BMES Diversity Lecture Award

The BMES Diversity Award honors an individual, project, organization, or institution for impactful contributions towards improving gender and racial diversity in biomedical engineering. The award seeks to recognize lifetime achievements and high-impact activities (i.e., research, academia, and service) that are innovative and improve equity among biomedical engineering academia and industry.

The recipient of this award will have the chance to deliver a plenary lecture at the BMES Annual Meeting and publish an article in the Annals of Biomedical Engineering. The lecture should address both challenges and opportunities that result from increasing diversity and inclusion in the biomedical engineering community.

BMES Diversity Award Recipients
2024 - Brian Aguado, PhD and Ana Maria Porras, PhD
2023 - University of Florida/J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department
2022 - Ronke Olabisi, PhD

2021 - C. LaShan Simpson, PhD
2020 - Aaron Kyle, PhD
2019 - Steven D. Abramowitch, PhD
2018 - Anjelica Gonzalez, PhD
2017 - Manu Platt, PhD
2016 - Srinivas Sridhar, PhD
2015 - The City College of New York Department of BME
2014 - Naomi Chesler, PhD
2013 - Cornell University BME Department
2012 - William M. Reichert, PhD
2011 - Cato T. Laurencin, MD, PhD
2010 - Gilda A. Barabino, PhD
2009 - Sheldon Weinbaum, PhD

Application Requirements

1. The nominee's CV for individual nomination, or the representative's CV for project, organization, or institution nominations. 

  • If nominating an individual, please include a summary to exceed no more than five (5) pages outlining the highlights of the nominee’s career (G-index, number of publications and top titles, mentor information, summary of total grant funds, etc).

2. The nomination summary, on letterhead, should not exceed five pages and should include:

   1. A detailed description of the nominee's work. 
   2. The objectives of this innovative effort.
   3. Examples to show how the work supports the goal of increasing diversity in biomedical engineering.
   4. The differentiators between this endeavor and existing programs.
   5. A description of the community served by the work

  • Background/history of the community
  • Identify what diverse groups participated, highlighting such things as, educational level, age, cultural, departmental, or institutional boundaries.  

   6. The impact the work had.
   7. Plans for continuing this vital undertaking.

Award Eligibility

1. The nominee must be an individual, project, organization, or institution demonstrating outstanding contributions to improving gender and racial diversity in biomedical engineering.
2. The award recipient will need to accept the award in person and deliver a 20-minute lecture at the BMES Annual Meeting.
3. The awardee will be asked to publish an article regarding their work in the Annals of Biomedical Engineering. 
4. The nominee (or the representative selected) MUST be a BMES member.


The application, including CV and Nomination Summary on letterhead (not to exceed 5 pages).

Award Rubric

To view the award rubric, please click here.

Award and Honorarium

This award consists of a $5,000 check, a trophy, and a complimentary registration for the BMES Annual Meeting (for the individual or project/organization/institution's representative, where they will present their lecture).

**The Awards Committee will screen all nominations, critically evaluate the nominee's records, and submit its recommendation to the BMES Executive Committee for approval.

Make sure your application meets all the requirements stated above. 

For questions, please contact Katherine@bmes.org

THE AWARD DEADLINE WAS MAY 31, 2024.