Department Head Welcome

Welcome to the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at Penn State—one of the fastest-growing departments in the College of Engineering. Whether you’re a current student, staff, or faculty member—or just here to learn more about our offerings—on behalf of our entire department, I invite you to peruse our site.

Whether pursuing a bachelor of science, undergraduate minor, master of science, or doctorate degree program, our students are actively engaged inside the classroom and beyond. Approximately 75 percent of our BME students participate in practical learning including co-ops, internships, undergraduate research opportunities, study abroad experiences, and global capstone projects.

With annual research expenditures totaling $11.9 million per year, our faculty and students engage in cutting-edge research in a variety of areas. From biomedical devices, biomedical imaging, and computational modeling of biological systems to biomaterials and drug delivery, biomechanics and mechanobiology, and regenerative medicine, Penn State BME research faculty and students are engineering what’s next.

Our faculty members are actively involved in providing a hands-on education to our undergraduate and graduate students, contributing to high success rates for our students. Nearly 99 percent of BME undergraduate students earn their degrees within five years, and more than 70 percent graduate within four years.

We are proud of our faculty and students, whose successes can be measured by countless awards, cutting-edge research, and strong median salaries upon entering the workforce. Our students’ achievements include awards and fellowships from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Defense (DOD), while our faculty have received numerous investigator awards including NSF CAREER Awards, DOD’s Young Investigator awards, and the National Institutes of Health’s Trailblazer Award. Following graduation, BME alumni earn a median salary of nearly $90,000 per year* and continue on as future leaders in the areas of medical device design, instrumentation, medical imaging, health care management, biomedical research, and academia.

To keep up with the ever-changing biomedical engineering industry, we are innovating our curriculum. We are developing new tracks; offer a one-year non-thesis master of science with an industry focus; and are developing a new soft materials, cell, and molecular biology makerspace in our impressive Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Building (CBEB) to support our design courses. Opened in 2019, the CBEB also houses state-of-the-art classrooms, lecture halls, student common areas, and laboratory suites.

We have our feet on the ground and our eyes on the future of biomedical engineering. We invite you to join us on the journey!

For the Glory,

Daniel Hayes
Department Head and
Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Nanotherapeutics and Regenerative Medicine

*The Wall Street Journal