Robert M. Nerem

Robert M. Nerem, Ph.D. joined Georgia Tech in 1987 as the Parker H. Petit Distinguished Chair for Engineering in Medicine. He currently serves as the Director of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, and he also is the Director of the Georgia Tech/Emory Center (GTEC) for the Engineering of Living Tissues, an NSF-funded Engineering Research Center. He received his Ph.D. in 1964 from Ohio State University and was on the faculty there until 1979. From 1979 to 1986 he was at the University of Houston where he was chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Professor Nerem is the author of more than 200 publications.

He is a Fellow and was the founding President of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (1992-1994), and he is past President of the Tissue Engineering Society International. In addition, he was the part-time Senior Advisor for Bioengineering in the National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health (2003-2006). In 1988 Professor Nerem was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and he has served on the NAE Council (1998-2004). In 1992 he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and in 1998 a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Professor Nerem serves on the scientific advisory board of AtheroGenics, Inc. (Alpharetta, GA) and Tengion (Winston Salem, NC) Research interests include biomechanics, cardiovascular devices, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, and stem cell technology.