NC State hosts National Academy of Engineering regional meeting

The College of Engineering hosted a regional meeting of the National Academy of Engineering on Tuesday, March 10, 2020 in the James B. Hunt Jr. Library on N.C. State’s Centennial Campus. The event’s theme was Engineering Therapies for the Future and included talks by a number of leading minds in academia and industry on the future of medicine.

An audience that included many faculty members and students from Triangle-area universities heard from the following speakers:

• Bruce Tromberg, Director, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, “Engineering the Future of Health”
• Laura Niklason, Greene Professor and Vice Chair, Departments of Anesthesiology and Biomedical Engineering, Yale University, “Will Engineering Tissues Change Clinical Care?”
• Rodolphe Barrangou, T. R. Klaenhammer Distinguished Professor in Probiotics Research in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences, North Carolina State University, “The CRISPR Genome Editing Craze: Opportunities and Challenges”
• Mark Humayun, Cornelius J. Pings Chair in Biomedical Sciences, Professor of Ophthalmology, Biomedical Engineering, and Integrative Anatomical Sciences, Director of the USC Ginsburg Institute for Biomedical Therapeutics, and Co-Director of the USC Roski Eye Institute, “Advanced Retinal Implants”
• Len Pinchuk, Founder, Chairman Emeritas and Chief Scientific Officer, InnFocus, Inc., “Polymers in Implantable Medical Devices”
• Stephen Oesterle, Venture Partner, New Enterprise Associates, “Distributed Healthcare through Wearable and Implantable Devices”
• Jay Bradner, President, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, “A New Science of Therapeutics”

Founded in 1964, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is a private, independent, nonprofit institution that provides engineering leadership in service to the nation. The mission of the National Academy of Engineering is to advance the well-being of the nation by promoting a vibrant engineering profession and by marshalling the expertise and insights of eminent engineers to provide independent advice to the federal government on matters involving engineering and technology.

NAE holds several regional gatherings across the country each year. The Raleigh gathering included a breakfast and meeting for NAE members with NAE president Dr. John Anderson to discuss the organization’s recent work, including efforts to champion engineering as an attractive career for young people and to strengthen the public perception that engineers solve problems important to them.