The San Diego Union Tribune is running a profile on Dr Shu Chien, professor of Bioengineering at UC San Diego. He’s one of the old guard of bioengineering, who really helped start the field. That, and he’s 75 with no signs of slowing down…
In the mid-1960s, it became obvious to Dr. Shu Chien that the field of medicine could be greatly improved by applying engineering concepts to biological functions.
Shu Chien’s groundbreaking work has earned him exclusive membership in all three national academies – the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences – a feat accomplished by only eight other people.
Shu Chien, who is not related to Kenneth Chien, has also won numerous professional awards, including the National Academy of Engineering’s Founder’s Award for lifetime achievement, which tickles him because he never earned an engineering degree.
To San Diegans, Chien’s work may be best visible closer to home. Over the past 12 years, he helped create the University of California San Diego’s department of biomedical engineering and elevate it to one of the top three ranked bioengineering departments in the nation.
The article does a great job covering how he went from a doctor in pre-revolution China to really starting up a field that didn’t exist, to helping create a great department at UCSD where he was my professor for BE 140A, Human Physiology. (Ok, that last bit isn’t in the article)
Yeah, yeah, that’s great and all, but what we’re most excited to learn is he was once the Columbia University table tennis champion.
More from the San Diego Union Tribune…
He’s so awesome he gets two entries on the UCSD faculty page.
