January 5, 1999
Yongmin Kim selected to lead UW bioengineering department
Yongmin Kim has been named professor and chair of the University of Washington’s nationally ranked bioengineering department, a joint unit of the School of Medicine and College of Engineering. His appointment is effective March 1, pending approval of the UW Board of Regents.
A prolific developer of new technologies for medical imaging and other applications, Kim came to the UW as a professor in the department of electrical engineering in 1982. He has been an adjunct professor of bioengineering since 1984. He is also an adjunct professor of computer science & engineering and radiology.
Kim founded the UW Image Computing Systems Laboratory, which focuses on hardware and software innovations in multimedia, image processing, computer graphics, medical imaging and advanced workstation design. His lab has invented more than 40 new technologies and software applications, many of which have been patented by the UW and licensed to industry.
“The UW is fortunate to have someone of Yongmin Kim’s abilities take the helm at the Department of Bioengineering” said Dr. Paul Ramsey, vice president for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine. “He is a renowned expert and pioneer in the field. His effectiveness as an administrator and educator will be a great benefit to the UW across a broad spectrum of areas where bioengineering and other areas cross-fertilize.”
Denice D. Denton, dean of the College of Engineering, said the university took its time in filling the bioengineering department chair’s position given its strategic importance across the campus. She is confident it was time well spent in finding the best person for the job.
“Professor Kim has an absolutely stellar track record in research and education and their integration,” Denton said. “He has provided leadership in major curricular innovations in the College of Engineering, and he is directing major research efforts with industrial partners that lead to the improvement of sophisticated medical imaging devices and equipment.”
The Center for Bioengineering was founded in 1967 and became a department in 1997. With 25 faculty members and about 120 students, it is ranked among the best departments in its field by the National Research Council. Kim credits the bioengineering department’s excellent reputation to its founder, Dr. Bob Rushmer, and its longtime director, Lee Huntsman, who attracted outstanding faculty and inspired the seamless integration of high-caliber research and education.
To build on this success, Kim says his primary challenges will be to further enhance the department’s research and teaching enterprises and to provide contiguous space for faculty, staff and students currently scattered across campus in nine different buildings. The UW is proposing to build a new life sciences complex that would bring most departmental personnel together under one roof.
“In the last 10 years, as the department has grown and developed broad interdisciplinary programs in biomaterials, molecular bioengineering, microtechnology and nanotechnology, faculty and students have been unable to collaborate as much as they should due to lack of contiguous space,” Kim said. “This is my top concern.”
Kim, 45, received a bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering from Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea, in 1975, and his master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1979 and 1982, respectively. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
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