UAB's Linda Lucas First Female President-Elect of AIMBE Professional Organization

Linda C. Lucas, Ph.D., dean of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Engineering, has been elected president-elect of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) for 2007. She is the first woman elected to hold this position.

April 17, 2006

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Linda C. Lucas, Ph.D., dean of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Engineering, has been elected president-elect of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) for 2007. She is the first woman elected to hold this position.

AIMBE, which represents more than 75,000 scientists and engineers involved in developing and improving medical technologies, was founded in 1991. The organization’s mission includes raising awareness of medical and biological engineering and of achievements in the field, building relationships with relevant government agencies and other professional groups, improving intersociety relations and cooperation within the field of medical and biological engineering and promoting the national interest in science, engineering, and education.

Lucas is one of five AIMBE Fellows appointed by the White House to serve on the National Advisory Council for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NACBIB), which advises the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary for Health of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Director of the National Institutes of Health, and the Director of National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) on research, training, health information dissemination and other programs that address biomedical imaging, biomedical engineering and associated technologies and modalities with biomedical applications.

“Medical and biological engineering already have and will continue to have significant impact on the health of every person, both in the United States and globally,” Lucas said.

“I am honored to have been elected by my peers to the executive body of a professional organization that will be a driving force in advancing medical and biological engineering and its impact on society. I am especially honored to be the first woman to serve my peers in this capacity.”

Lucas has been dean of the UAB School of Engineering since August 2001. She joined the faculty in 1982 and was department chair of biomedical engineering for five years prior to her appointment as dean. Lucas also is past director of the UAB Biomedical Implant Center and holds appointments with the university’s Center for Metabolic Bone Disease, the Gene Therapy Center and two departments within the School of Dentistry.

Her research focuses on materials for orthopedic, dental and cardiovascular devices. She has been published in more than 100 professional journals and is past president of the Society for Biomaterials and the Biomedical Engineering Society, a fellow in the American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineers and an international fellow of the Society for Biomaterials.

Lucas earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and chemistry from the University of Alabama and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from UAB. She also earned master’s degrees in mathematics, education and materials engineering from UAB. She earned her doctorate from UAB in biomedical engineering with an emphasis in biomaterials.