Nearly 4,000 biomedical engineers, faculty and students from around the world will gather in Atlanta Oct. 24-27 for the Biomedical Engineering Society’s annual conference, hosted by the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. 

It is slated to be the largest Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) meeting in history with a record number of abstracts submitted, 919 oral presentations and 1550 poster presentations, representing the broadest range of research tracks to date. More than 200 research presentations at the conference, including 122 oral and 85 poster presentations, will come from the growing partnership between the Emory University School of Medicine and Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering.

The two schools formed the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering in 1997 and today the department’s undergraduate and graduate programs in biomedical engineering are ranked 2nd in the nation, according to the most recent rankings from U.S. News & World Report.

Conference highlights include:

	Gilda Barabino

• Inauguration of the society’s first female African-American president, Gilda Barabino, professor and vice chair for graduate studies in the Coulter Department. Barabino is a leading advocate for eliminating health disparities and broadening participation of underrepresented minorities in the discipline. This year she co-organized and will be a speaker in a special session addressing health care disparities facing African Americans, with presentations from Fred Gray, prominent civil rights attorney widely known for his litigation in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study; and Dr. Raphael Lee, President of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. Oct. 26, 2:45 p.m. to 3:45 p.m., Georgia World Congress Center Room A313

	Ajit Yoganathan

• Presentation of the Pritzker Distinguished Lectureship Award to Ajit Yoganathan, Regent’s Professor and vice chair for research for the Coulter Department. One of the highest honors in the field of biomedical engineering, the Pritzker Award recognizes an individual's outstanding achievements and leadership in the science and practice of biomedical engineering. Yoganathan is being honored for his pioneering achievements in cardiovascular fluid mechanics and translational medicine.  Oct. 25, 10:30 am to noon, GWCC Sydney Marcus Auditorium.

• Special symposium to honor the contributions and career of Larry V. McIntire, chair of the Coulter Department. The program recognizes McIntire’s more than 40 years of outstanding contributions to biomedical engineering, research and service. Oct. 25, 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., GWCC, Room A313

• This year, up to 100 high school students will be recognized as the best and brightest of the next generation of biomedical engineers at the BMES 2012 High School Scholars Lunch. These scholars were nominated by their respective schools, which included Coretta Scott King Young Women's Leadership Academy and B.E.S.T. Academy, among others. The BMES Scholars program is a joint initiative between the BMES Diversity Committee and the National Science Foundation-funded Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems (EBICS) Science and Technology Center — a joint effort between Georgia Tech, MIT and University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. The students will be honored at a luncheon, participate in hands-on research demonstrations covering many areas of biomedical engineering, and then be given access to the conference. Oct. 27, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., GWCC, Room A409 

• Hanjoong Jo, the Ada Lee and Pete Correll Professor in Biomedical Engineering in the Coulter Department, serves as this year’s conference chair. Coulter Department Associate Professor Julia Babensee is the program chair.