UNM introduces new bio degree

Likely starting fall 2011, UNM will offer doctoral and master’s degrees in biomedical engineering on main campus, making it the first university in New Mexico to do so.

Steven Graves, associate director for the UNM Center for Biomedical Engineering, said the Ph.D. program got approval to begin fall 2011 enrollment. He said the Faculty Senate approved the master’s program at its November meeting, but it is pending the Board of Regents’ and Legislature’s approval.

“In the future, we hope to increase the number of biomedical engineering sub-disciplines that we cover, too, but we’ll be starting with molecular systems,” he said.

UNM is one of 13 flagship universities nationwide that does not offer a biomedical engineering degree program.

The approved degree proposal says that, “Biomedical engineering is one of the fastest growing engineering fields and a key area of U.S. competitiveness around the globe today.”

Biochemistry student Taylor Canady said the program would provide students hands-on experience.

“The cell has a complex interworking of biology and will require a special set of tools to approach its solutions,” he said. “So, seeing the University of New Mexico implement a degree where undergraduates and graduates get a chance to get their hands dirty is a good thing.”

Another selling point, Graves said, is that UNM has all the resources to support the program. He said students have high interest in the degree programs.

“The fact that the School of Engineering and the School of Medicine are both here on the same campus makes this an ideal place to have these programs,” Graves said.

The degree proposal says students’ enrollment in non-degree biomedical engineering courses the past 12 years has been strong, and students have had an “avid interest” in BME.

Canady said the program will prosper.

“We will now have an attempt to tie all this science under one umbrella,” he said. “This is truly going to be interdisciplinary as far what subjects are taught and what students are attracted.”