Facts & Stats

Mission

Duke BME provides an outstanding educational and research environment to train engineers who go on to profoundly impact industry and medicine.

HISTORY

Since our founding as the Division of Biomedical Engineering in 1967, our faculty and students have been leaders in biomedical engineering research, education and innovation.

In 1972, our undergraduate BME program was the first accredited in the United States.

Today, BME is the second-largest graduate program at Duke, the seventh-largest undergraduate major, and the largest undergraduate major in Duke's Pratt School of Engineering.

Learn more about our history »

Rankings

• #3 graduate biomedical engineering program—U.S. News & World Report
• #3 undergraduate biomedical engineering program—U.S. News & World Report
• #3 in the country for highest median starting salary for biomedical engineers—$70,000—Medical Product Manufacturing News
• Top 10 Best School for Engineering Majors by Salary Potential—Payscale.com
• Top 15 US college that pays off the most for engineering students—CNBC
• Pratt is listed in Top 10 Graduate Engineering Programs Popular with Women—U.S.News & World Report
• Duke is #10 national universities—U.S. News & World Report
• Duke is #4 STEM University for Women—Forbes

Duke bme at a Glance

• 34 tenured or tenure-track faculty, including:
  • 21 AIMBE fellows
  • 7 BMES fellows
  • 4 SPIE and OSA fellows
  • 4 Society for Biomaterials Clemson Award winners (since 2010)
  • 3 Members, National Academy of Inventors
  • 2 Members, National Academy of Engineering

• $47.2 million in new research awards—fiscal 2019
• 204 undergraduate students
• 90 BSE graduates in Class of 2019 (May graduates, BME first major only)
• 79 MS students
• 42 MEng students
• 211 PhD students
• 2 NIH pre-doctoral training grants: Medical Imaging (Nightingale, PI) and Biomolecular and Tissue Engineering (Gersbach, PI)
• 20-plus companies launched by Duke BME faculty

Centers and Institutes