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August 25, 2006 Vol. 77, no.
2F
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| BUILDING BIOE BRIDGES: Visitors at BioE’s Industrial Relations Day on August 15 heard faculty presentations and discussed possibilities for collaboration.
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College’s newest department off to a good start
Bioengineering Department celebrates its eighth year
When the Bioengineering Department first accepted applicants in 1999, it had 387 high schoolers hoping to get into a freshman class of 61. This year, it had 1,021 applicants, and as fall semester kicks off, the department expects 78 lucky souls to fill the incoming class. Applications to the College’s newest department are second only to EECS among the departments. “People see this as really the up-and-coming field to be in,” says BioE chair and professor Dorian Liepmann, who took over the chair in 2004. “It’s hot.”
Much of the major’s popularity, Liepmann says, is due to the national buzz around biomedical fields in general and stem cell research in particular. BioE’s own faculty research projects include diagnostic chips for the collection and analysis of biological data and using cell mechanics to enhance immunity, to name a few. “We’re the leaders in areas such as stem cells and synthetic biology, and we’re doing incredible work, such as making malaria drugs cheaper,” Liepmann says.
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Top-notch research and a huge growth in student demand aren’t the department’s only accomplishments. Since 1998, when the department first opened, it’s hired 13 new faculty members and created over 30 new classes. (There was just one dedicated BioE class in 1998.) It’s also moving from Evans Hall into a brand new building next year, the Stanley Biosciences and Bioengineering Facility.
But with so many accomplishments in such a short time come growing pains. “Even with the new faculty and classes, we don’t have the resources to handle the prospective student demand for our major,” says Liepmann. “We also have mostly junior faculty, who are under pressure to step up and do some of the leadership work usually done by senior faculty.”
Some BioE students have been bewildered by the broad nature of the curriculum, which grew out of the College’s Interdisciplinary Studies program before the department was formed. Now that’s changing, says Liepmann. “We’re working on a robust curriculum with some defined tracks that will make choosing courses much easier for students. We plan to see program changes implemented over the next year.”
Overall, students appear happy with their major. “I applied to BioE because I looked at the number of job opportunities and knew that people would always need something having to do with biology,” says BioE senior Mike Kurylo, who recently finished a summer of helping UC Santa Barbara professor Deborah Fygenson with research on DNA nanotubes. “And so far, my bioengineering training has been remarkably applicable.”
Liepmann has high hopes, too. “Five years from now, I want us take our place in the top five bioengineering departments in the country. It will take a lot of work and a campus wide commitment to get there, but we already have outstanding faculty and students. This department is only going to get better and better.”
Go to http://bioeng.berkeley.edu/ for more information.
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