About the BME Program
Biomedical Engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to solve biological and medical problems for the purpose of improving healthcare. Biomedical engineers apply their diverse knowledge in the life sciences, computer science, and engineering to better understand living systems.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics (May 2023), the median annual wage for Bioengineers and Biomedical Engineers was $100,730. New Mexico was noted as the highest paying state in the U.S. for Bioengineers and Biomedical Engineers at an annual mean wage of $139,460. Industries with the highest levels of employment in Biomedical Engineering were Medical Equipment/Supplies Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical and Medicine Manufacturing, Scientific Research & Development Services, General Medical and Surgical Hospitals, and Professional and Commercial Equipment Wholesalers.
History
Established in 2010, the UNM Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program grants both MS (thesis, project, and coursework only) and PhD degrees. Within the BME degree, there are three educational emphasis cores (“tracks”): 1) Molecular and Cellular Systems, 2) Biomaterials, Biomechanics, and Tissue Engineering, and 3) Bioinformatics. A concentration is also available for students in Entrepreneurship and Technology.
Strategic Plan
We are a relatively small, but strong research and education program. In the next five years, we aim to grow by 20% and increase the national and international recognition of our program through enhanced outreach, recruitment, and engagement with the research community through social media and various activities.
Teaching: To support the educational mission of our program, we aim to grow our faculty affiliations across the UNM campus and create courses that appeal to the next generation of biomedical engineers including in areas such as synthetic biology, health equity, and biomanufacturing.
Research: We aim to leverage the expertise of our faculty to bring in extramural research funding that supports graduate student education and training, including a targeted plan to acquire training grant funding. The research expertise of our faculty is expanding and includes the addition of researchers in the areas of nanomedicine, computational biology, tissue engineering, tissue biomechanics, and health equity. We anticipate these topics will be of interest to funding agencies and enable us to drive innovations in healthcare.
Community/Inclusivity: We believe that our program thrives because of its interdisciplinarity and inclusivity of partners that share the same desire to improve healthcare for all. The students are the cornerstone of our program and we believe that diversity of thought, diversity of experience, and diversity of opinion will help ensure that all discoveries made through the UNM BME graduate program are helping as many diverse populations as possible.
Leadership
The Director of the interdisciplinary Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program is Dr. Christina Salas, Associate Professor in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Chemical & Biological Engineering. Dr. Salas also holds a secondary appointment in the UNM School of Medicine’s Department of Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation where she worked as a researcher and professor for 17 years prior to joining the UNM School of Engineering. Dr. Salas is an alumni of UNM, having received a PhD in Biomedical Engineering in 2014 and an MS in Mechanical Engineering in 2008. These strong ties to UNM have motivated her commitment to the growth and success of our interdisciplinary program.
