IUPESM Award of Merit
presented to

Robert M. Nerem

for
Outstanding Achievements in Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine

International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine
August 2003

Dr. Nerem joined Georgia Tech in 1987 as the Parker H. Petit Distinguished Chair for Engineering in Medicine. He currently serves as the Director of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience. In addition he serves as the Director of the Georgia Tech/ Emory Centre (GTEC) for the Engineering of Living Tissues, an NSF-funded Engineering Research Centre, and he is a part-time Senior Advisor for Bioengineering in the new National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health.

He received his Ph.D. in 1964 from Ohio State University and joined the faculty there in the Department of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, being promoted to Professor in 1972 and serving from 1975-1979 as Associate Dean for Research in the Graduate School. From 1979 to 1986 he was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Houston. 

Professor Nerem is the author of more than 125 refereed journal articles. He is a past President of the International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine (1991-1994) and also a past President of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (1988-91). In addition, he is a past Chairman of the U.S. National Committee on Biomechanics (1988-91). He is a Fellow and founding President of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (1992-1994), and he currently is President of the Tissue Engineering Society International. He also is Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science; Fellow, Council of Arteriosclerosis, American Heart Association; Fellow, American Physical Society; and Fellow, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He was Technical Editor of the ASME Journal of Biomechanical Engineering (1988-1997). 

In 1989 he received the H.R. Lissner Award from ASME, and in 1994 was the ASME Robert Thurston Lecturer. He also was the Konrad Witzig Memorial Lecturer in 1986 for the Cardiovascular System Dynamics Society and the ALZA Distinguished Lecturer in 1991 for the Biomedical Engineering Society. 

In 1988 Professor Nerem was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and he currently serves on the NAE Council. In 1992 he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and in 1998 a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In March 1990 Professor Nerem was presented with an honorary doctorate from the University of Paris, and in 1994 he was elected a Foreign Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 1998 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in the United Kingdom, and in 2002 received the Pierre Galletti Award from AIMBE. Professor Nerem serves on the scientific advisory board of AtheroGenics, Inc. (Alpharetta, GA). Research interests are in bioengineering and include atherosclerosis, biomechanics, cardiovascular devices, cellular engineering, vascular biology, and tissue engineering.