Institute of Biomedical Engineering wins prize for outstanding contribution to innovation and technology

27 October 2009

The Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College London, has been honoured with a top prize for innovation at the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) Awards 2009.

The Institute was named overall winner in the category of “Outstanding Contribution to Innovation and Technology.” The awards were announced at a gala ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on Thursday 15th October.

Now in their fifth year, the Times Higher Education Awards are the leading awards for the higher education sector, created to recognise, celebrate and reward the highest standards of excellence and talent in UK academia. This year the awards attracted over 600 entries from more than 130 higher education institutions.

The Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBE) was recognised by the panel of specially selected judges for its sheer breadth of innovation in the areas of medical diagnosis and treatment, personalised healthcare, regenerative medicine and biomedical imaging. The panel was impressed by the range of innovation achieved and its transferability into other fields.

The IBE, which opened its state-of-the-art, purpose-built facilities in 2006, combines the strengths of Imperial’s world class research schools in engineering and medicine to drive major advances in biomedical technology, and accelerate the commercial realisation of technologies to improve the lives of people around the world.

Commenting on the award win, Professor Christofer Toumazou, Director and Chief Scientist of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London said: “We are extremely proud to receive this special honour from the preeminent awards in the higher education sector. Our ambition at the Institute is to deliver breakthrough advances in technology that enable people to lead independent lives despite illness, ageing and disability, and we are thrilled that the innovation and leadership demonstrated by the entire IBE team has been recognised in this way.”

Ann Mroz, editor of Times Higher Education, said of the winning entry: “Imperial’s contribution to innovation and technology is simply too large to be ignored. The projects from the Institute of Biomedical Engineering are transforming lives in an enormous range of pioneering ways.”

For more information about current research at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, please visit: www3.imperial.ac.uk/biomedeng