1997
Georgia Tech Provost and Vice President Michael E. Thomas and the Emory Dean of Medicine Thomas J. Lawley established an Advisory Committee of Georgia Tech and Emory faculty to address new opportunities in biomedical engineering. The Committee met initially on June 2, 1997 and was charged to develop a set of recommendations for an innovative and unique Department of Biomedical Engineering that is joint with Georgia Tech and Emory and that will enable both institutions to maximize research and educational opportunities in fields of intersecting biomedical interest.
That same year (1997), the Department of Biomedical Engineering is approved and Don Giddens is named as inaugural Department Chair.
1999
GT BMES was created to promote the profession of biomedical engineering and to acquaint the student body with ideas, purposes, and objectives of the bioengineering field. Our interests extend from tissue and cellular engineering, to biomaterials and biological interfaces, to biological signal processing and instrumentation, to biomechanics, rheology, and integrative biology.
2000
First PhD and undergraduate students enroll.
In 2000, the Department assumed the name of Wallace H. Coulter, who was recognized as one of the most influential engineers in the twentieth century through his entrepreneurial efforts in shaping the fields of automated cell analysis and hematology.
2003
Larry V. McIntire becomes Chair on July 1, 2003 (retires July 1, 2013).
2009
First 5 students enroll in PKU joint program.
2010
The Biomedical Research and Opportunities Society was founded in 2010 and went on to become Georgia Tech's "Best New Organization" for the academic year.
2013
The Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University have selected Ravi V. Bellamkonda, a prominent biomedical scientist and engineer, to chair their joint department of biomedical engineering. He begun as chair of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University in July.
2016
C. Ross Ethier becomes interim chair for the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University School of Medicine starting August 1, 2016.
