NEWS
NORMAN, OKLA. – The University of Oklahoma has announced Wei R. Chen, Ph.D., as director of the Peggy and Charles Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering (SBME). He has served as Stephenson Chair and professor of SBME and became its interim director last year.
“Dr. Chen is a leader in both biomedical engineering and our OU community, and we’re pleased to have him guide our Stephenson School as it enters its next decade,” said John Klier, Ph.D., dean of the Gallogly College of Engineering.
Under Chen’s leadership, the school will continue its transformational work in health care education and research. SBME was founded in 2016 and welcomed its 10th undergraduate class this fall. Before joining the University of Oklahoma in 2020, Chen served as professor of biomedical engineering and dean of the College of Mathematics and Science at the University of Central Oklahoma.
His contributions toward cutting-edge cancer research, including the treatment of late-stage, metastatic cancers and the mechanisms behind antitumor immune responses, earned him the title of Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors last year. Chen has also received numerous other awards and honors, including Fellow of the International Society for Optics and Photonics and Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. For more information about the university, visit www.ou.edu.
Mulugeta Gebregziabher, Ph.D., a nationally and internationally recognized public health leader, researcher and educator, has been named a professor and the endowed chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Oklahoma Hudson College of Public Health.
Engineering Days at the University of Oklahoma give high school students direct exposure to engineering through hands-on, discipline-based experiences on campus. The program brings rising juniors and seniors to the Norman campus for one-day sessions led by OU faculty and supported by current engineering students.
The University of Oklahoma College of Medicine has been awarded a five-year, $10.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to create the Oklahoma Center for Biomedical Research Excellence in Sensory Biology. The center will serve as a hub for research into how cells sense and respond to their environment and the diseases that can occur when that process malfunctions.
