After two decades at Duke BME, Professor Nimmi Ramanujam has earned one of the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Discover the breadth and depth of her work focused on global women’s health.

Hello Colleagues!

I could not be more thrilled to share the news with all of you that Professor Nimmi Ramanujam has been elected to this year’s class of Fellows of the National Academy of Engineering! With decades working toward technologies and programs that improve women’s health worldwide – especially when it comes to cancer – there is nobody more deserving of this honor.

I’m also excited to share that longtime Duke BME affiliate Blake Wilson has won the 2026 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering for his foundational work developing the cochlear implant. Both of these incredible individuals are having real impact on people’s lives; a theme that you will find throughout the rest of the news items below. Please take a look!

Sharon Gerecht, PhD
Chair of Biomedical Engineering, Paul M. Gross Distinguished Professor

Cochlear implants interact directly with the brain to restore hearing for over a million adults worldwide. Find out how Professor Blake Wilson’s contributions to the technology earned him an incredible honor.

Since joining Duke BME’s faculty in 2021, Timothy Dunn has made foundational strides toward using AI to better capture freely moving animals’ behaviors to improve this important field of research. Learn more about his inspiration and his latest work.

More than 10 million people in the United States alone suffer from chronic issues with their lymphatic system. But solutions are slow to develop, due in part to our inability to image its components clearly. Discover how Duke is helping using a new ultrasound approach.

After surgery, some older adults suffer from confusion, inattention and agitation from postoperative delirium. Read how an unexpected approach of gently stimulating the nerve running between the brain and internal organs could help.

Congratulations to Professor John Hickey, who been shortlisted for the Takeda Innovators in Science Award with Nature Portfolio. This global award was announced in 2016 and recognizes innovative research in oncology, inflammatory and gastrointestinal disease, and neuroscience.

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