
- May 2006 - The BIomedical Engineering Department graduates its first baccalaureate class.
- 2008 - Construction is completed on the Biomedical Engineering Building.
2010s
- 2016 - 50th anniversary of the formation of the Biomedical Engineering graduate program and 10th anniversary of the first graduating class of undergraduates.
