The year 2009 has been a productive year for the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS). We have accomplished a great deal in enhancing the quality of conferences and publications, owing to the tremendous efforts from our volunteers and staff. I take great pride in recognizing the achievements of our members. Across the globe, we are fortunate to have innumerable examples of significant progress. It is my pleasure to report to you the past year’s highlights.
Society Awards
Recognizing excellence is one of the important functions of professional societies. It is my pleasure to congratulate the following colleagues for their outstanding contributions as 2009 EMBS award recipients:
- William J. Morlock Award: Luke P. Lee, UC Berkeley, for his contributions to the field of Bio- MEMS/BioNEMS and for the generation of biologically inspired artificial eyes and microdevices for cellular analysis
- Academic Career Achievement Award: Sergio Cerutti, Polytechnic University in Milan, for a meritorious career in biomedical engineering research in the area of biomedical signal processing and the advancement of biomedical engineering education
- Professional Career Achievement Award: Dorin Panescu, NewCardio Inc., for his groundbreaking contributions to the invention and development of medical devices for cardiac ablation, mapping, imaging, and cardiac resynchronization therapy
- Distinguished Service Award: John W. Clark, Jr., Rice University, for his outstanding service and contributions to the EMBS and a meritorious career in biomedical engineering education
- Early Career Achievement Award: Silvestro Micera, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, for his contributions on the development of implantable neuroprostheses and biomechatronic devices for the restoration of sensory motor function in disabled people.
Chapter Awards
Chapters are the important components of our member activities. To recognize grass roots activities by our members, EMBS provides awards to the highest performing chapters. In 2009, the following chapters were recognized:
- Outstanding Chapter Award: Hong Kong Chapter, for demonstrating achievement in member development and delivering services to members during the previous calendar year
- Best New Chapter Award: Swiss Chapter, for demonstrating outstanding activities, community outreach, and promotion of EMB
- Outstanding Performance Award for Student Branch Chapter or Club: University of Connecticut Student Branch Chapter, for demonstrating achievement in promoting student interest and involvement in biomedical engineering during the previous calendar year
- Best New Student Branch Chapter or Club Award: University of Western Australia Student Club, for activities demonstrating initiative, innovation, and creativity; areas of progress and improvement; significant impact in biomedical engineering education; and contributions to the profession.
Conferences
We have had a very successful year of conference activities. The flagship annual conference of EMBS received a large number of quality submissions. For the first time, all the papers, including contributed and invited papers, were peer reviewed by the EMBS conference editorial board. The number of invited sessions also reached a record with a high number of outstanding speakers, including leading academicians, industrial leaders, and physician scientists.
The Special Topic conferences continue to enjoy excellent reputation in the field. The Neural Engineering Conference was successfully held in Turkey, and the International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging in Boston.
Thanks to the quality of our conferences, the conference proceedings are generating significant revenues, providing another good source of income to support our society’s operations and initiatives.
Publications
Our major journals have achieved enhanced impact factors and shortened the submission to publication time. Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering reached the highest impact factor among all neuroengineering journals. Transactions on Medical Imaging, Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine, and Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine, all reached record high-impact factors in their history. These exciting numbers reflect not only the excitement of the field of biomedical engineering but also the increasingly improved quality of EMBS publications.
I would like to congratulate all colleagues whose efforts and dedication contributed to the success of EMBS. Despite the excellent progress we have made, we are facing challenges on a number of fronts. These include how to better serve our members, both in academia and industry, how to better represent the biomedical engineering community, and how to further improve the quality of our publications and conferences. We need concerted efforts to tackle these challenges to further enhance the quality of our products and service to the membership and the profession. I welcome any thoughts you have and can be reached at binhe@ umn.edu. Thanks again for a great year. |
