Dr. M. Katherine Banks, vice chancellor and dean of engineering, has appointed Dr. Michael J. McShane head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University. The appointment will be effective June 1.
McShane joined the biomedical engineering department as an associate professor in 2006 and is currently the James J. Cain Professor II. He served as the director of graduate programs for the department from 2015-17, and has served as interim department head since September 2017.
“Biomedical engineering is a dynamic field that is rapidly growing in importance. Texas A&M is already making a strong impact with our translationally-focused faculty and students. Now, the opportunities created by the PATHS-UP National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center will allow us to expand our influence into underserved populations,” McShane said. “It is an honor to be selected by my colleagues and the administration to serve in this role. My intention is to work with faculty, student, staff, alumni, and our clinical and industry partners to prioritize research and educational initiatives wherein Texas A&M can truly lead, and set the standard for medical device innovation in an academic setting.”
In addition to biomedical engineering, McShane has an appointment in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and is affiliated with the Center for Remote Health Technologies and Systems. Prior to joining Texas A&M, he served as the doctoral program chair in biomedical engineering and interim director for the Center for Biomedical Engineering and Rehabilitation Science at Louisiana Tech University.
McShane's research program spans the nano to-macro in merging responsive materials and optical instrumentation to create biochemical monitoring tools for use in the body, inside cells and in cell culture environments. He has secured more than $20 million in federal funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Army Research Office, state sources, private companies and foundations, and has received honors for excellence in research, teaching and service. He is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and member of the Biomedical Engineering Society, American Chemical Society and SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. McShane received his doctoral degree in biomedical engineering from Texas A&M in 1999.