Frontiers in Bioengineering Symposium attracts bioengineering luminaries and leaders

National and international leaders in the field of bioengineering will gather at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign this month for the Frontiers in Bioengineering Symposium. Held September 8-9 at the Beckman Institute, the event presented an opportunity for researchers and educators across numerous disciplines to present their breakthroughs and discuss exciting new ideas.

"The field of bioengineering, at the nexus of engineering, biology and medicine, holds tremendous potential to solve critical problems in health care and sustainability," explained Rashid Bashir, head of the Department of Bioengineering at Illinois and one of the symposium's organizers. "Cancer, neuroscience, age-related diseases, and global health, just to name a few, are waiting for bioengineers, quantitative biologists, and biophysicists to work together and make an impact to solve these grand challenges. With advances in personalized and precision medicine, quantitative biology, and forward-engineering of biological systems, opportunities for students and researchers are boundless."

Distinguished symposium speakers included Steven Chu, former U.S. Secretary of Energy and professor of physics at Stanford University, and department heads and distinguished faculty from many of the top-ranked biomedical and bioengineering programs in the United States. Program directors from NIH and NSF are expected to attend, along with faculty from Illinois and select programs nationwide.

The symposium built on the success of the initial Frontiers workshop held last year at Georgia Tech, offering an opportunity for invited young bioengineers to participate in a poster session and network with leading bioengineering researchers and educators. The Frontiers in Bioengineering Symposium is supported by the Grainger Engineering Breakthroughs Initiative at Illinois and sponsored by the Department of Bioengineering, the College of Engineering, and the University of Illinois.