Graduate Program

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Earn a graduate degree in Biomedical Engineering at OHSU

The Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. program serves as the center of innovation for the School of Medicine. We train future innovators, entrepreneurs and scientific leaders. Are you ready to join?

BME Diversity Statement

Our goal is to create a supportive environment in BME for historically underrepresented groups not limited to but including: ethnic and racial minorities, women, LGBTQIA+ individuals, people with disabilities, veterans, and people from diverse geographic and socio-economic backgrounds. We also value differences in knowledge and backgrounds including skill-set, education, age, experience, and perspectives. We are committed to encouraging and fostering a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion through continuously improving our recruitment, retention, climate, and community partnerships. Find out more. 

Program Overview

The Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. program serves as the center of innovation for the School of Medicine. Our mission is to train students to become innovators, entrepreneurs, and scientific leaders. Our faculty and trainees work with clinicians and physician-scientists to make scientific discoveries, reduce disease, and improve patients' lives. 

Our graduate program spans across multidisciplinary research areas and specializes in:

Biomedical Imaging
Cardiovascular  and Metabolic Engineering
Cancer Research
Drug Development and Delivery
Quantitative and Systems Biology
Regenerative Medicine

An essential aspect of the doctoral program is the individual research in close collaboration with members of the faculty. Research training begins in the first year of study with direct placement into a mentor’s laboratory. The diversity of faculty collaborations provides multidisciplinary research opportunities. Biomedical Engineering is one of the basic sciences departments in the OHSU School of Medicine, and provides a unique environment especially suited for the education of multidisciplinary biomedical engineers.

Questions?

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Get in touch with us:

Sandra Rugonyi, Ph.D.

Karina Nakayama, Ph.D.
Program Directors

Alex Breiding
Academic Coordinator

BME Grad Student News

  • Congratulations to Caroline King for a successful PhD defense on January 20, 2021 and as an awardee for the 2021 Women in Academic Health and Medicine!
  • Congratulations to John Russo for being selected for the Molecular Sciences Software Institute Seed Software Fellowship! Learn more about MoISSI
  • Congratulations to Erik Burlingame, Zeynep Sayar and their team for winning 1st place in the Early Disease Detection track of the OHSU-MIT Hacking Medicine Invent-a-thon! Find out more!
  • Caroline King talk about her research on polysubstance use on KATU news
  • Jennifer Eng and Elliot Gray win poster awards at the 2020 NCI Junior Investigator Meeting!
  • New students, Krista Habing and Shanjida Khan, receive ARCS Scholar award. Congratulations!
  • Congratulations to John Butler and Geoff Schau for successfully defending their PhD dissertations!
  • Meghan Fallon won an N.L. Tartar Trust Fellowship award in July!
  • Julianne David, Sean Maden, Austin Nguyen and Ben Weeder won the School of Medicine Paper of the Month for June! Find out more!
  • Congratulations to Eran Brown for successfully completing his MS theses in May!
  • Frictionless Data Fellow - Kate Bowie is working  worldwide, making science more accessible and creating tools for easier research reproducibility. 
  • Novella Bates receives OHSU Research Leadership Award
  • BME students John Russo and Tia Kohs participate in MIT COVID-19 Challenge team - Go team COVInsight!
  • Nichole Tyler and John Butler received scholarships to participate in the G.R.E.A.T program in Thailand.

Events

  • PhD Dissertation Defense - Anh Ngo - October 23rd at 2:00 pm - link
  • OHSU Invent-a-thon October 23-25 - applications due by October 7th
  • BME new student orientation September 28 from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
  • BME Summer Seminar Series every Friday at 12:00 pm. Flyer with meeting link