International Academy for Medical and Biological Engineering Activities between World Congresses in Sydney and Chicago

The International Academy for Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE) was established with the induction of the initial group of Founding Fellows at the Nice World Congress in 1997. In the Chicago World Congress IAMBE organized several significant activities. These activities included a workshop on MBE education, business meetings and an induction ceremony for new Fellows.

Governance and Membership

The names of Fellows, the elected members of the Governing Council and the Membership Committee for 2000 - 2003 are listed on the next page. The Academy comprises 64 Fellows. Eight of these are with Fellow Emeritus status.

Four new Fellows were elected in 2002. In 2003, 23 Fellows were elected to the Academy. All these newly elected fellows were introduced to the delegates by the new Academy Chair, Prof. Guenter Rau, in Sydney at the ceremonial part of the IFMBE General Assembly.

Activities

The Academy is still in its early years and needs to expand its membership in order to have the human resources to act in accordance with its purpose and philosophy (Article II of the Bylaws below):

The Academy is a part of IFMBE, responsible to the IFMBE General Assembly and its Administrative Council, and operates under the auspices of the IFMBE Constitution and Bylaws. The Academy is established by IFMBE for the following purposes.

1. The Academy is to conduct programs, which will serve to encourage young people entering the field and their development in the early stages of their career.
2. The Academy, upon request of the IFMBE Administrative Council, shall also serve as a resource for IFMBE and its various units. The Academy's activities will be carried out by individuals honoured by their election as Fellows as described later in this article. Thus, there is a third purpose of the Academy.
3. The Academy is to honour individuals who have distinguished themselves in the field of medical and biological engineering. The philosophy underlying the establishment of the Academy by IFMBE is that those who have distinguished themselves in the field have a special responsibility to help those entering the field.

At the World Congress in Sydney the Academy was involved in four activities:

• It sponsored student prizes for best papers / presentations / posters in the 6th International Conference on Cellular Engineering. The recipients were selected by the conference organisers with the participation of Robert Nerem.
• The Academy organized two tutorials to take place inside the conference programs. The speakers were Robert Nerem and Gerhard Artmann. Their tutorials were intended for the newcomers to the field of cellular and tissue engineering.
• The Academy introduced its new Fellows (classes '02 and '03) as part of the General Assembly.
• A General Meeting of the Academy was held on August 28, 2003.

Meetings

The Fellows present at Medicon 2001, Pula, Croatia and the 2nd EMBEC, Vienna, Austria, 2002 met to discuss the planning of the Sydney activities and the nomination of candidates for Fellows.

Additional business was conducted via email and newsletters by the Academy Chair (2000 - 2003), Åke Öberg.