The UA College of Engineering recently celebrated the inauguration of its first new academic department in more than 30 years.

The department of biomedical engineering, widely known as BME, is the newest undergraduate program in the College of Engineering, indeed at the UA.

U.S. News & World Report recently reported that more jobs will be created in biomedical engineering than in any other profession during the next decade. The report said employment of biomedical engineers is expected to grow by “a whopping 72 percent,” creating nearly 12,000 jobs by 2018.

Professor Jennifer Barton is head of the new department of biomedical engineering, as well as assistant director of the BIO5 Institute and a member of the Arizona Cancer Center.

Speaking at the departmental kickoff event April 20, Barton reminded the audience that biomedical engineering at UA is not new. “The roots of biomedical engineering at the UA go back to the 1960s, when faculty in the College of Engineering joined up with physicians in the newly formed College of Medicine to study cardiovascular problems and advanced medical instrumentation,” Barton said.