Complete History of Biomedical Engineering at Marquette University

THE FIRST 30 YEARS In 1958 Dr. Ben Drought, Ph.D. (a graduate of Harvard), Dean of the College of Engineering and former chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering, met Dr. Ross Kory, M.D. and Director of Research at the Zabulocki VA Hospital in Milwaukee. Together they taught the first course in Biomedical Engineering at MU.

In 1960, Raymond Lang, M.D., Chief of Cardiology at Marquette School of Medicine, teamed up with Dr. James Horgan, Ph.D., Professor of Electrical Engineering at MU on a project to simulate Periodic Breathing of Cheyne-Stokes Respiration. In about the same period, Sol Larks, Ph.D., Professor of Electrical Engineering at MU collaborated with Dr. Richard Mattingley, Chairman of Obstetrics and Gynecology at MU on fetal EKG monitoring.

In 1964 Dr. Anthony Sances, Jr. was hired by the MU College of Engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and MU School of Medicine to provide linkages between the two institutions in Biomedical Engineering (BME). Dr. Sances was one of the first graduates in Biomedical Engineering from the National Institute of Health (NIH) Funded Biomedical Engineering Center at Northwestern University where he graduated in 1964. He began his research in Clinical Neurophysiology, Electrical Physiology and Biomechanics with Dr. Sanford J. Larson, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman of Neurosurgery at MU, School of Medicine.

Dr. Sances served as director and chairman of BME from 1967 until 1989. He was succeeded by Dr. John H. Linehan, Bagozzi, professor and Chairman of BME (now vice president of the Whitaker Foundation). The Biomedical Engineering/Bioinstrumentation program at MU was established with the help of Dr. Dean Jeutter, who joined the College of Engineering in 1967, and is presently Professor of BME at MU. The training program for Life Scientists was established with the help of Dr. Joseph Llaurado, M.D. who joined MU, College of Engineering, in 1968. He left in 1983 to become Chief of Nuclear Medicine at Loma Linda University, VA Hospital. Dr. Joseph Battocetti joined the program in 1970 to develop the area of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Research at MCW. He later became an Adjunct Professor of BME. The undergraduate curriculum in BME was established in 1978. The program included a pre-M.D. option. A Biomechanics option was soon available. The first enrollment attracted 67 students. Since the late 1980s the undergraduate program has been one of the largest in the country, ranging in size from 250-400 students.

The first Ph.D. trainees in Biomedical Engineering included Eric Grassman, Ph.D. (1970) who later obtained his M.D. in the Air Force. He worked with Dr. Robert Mead, Chief of Nuclear Medicine at the VA and Dr. Horgan on the analysis of Liver Scans. Phillip Wienfurt (1970) was also a trainee of Dr. Horgan. Another trainee (whose thesis was in kidney control modelling) was Ronald Jodat. He collaborated with Dr. Edward Lennon, Professor of Internal Medicine at MU, who became Dean and President of the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW). (Formerly the Marquette School of Medicine.) Five Ph.D. student trainees of Dr. Sances' graduated in 1970. These students conducted their doctoral research in the area of the nervous system. They were Lawrence Hause (Associate Professor of BME in the Department of Pathology, MCW), Dr. Ronald Hosek, Dr. Serge Zilber and Dr. Edward Zuperku (Professor of BME, Department of Anesthesiology, MCW). George Smith, Ph.D., Jane Madden, Ph.D. and Vince Canino, Ph.D. (Professor and Chairman of BME, the Milwaukee School of Engineering) were early trainees directed by Dr. Llaurado. They conducted their research in the area of Compartmental Analysis and Instrumentation. Henry Thompson worked with Dr. Eleanor Delfs, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, on his Master's, with his dissertation in the area of reproductive modeling. William Taylor collaborated with Dr. Hudson of the Department of Biology on a fish respiratory model for his Ph.D.

Later graduates included Dr. Narayan Yoganandan, graduate 1985 (Professor of Neurosurgery at MCW, with an adjunct appointment in BME). The first Ph.D./M.D. trainee was Dr. Dennis Maiman, who graduated in 1986 (Professor of Neurosurgery and Director of the Spinal Cord Injury Center at MCW). Dr. Frank Pintar graduated in 1986 (Professor and Director of the Neuroscience Laboratories at the VA Medical Center, with an adjunct appointment in BME). Other faculty trained by Dr. Sances at MU include Dr. Joel Myklebust (formerly Associate Professor in BME) and Dr. Gerald Harris (Professor in BME).

(Thank you to Anthony Sances and Larry Hause for providing this history)

Formative Growth. Growth during the 1980's was largely responsible for the administrative formation of the Department of Biomedical Engineering in 1989. Dr. Jack Linehan served as Chair from the inception of this new department through 1998, when he took a position with The Whitaker Foundation. This was a time of considerable maturation of the educational programs, both at the graduate and undergraduate levels. It was also a time where our relations with the medical device industry in the Midwest where dramatically enhanced, driven by strong ties to alumni who working in industry and by a strong co-op program that, helped by support from The Whitaker Foundation's Industrial Internship program, has established national leadership in student-centered BME-industry relations. A full 75% of our students now select co-op (50%) or intern (25%) experiences, and we now have an active Industrial Advisory Board. A third undergraduate major - biocomputing - has just been added, motivated largely by our discussions with industry, and accelerated by a Special Opportunity Award from The Whitaker Foundation.

Bridge-Building. The 1990's also saw a revitalization of the ties between Marquette and the Medical College, under the leadership of Dr. Linehan and Dr. William Hendee. During the late 90's two new joint graduate programs were established, accelerated by Special Opportunity Awards from The Whitaker Foundation: a joint MU-MCW PhD in functional imaging, and a joint MU-MCW MS in Health Care Technologies Management . The following quote was extracted from the summary of the first of these:

"MU and MCW were once one institution, formally separating in 1967 … We are proposing to build a bridge between MU and MCW to formally link them once again in a joint educational program to train Ph.D. level Biomedical Engineers." from a Special Opportunity proposal, p. 2, August, 1995.

This launched what we now call Phase I of our plans to bridge the educational and research activities in BME on our campuses. These remain the only joint degrees offered at Marquette, and as of the Fall of 2000, 24 of our 70 graduate students are in these joint programs. Added to this is the formal establishment by MU and MCW of the Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Engineering Center, directed by Dr. Gerald Harris, which includes the impressive investment of over $1 million in internal funds, a number of external grants, and close ties to the Shriners Children's Hospital in Chicago. Roughly 10 additional graduate students are involved in OREC research. And an additional 10 (mostly MS) students work at the VAMC on research projects that involve primary or co-supervision by MCW faculty who are adjuncts within our department.

Bridge-Building: Planned Phase II. The 1990's saw the Medical College emerge as one of the fastest growing medical research centers in the US, with MCW now the recipient of roughly $75 million in externally funded research and development, and growing at an annual rate during the 90's of over 10%. Key areas of strength are functional imaging and bioinformatics/functional genomics, which collectively account for about $40 million in external funding. Several new buildings have been constructed, and more are planned. We have established a plan for Phase II of joint MU-MCW development. We intend to strengthen the educational foundation for this bridge, and further intertwine the educational and training activities between our institutions. We also plan to continue to enhance our bridge to biomedical industry.