Roderic I. Pettigrew, M.D., Ph.D.

On September 28, 2020, the National Science Board (NSB) announced that Roderic Pettigrew will receive its prestigious Vannevar Bush Award. The award honors science and technology leaders who have made substantial contributions to the welfare of the nation through public service in science, technology and public policy.

“Roderic Pettigrew’s passion and creativity have spurred innovation in biomedicine,” said Victor McCrary, Vice Chair of the National Science Board and Chair of the 2020 NSB Honorary Awards Subcommittee. “His reimagining of healthcare solutions is helping converge science fields, narrowing gaps between disciplines in a way that really impacts society. Pettigrew is helping us to see what might be, what could be, and what is possible.”

Throughout his career, Pettigrew has worked to break down the boundaries between those working in the physical sciences and engineering and those working in medicine… Continue reading.

When my brother told me he had been diagnosed with COVID-19, I was scared. My memory immediately jumped to visions of his childhood struggles with asthma, which he described as having an ever-tightening chain around his chest. I thought of intubated COVID-19 patients at so many hospitals across the nation, and all of the patients who did not leave the hospitals alive. As we now know, African-American men like my brother are several times more likely to die from COVID-19 than someone who is white [1].

In my home state of Georgia, for example, 80 percent of all patients hospitalized due to COVID-19 in March 2020 were Black people. Nationally through June, American Indians, Native Alaskans, and Black people have had a hospitalization rate that is five times more than whites. For Hispanic people it is four times higher [2]. The compounding factors of increased rates of comorbidities, reduced access to care, limited resources inclusive of health guidance information, and even trust in mainstream medicine no doubt make these populations more vulnerable to a raging viral illness… Continue reading.

The subtleties of racism don’t kill you in minutes, but they are deadly. What’s needed is a communal experience that teaches us we comprise one beautiful human mosaic.

Roderic Pettigrew, PhD, MD, and Rep. John Lewis at the 2016 A Candle In the Dark Awards Gala of Morehouse College. Rep. Lewis received the Candle Award for achievements in civil rights and public service. Dr. Pettigrew is a previous award recipient.

Many were appalled by the Central Park incident where a woman used the ethnicity of a peaceful visitor and a 911 call in a failed effort to subjugate him based on his color. However, this incident was actually a service to the nation since it unveiled just how pervasive racism is in our society. As a majority person, she knew that this core racism is so systemic, and its actuation so predictable, that she could easily weaponize it. She knew there is an imbalance of power based purely on a trivial difference in skin tone. If ever there was a question about this attitude and behavior existing broadly in our society, the Central Park incident answered it. It exists, it is real, and it has resulted in multiple shocking deaths that the world has now witnessed in anguish.

When the death of Houstonian George Floyd was observed, his torture at the knee of a purveyor of this naked truth was just too much to bear. When George took his last breath, so did the national tolerance for the societal ill that took his life and the lives before him… Continue reading.

Roderic Pettigrew is the recipient of the 2019 National Academy of Engineering’s (NAE) Arthur M. Bueche Award for his contributions to technology research, policy, and national and international cooperation.

Pettigrew is CEO of Engineering Health (EnHealth) and executive dean for Engineering Medicine (EnMed) at Texas A&M University and Houston Methodist Hospital, as well as the Robert A. Welch Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering… Continue reading.

On Sunday, Oct. 6, during its 2019 annual meeting, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) will present two awards for extraordinary impact on the engineering profession. The Simon Ramo Founders Award will be presented to Cato Thomas Laurencin for his research contributions and leadership in engineering. The Arthur M. Bueche Award will be given to Roderic Ivan Pettigrew for his contributions to technology research, policy, and national and international cooperation.

Roderic Ivan Pettigrew is CEO of Engineering Health (EnHealth) and executive dean for Engineering Medicine (EnMed) at Texas A&M and Houston Methodist Hospital. He will be presented the Arthur M. Bueche Award “for leadership at the NIH and for academic and industrial convergence research and education, resulting in innovations that have improved global health care.” The award recognizes an engineer who has shown dedication in science and technology as well as active involvement in determining U.S. science and technology policy, and includes a commemorative medal… Continue reading.

Roderic I Pettigrew received the Spirit of the Heart Award for national leadership in health promotion. The award is given by the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC) which works to “save the hearts and minds of a diverse community”. These awards were created to recognize those with extraordinary contributions in medicine, research, mentoring, public service, leadership and volunteerism: More info.

Pettigrew honored with the SEC Faculty Achievement Award recognizing outstanding scholarship; one award per SEC School: Every year, the SEC selects one faculty member from each school in the conference to receive the SEC Faculty Achievement Award. The award recognizes professors with outstanding records in research and scholarship. More info | Press Release

Dr. Roderic I. Pettigrew, a physician-scientist and internationally recognized leader in biomedical imaging and bioengineering, will join Texas A&M University to lead Engineering Health (EnHealth), the nation’s first comprehensive educational program to fully integrate engineering into all health-related disciplines.

EnHealth will be an innovative, multicollege engineering health initiative based in Houston, Texas, designed to educate a new kind of health care professional with an engineering mindset who will invent transformational technology for health care’s greatest challenges. With Texas A&M’s interdisciplinary makeup and colleges of dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health and veterinary medicine, EnHealth will have a profound impact on both human and animal health. EnMed, the university’s engineering medicine track in partnership with Houston Methodist Hospital, will serve as the first program for EnHealth… Continue reading.

Roderic Pettigrew, Ph.D., M.D., director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) of the National Institutes of Health, will deliver the next Flexner Discovery Lecture on Thursday, March 2.

His lecture, entitled “Engineering Medicine for a Global Society,” will begin at 4 p.m. in 208 Light Hall. It is sponsored by the Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences.

Pettigrew is known internationally for his pioneering work at Emory University School of Medicine in the 1990s involving four-dimensional imaging of the cardiovascular system using magnetic resonance (MRI).

Soon after being named NIBIB director in 2002, Pettigrew jointly led a national effort with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to create new interdisciplinary graduate training programs and later established the Quantum Projects program to address major healthcare problems.

Pettigrew also led national collaborative and international initiatives to develop low-cost and point-of-care medical technologies. He has called for and now leads a U.S.-India collaboration to develop unobtrusive/passive technologies for frequent recording of blood pressure to address the world-wide problem of hypertension.

NIBIB Director Dr. Roderic I. Pettigrew was recently inducted into India’s National Academy of Sciences as a foreign fellow.  In recent meetings with healthcare officials in India, Dr. Pettigrew explored developing technologies to help underserved populations gain access to healthcare in both countries.

Science Translational Medicine published a new article co-authored by Shu Chien, Rashid Bashir, Robert M. Nerem, and Roderic Pettigrew (All AIMBE Fellows), entitled “Engineering as a New Frontier for Translational Medicine” in the April 1 issue.

The article’s abstract reads: The inclusion of engineering ideas and approaches makes medicine a quantitative and systems-based discipline that facilitates precision diagnostics and therapeutics to improve health care delivery for all.