Yu-Li Wang Receives Mehrabian Distinguished Professorship

Carnegie Mellon University's Yu-Li Wang has received the Robert Mehrabian Professorship for groundbreaking research in biomedical engineering. Mehrabian was the university's seventh president, serving from 1990 to 1997. 
 
"I am both honored and pleased to receive this accolade as we continue to work to help meld basic research with cutting-edge technologies to produce new medical and industrial applications," said Wang, head of Carnegie Mellon's Biomedical Engineering Department since August 2008.
   
Wang, whose research focuses on mechanical forces and interactions of living cells, received his Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard University in 1980, and was a professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of Massachusetts in Worcester, Mass., from 1997 to 2008.
   
The Mehrabian Professorship was a gift of university trustees Thomas McConomy, Andrew Merson, Charles Queenan Jr., William Snyder III and Bud Yorkin. 
   
"This is a wonderful honor for Dr. Wang who is a world-renowned scientist and innovative leader for our Biomedical Engineering Department," said Pradeep K. Khosla, the Dowd University Professor and dean of Carnegie Mellon's top-ranked College of Engineering.  
   
Since its inception in 2002, the Biomedical Engineering Department has grown from less than 20 students to more than 200. That growth also is reflected in increased industry demand for biomedical engineers. The number of biomedical jobs will increase by 31.4 percent through the end of this year, according to the U.S. Labor Department.   
   
"We are developing a new training environment that teaches students how to handle multi-faceted research challenges, and how to collaborate in global, multidisciplinary teams," Wang said.
   
Carnegie Mellon biomedical engineers are poking and probing cells and tissues with a comprehensive research portfolio that extends to developing new bioimaging tools, artificial bones and cardiovascular devices for heart trauma patients.
    
Wang has published more than 100 papers in top journals, co-edited three books and has given more than 70 talks around the world in the past decade.  
   
Prior to coming to Carnegie Mellon, Wang was a staff scientist and senior scientist at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colo., from 1982 to 1987, and a senior scientist and principal scientist at the Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research at Shrewsbury, Mass., from 1987 to 1997.