Department History

In 2002, a new Department of Biomedical Engineering was created at CCNY, along with a new bachelors degree program in Biomedical Engineering. This was a culmination of an eight-year effort supported by three Special Opportunity Awards from the Whitaker Foundation and Educational Opportunity Grants for Minorities from the National Institutes of Health and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The construction of new office facilities and state-of-the-art laboratories for the Department of Biomedical Engineering were made possible by a generous grant from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation.

The Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) grew out of the New York Center for Biomedical Engineering (NYCBE) at CCNY, a consortium of New York City medical institutions established in 1994 to serve as a focal center for collaborative biomedical engineering research in the New York metropolitan area. A number of milestones marked the rapid growth of BME at CCNY:

  • Development of a 15-credit undergraduate concentration in BME
  • The NYCBE became a CUNY Institute in 1996
  • Establishment of a Ph.D. program in BME in 1999
  • Creation of a Master's program in BME 2000
  • Creation of a Bachelor's program in BME and founding of the BME department in 2002
  • Completion of renovated lab space in Steinman Hall in 2004
  • A first-of-its-kind Master's in Translational Medicine program was established in 2016

As our department continues to grow and thrive, you can read more about the goals to which we strive in our Strategic Plan. The major research themes on which our department were founded are cardiovascular engineering, musculoskeletal biomechanics, nanotechnology & biomaterials, and neural engineering & imaging. The department was initially ABET accredited in 2011, re-accredited in 2017, and against in 2023--each with no concerns.

Please visit our News page for current updates and Archived News. You can also view the history of our prestigious named lecture series, the Zweifach and SKT Lectures, here. For example, the Fall 2004 Zweifach Lecture by Professor Bob Langer of MIT was a part of the BME Department Inauguration Program. We have also hosted many other luminaries, including Nobel Laureate Frances Arnold from CalTech and many members of all three National Academies.

Funding and Scholarship

The City College of New York Department of Biomedical Engineering has an excellent track-record in generating funding for basic research and translational research, and in support of its mission to increase diversity in medical research.

We have received developmental grants (each greater than $1 million) from the Whitaker Foundation, The Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, and educational grants from the Sloan Foundation, Howard Hughes Foundation, NASA, NSF, and NIH.

CCNY received three $1 million Special Opportunity Awards from the Whitaker Foundation to help build the biomedical engineering program. Funding from the Wallace Coulter Foundation helped to build state-of-the-art departmental laboratories and includes a recently awarded $2.5 million challenge grant. The department also held a $2.2 million NIH education award.

In 2023, the department held almost $8 million in research grants, which is ~$670,000 per research-active faculty member. This complements the ~180 publications and 9 pending or issued patents from our faculty.

 

Last Updated: 08/30/2024 13:13