Biomedical engineering at the University of Kentucky developed as part of the research programs of the Wenner-Gren Aeronautical Research Laboratory (Wenner-Gren Lab). The Wenner-Gren Lab was a gift of the Viking Foundation (Axel Wenner-Gren, president) in response to a proposal by A. J. Meyer and Colonel James H. Graham (Dean of the College of Engineering). The Wenner-Gren Lab was completed in 1941 and operated through the war years as a research and training facility for the design, operation and maintenance of aircraft engines and related equipment under the administrative jurisdiction of the Office of the Dean of the College of Engineering and directorship of Professor Meyer.
After Meyer left UK in 1951, the Wenner-Gren Lab was placed under the administrative jurisdiction of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Professor E. B. Penrod, head of the mechanical engineering department, assumed the directorship of the Lab until Karl O. Lange became its director in 1953. Under Lange’s leadership the areas of research and development were expanded. One of the new areas of activity was biomedical engineering, which included the development of the Massie Sliding Hip Nail and the Lange Skinfold Caliper during the period 1954 to 1957. A program to investigate whole-body response to vibrations was initiated in 1957 and the first graduate degree based on biomedical engineering research was awarded in 1959. A USAF contract awarded in 1959 to train chimpanzees for the Mercury Space Flight program marked a major shift in activity in the laboratory to predominantly biomedical engineering research. This period also saw the establishment of the UK College of Medicine, and research on human physiological responses to vibrations was further developed through collaborative efforts with the Departments of Physiology and Biophysics. The research related to space flight continued under funding from NASA and studies of gravity effects on biological systems were a significant part of the department’s research program. A UK biomedical engineering student was awarded first place honors in a regional and national competition for the best technical paper presented by a graduate student to the Institute of Aerospace Sciences in 1962. The NASA research program prompted the 1966 expansion of the laboratory to house the 50-foot diameter centrifuge for the investigation of gravity effects on living organisms.
Professor James Lafferty became the Director of the Wenner-Gren Lab in 1970. Under Lafferty’s leadership, research programs in cardiovascular and musculoskeletal dynamics were developed and the NASA research expanded to include a series of rocket flights (Aerobee 250A rockets) dedicated to experiments conducted by University of Kentucky investigators. During this period, an ad-hoc committee was formed to develop a biomedical engineering program. By 1981, there were nine Ph.D. candidates, five M.S. candidates and two postdoctoral fellows participating in the biomedical engineering graduate program.
The continued growth of the program and its international recognition prompted the second expansion of the Wenner-Gren Lab. The 1977 addition to the facility provided animal housing and surgical facilities as well as additional laboratory and office space. In 1980, the Colleges of Medicine and Engineering commissioned a review of the operation and activities of the biomedical engineering program. Resulting from this review, in 1985 the Graduate Center for Biomedical Engineering was created under the jurisdiction of the Graduate School. Graduate programs leading to the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in biomedical engineering were approved by the Kentucky State Council on Higher Education in January of 1988.
In 1990, Professor Charles Knapp became the Director of the Graduate Center for Biomedical Engineering housed in the Wenner-Gren Lab when Lafferty retired. Under Knapp’s leadership, the biomedical engineering program took on broader areas of investigation with the addition of faculty with expertise in diverse areas. In 2005, when Knapp stepped aside from directorship to focus on his funded research in cardiovascular physiology , Professor David Puleo became the Director (later renamed as Chair in 2009) of the Center for Biomedical Engineering. In 2010, the center joined the College of Engineering, and in 2013 it was administratively reorganized into the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME). Upon the demolition of the Wenner-Gren Lab to make room for the Jacobs Academic Science Building in 2014 the BME department relocated to the renovated fifth floor of the Robotics and Manufacturing Building. In 2015 Professor Abhijit Patwardhan became the interim chair of the department when Puleo stepped aside to become the Associate Dean of research and graduate studies in the College of Engineering. In 2016, the department was named the F. Joseph Halcomb III, M.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering, the first named department on UK’s campus, in honor of the generous gift given to the university and the college by Dr. F. Joseph Halcomb III and his wife, Joani. In 2017 Professor Guigen Zhang was recruited from Clemson University to become the Chair of the F. Joseph Halcomb III, MD Department of Biomedical Engineering. In 2019 the BS in BME program was launched. In 2022, Patwardhan became the interim chair of the department and in 2024 he became the chair of the department. The first cohort of BS in BME students graduated in 2023. The department continues to expand and thrive in its mission of human health centered research and training students to serve the Commonwealth of Kentucky and beyond.