This proposal seeks support for the 2001 Annual Fall Meeting of the BMES. BMES is the full service professional society for biomedical engineers and BME. The meeting will be held from October 4 to 7, 2001, at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel in Durham, NC. Estimated number of participants at the meeting is 1200. Based on previous annual meetings, 55 percent of attendees hold doctorates and 45 percent are students. Approximately 90 percent of the participants are from academic institutions and 10 percent are from industry. About 15 percent of attendees are international. The goal of the meeting is to present the latest research and development advances in the field of BME and to serve as focal point for discussions about the future of the field. The field is growing rapidly and there is a need for annual meetings of the Society to provide an opportunity for exchange of scientific and engineering ideas. The meeting is divided into the following twelve tracks: (1)Artificial Organs and Prosthetics; (2) Bioinformatics and Computational Biology; (3) Biomechanics of Tissue and Cells; (4) Cardiac Electrophysiology and Mapping; (5) Cardiovascular Systems and Engineering; (6) Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering; (7) Drug and Gene Delivery; (8) Education, Industrial Relations and History; (9) Imaging and Biomedical Optics; (10) Neural Systems and Engineering; (11) Respiratory Systems Engineering; and (12) Tissue Engineering. The meeting will consist of approximately 930 presentations of which two-thirds are oral presentations and one-third are poster presentations. Graduate student participation in presentation is encouraged. Graduate student research awards are presented for outstanding research projects. A young investigator award is presented to stimulate careers in BME. BME continues to be a dynamic and growing field that plays an important role in the improvement of human health. The Annual Fall Meeting of the BMES serves an important function in the advancement of knowledge in BME and bioengineering.
