Welcome to the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at Georgia Tech and Emory University. I am energized and honored to begin serving as the chair of one of the top biomedical engineering departments in the world at such a thrilling time in our evolution!
The spirit of collaboration is embedded in the DNA of Georgia Tech and Emory. The Coulter Department is a perfect representation of teamwork and innovation – a unique partnership linking Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering, a top-tier public engineering school, to the Emory University School of Medicine, one of the nation’s highly regarded private medical schools that excels in both research and primary care. As a newcomer to Atlanta and the Coulter Department, I want to deepen that community of collaboration while we grow in size and impact.
With vision and synergy, our world-class faculty combine clinical insights, biological approaches, and advanced engineering technologies to address unmet clinical challenges to accelerate the discovery of new diagnostic tools and treatments, all wrapped in a multi-disciplinary environment that stresses a team approach in both the classroom and the lab.
Our research revolutionizes approaches to understand, detect, and treat diseases in adults and children using bioengineering, immunoengineering, regenerative medicine, biomechanics, cancer technologies, cardiovascular and neural engineering, imaging, robotics, and computational biomedical analysis.
Together, students and faculty are addressing today’s biggest health challenges such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, blindness, arthritis, brain injuries, AIDS, cardiovascular and neurological diseases, and immune disorders.
Meanwhile, our highly ranked undergraduate and graduate biomedical engineering programs are developing tomorrow’s leaders who will address the grand challenges that lie ahead. These diverse, brilliant students from around the world are learning to solve complex, real-world problems. After graduation, our students are placed in highly sought-after graduate, medical, and industry positions worldwide.
Students are charting their own futures through innovation and entrepreneurship with the help of CREATE-X (an initiative designed to build entrepreneurial confidence and help create new business opportunities for entrepreneurial students). Others are working closely with faculty and clinicians to gain important insights into human health and disease, and translating that knowledge to industry and clinical practice.
This year, the Coulter Department was awarded a two-million-dollar NSF Revolutionizing Engineering Departments (RED) grant that will transform our BME curriculum. The Department’s project goal is to create engineers who celebrate and connect with diverse individuals so that they are fully included and integrated in the problem-solving process. This inspires me, because I learned long ago that a diverse team and an inclusive community produce superior solutions.
As chair of the Coulter Department, my hope is to enrich and expand the impact of this department on the Emory and Georgia Tech campuses, to continue enhancing the interdisciplinary research and education opportunities, increase interactions with industry, and to work with our greatest resources – our students, faculty, staff, and alumni – to catalyze our influence on the world stage.
I welcome students, faculty, staff, alumni and parents to reach out to me. Together, we will deepen our impact, engagement, and community.
Sincerely,
Susan Margulies, Ph.D.
Wallace H. Coulter Chair,
Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering
at Georgia Institute of Technology & Emory University School of Medicine
Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Injury Biomechanics
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
