International Academy for Medical and Biological Engineering

A Report Submitted July 11, 2000 by Robert M. Nerem to the
International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering

The International Academy for Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE) held its first meeting at the last World Congress of Medical and Physics and Biological Engineering held in Nice, France in September 1997. It was at that time that the initial group of founding fellows was inducted, and with additions since then there now are a total of 37 fellows.

At that time an executive committee was formed. This group includes Robert M. Nerem, Chair; Ake Oberg, Chair-elect; Tatsuo Togawa, Secretary-Treasurer; and two member at large, Robert Plonsey and Gunter Rau. At this year’s World Congress in Chicago Ake Oberg will take over, as chair and a new chair-elect will be selected.

Activities over the past three years have been focused on this year’s World Congress. There was a meeting of a small number of fellows in Vienna at the time of the IFMBE meeting there last November; however, the first major activities of IAMBE will take place in conjunction with the Chicago Workshop Congress. These activities are as follows.

1. IAMBE Workshop on Biomedical Engineering Education. This will be held at the Palmer House Hilton from 8:30 – 5:00 p.m. on July 22 located in the Salon 1 Room and 8:30 – 12 Noon on July 23 located in the Monroe Room/6th Floor.

2. IAMBE Workshop Dinner. To be held at the Palmer House Hilton on the evening of July 22 located in the Monroe Room/6th Floor, the reception starts at 7:00 p.m. and dinner at 7:45 p.m. The cost is $50 per person.

3. IAMBE Induction Ceremony. This will be held from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. on July 24 as part of the IUPESM/IFMBE/IOMP Award Ceremony.

4. IAMBE Business Meetings. Two such meetings have been scheduled, one from 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. on Monday, July 24, and the other from 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 26. Both of these meetings will be held at the Navy Pier Convention Center in Room 322.

In addition, Professor Ake Oberg is heading up an effort to produce a booklet describing the careers of early leaders in biomedical engineering. This is not to be an elaboration of the CV of such individuals, but rather a more personal view describing personal milestones, positive influences on their careers from teachers and colleagues or unique experiences, and other "break-through" events. It is hoped to have final manuscripts by the summer of 2001.

Returning to the Chicago World Congress this year, the major event for IABME will be the Workshop on Biomedical Engineering Education being held July 22-23 at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel. Approximately 50 people will be in attendance at this one-and-a-half day workshop. A grant of $8000 from the Whitaker Foundation has been received to help defray travel expenses of participants. In addition to the workshop itself, there will be a reception and dinner on Saturday evening, July 22.

In summary, the start of IAMBE, a brand new organization, has been somewhat of a struggle. With the activities taking place in Chicago; however, IAMBE is now prepared to move ahead. It is thus with a great deal of optimism that the organization looks forward to the future.

Report on the Activities of the International Academy for Medical and Biological Engineering
at the Medicon 2001 meeting in Pula, Croatia June 2001

The International Academy for Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE) was established with the induction of the initial group of founding fellow at the Nice World Congress in 1997.Over the past four years IAMBE has slowly been evolving as an organisation. At the Chicago World Conference, the Academy organised its first significant activity in the form of an international workshop on biomedical engineering education which was a great success.

A new board was elected in Chicago:

P.Åke Öberg, Chair
Guenter Rau, Chair elect
Niilo Saranummi, Secretary

Members- at -large

Fumihiko Kajiya,
Hiroshi Kanai
Robert Nerem
Max Valentinuzzi
Peter Wells

A membership committee was elected, chaired by Robert Nerem.

The year 2000-2001

The secretariat was moved to Helsinki. A new bank account was set up in a Finnish bank. The Secretary should also serve a the Treasurer of the Academy.

A newsletter (idea: Richard Cobbold) was sent out by e-mail and regular mail for the first time in January 2001. A second news letter is planned to be sent in September – October 2001.

The newsletter was well received by the Fellows and many positive remarks was noticed

The membership committee, chaired by Robert Nerem has been active during the year and new nominations will be discussed in Pula. The membership goal is to recruit 4-5 new Fellows/year to reach 50+ at the Sidney meeting 2003.

The treasurer has collected the membership fee. A discussion came up about the amount, especially as regards Retired Fellows and Fellows from developing countries.

A discussion of the matter will take place in Pula.

Initial discussions has been started with a company, willing to donate a major grant, the dividend of which should be used as an annual prize for excellent young researcher/ travelling grants for younger researchers. The tentative prize should bear the name of both the Academy and the donor company.

Discussions with the tentative donor will continue in August.

A program in Sydney has been discussed briefly.

A workshop in a "hot" topic is planned and so is a reception for young faculty with the aim to bring young faculty from all parts of the world together.

A web page in connection with the IFMBE one is also discussed. We are looking for a person willing to take on this task.

A short presentation of the Fellows will take place in IFMBE News. In a longer perspective, a booklet on carriers in biomedical engineering will be produced by the Academy.

Linköping, June 1, 2001

P.Åke Öberg

Annual report,
International Academy for Medical and Biological Engineering 2001/2002-08-06

1. New Members

Four new fellow of the Academy have been elected:

Professor Colin Roberts, United Kingdom
Professor Akira Kamiya, Japan
Professor Jean-Louis Coatrieux, France
Professor Zibin Yang, China

With these new elections the Academy have 40 fellows

2 Continued recruitment of new members

The recruitment of new Fellow continues. The goal is to become 50 fellows at the World Conference in Sydney, following the recruitment decision taken at the Chicago Conference. The Secretary, professor Saranummi, has studied the international distribution of the present fellow to assure a reasonably even international representation. The recruitment committee chaired by Prof. Robert Nerem is active in this task.

3. Program in Sydney

The Academy is planning a series of lectures (tutorials) in which the field of Cellular Engineering will be presented to tentative young newcomers to this new discipline of biomedical engineering. Lecturers will be chosen from Fellow of the Academy if possible.

A reception for young international faculty is planned if the IFMBE Administrative Council gives the economical support for this.

A workshop on educational matters similar to the one held in Chicago is also planned. We are looking for economical support form the Whitaker Foundation and from the European Union for this activity.

4. Newsletter

The second annual newsletter was distributed in January 2002 and so was the protocol from the business meeting held in Pula, Croatia, June 13th 2001 with 5 fellows present.

5. Next meeting

The next business meeting will be held at the Nordic-Baltic meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, June 2002 or at the EMBEC 02 meeting in Vienna.

Linköping June 2002-06-12

P. Åke Öberg

Chairman

International Academy for Medical and Biological Engineering
Activities between World Congresses in Sydney and Chicago

A Report Submitted by P. Ake Oberg to the
International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering

The International Academy for Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE) was established with the induction of the initial group of Founding Fellows at the Nice World Congress in 1997. In the Chicago World Congress IAMBE organized several significant activities. These activities included a workshop on MBE education, business meetings and an induction ceremony for new Fellows.

Governance and Membership

The names of Fellows, the elected members of the Governing Council and the Membership Committee for 2000 - 2003 are listed on the next page. The Academy comprises 64 Fellows. Eight of these are with Fellow Emeritus status.
Four new Fellows were elected in 2002. In 2003, 23 Fellows were elected to the Academy. All these newly elected fellows were introduced to the delegates by the new Academy Chair, Prof. Guenter Rau, in Sydney at the ceremonial part of the IFMBE General Assembly.

Activities

The Academy is still in its early years and needs to expand its membership in order to have the human resources to act in accordance with its purpose and philosophy (Article II of the Bylaws below):

The Academy is a part of IFMBE, responsible to the IFMBE General Assembly and its Administrative Council, and operates under the auspices of the IFMBE Constitution and Bylaws. The Academy is established by IFMBE for the following purposes.
1. The Academy is to conduct programs, which will serve to encourage young people entering the field and their development in the early stages of their career.
2. The Academy, upon request of the IFMBE Administrative Council, also shall serve as a resource for IFMBE and its various units. The Academy's activities will be carried out by individuals honoured by their election as Fellows as described later in this Article. Thus, there is a third purpose of the Academy.
3. The Academy is to honour individuals who have distinguished themselves in the field of medical and biological engineering. The philosophy underlying the establishment of the Academy by IFMBE is that those who have distinguished themselves in the field have a special responsibility to help those entering the field.

At the World Congress in Sydney the Academy is involved in four activities:
It sponsors student prizes for best papers / presentations / posters in the 6th International Conference on Cellular Engineering. The recipients will be selected by the conference organisers with the participation of Robert Nerem.
The Academy has organized two tutorials to take place inside the conference programs. The speakers are Robert Nerem and Gerhard Artmann. Their tutorials are intended for the newcomers to the field of cellular and tissue engineering.
The Academy has introduced its new Fellows (classes '02 and '03) as part of the General Assembly.
A General Meeting of the Academy was held on August 28, 2003.

Meetings

The Fellows present in the Medicon 2001, Pula, Croatia and 2nd EMBEC, Vienna, Austria, 2002 met to discuss the planning of the Sydney activities and the nomination of candidates for Fellows.
Additionally business has been conducted through email and a few newsletters by the Academy Chair (2000 - 2003), Åke Öberg.