Chhavi Sachdev
It is not often that a ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the conclusion of an enterprise, but, at a reception held at the Biomedical Engineering Department on June 21, the end signaled a fresh beginning.
In the last five years, the Whitaker Leadership Award has helped Boston University reach “the cusp of having a global impact,” said BME Chair Kenneth Lutchen. “With our human — and facilities — firepower, we are poised to really understand and impact human life,” Lutchen said.
Boston University President Robert A. Brown said the conclusion of the award “marks a pivotal point in the history of BU and Biomedical Engineering at BU,” adding that the Whitaker Foundation grant had been instrumental in establishing Boston University and its Biomedical Engineering program as one of the best, nationally and globally.
The Whitaker Foundation, named for the late scientist and inventor Uncas A. Whitaker, established Leadership Awards in the late 1990s for “institutions that have already demonstrated national leadership in biomedical engineering and have articulated a clear and exciting vision for enhancing their leadership position.”
Under the deanship of Charles DeLisi and then David K. Campbell, the University applied for an award, and was one of only three institutions to win one. The foundation granted BU $14 million in 2001 with an $18 million cost-share investment from the University.
The grant was used in part to build the Life Science and Engineering Building at 24 Cummington Street, as well for the hiring of 12 new faculty members with secondary appointments in eight other departments such as Opthamology, Pharmacology, Physics, Genetics and Genomics. With the grant, the College of Engineering also built laboratories and created dynamic new courses that are cross-disciplinary and innovative. The catch was that they had to get it done “soup-to-nuts in five years,” said Lutchen.
This month, BU completed the implementation of the award, an event that coincides with the planned dissolution of the Whitaker Foundation. “With the tremendous effort of BME faculty, staff and BU administration, we have completed the project on time and on budget,” said Lutchen.
President Brown said he was impressed with the BME Department, which has kept abreast of developments in the field, as biomedical engineering has become “more molecular in nature: It has transitioned from bones and circuits to understanding life and life sciences.”
“We sit together with great facilities, great faculty, having spent a great grant, in the wonderful position of being one of the top programs in BME,” said Brown.
“We sit together also in a dogfight,” he continued. “The field is going to get much more populated and we have the lead. The Whitaker Foundation grant has been a boost in propelling us forward.”
In his concluding remarks, Brown said he remains confident of success, given the momentum gained through excellent faculty as well as collaborations. “With all that strength and financial support, we can do fantastic things. BME will continue to be a jewel in the crown of Boston University,” he said. |
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BME Department Chair Kenneth Lutchen, BU President Robert A. Brown and Dean ad interim Solomon R. Eisenberg cut the ribbon for the Core Facilities
(click on the photos to view larger images)
Philip Allen, Ph.D.,the Senior Engineer responsible for the Micro/Nano Imaging Facility with a microscope that measures fluorescence
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