Kinam Park Named Showalter Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering

The Purdue University Board of Trustees, meeting at Purdue Calumet on Friday, September 29, approved the appointment of Kinam Park as Purdue's Showalter Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering. The appointment was made based on Park's academic achievements, which have been internationally recognized, and his unique contributions to the university through his scholarship, research, teaching and leadership functions.

Park, a professor in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and the School of Pharmacy, received a bachelor's degree in pharmacy in 1975 from Seoul National University in Korea, and a doctorate in pharmaceutics from the University of Wisconsin in 1983. After two years of postdoctoral training in chemical engineering at the same university, Park came to Purdue in 1986 and was promoted to full professor in 1994. Since 1998 he has had a joint appointment in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering.

He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Controlled Release and a member of the editorial boards of 12 journals. Park has received several awards and honors, including a New Investigator Research Award in 1986 from the National Institutes of Health and a Founders Award from the Controlled Release Society in 2004. He is currently serving as a member of the NIH Bioengineering, Technology and Surgical Sciences study section.

His research focuses on the use of various polymers and materials called hydrogels for controlled drug delivery. His current work includes development of new microencapsulation methods for drug delivery and layer-by-layer coating methods for making arterial stents that dispense medications. He has published more than 200 journal articles, and co-authored and co-edited six books in the area of controlled drug delivery.