Society members who demonstrate exceptional achievements and experience in the field of biomedical engineering, as well as a record of membership and participation in the Society, have the opportunity to become Fellows. Fellow and honorary Fellow memberships are conferred by the BMES board of directors through a highly selective process. Nominations for each of these categories may be made by Society members and the board of directors.

Dr. Leary is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Basic Medical Sciences, and the SVM Endowed Professor of Nanomedicine at Purdue.  At Purdue Dr. Leary is in the process of building new highly interdisciplinary research programs in nanomedicine, regenerative medicine, cancer diagnostics and therapeutics, high-throughput technologies, and drug discovery. His nomination was based on his development of high-throughput cell analysis and rare-event analysis methods/technologies for stem cell and minimal residual disease monitoring in medicine and for development and teaching advanced techniques in nanomedicine.

In 2011, he was awarded the International Journal of Nanomedicine Distinguished Scientist Award for his lifetime achievements in nanomedicine, and in 2012, he was elected Fellow of the SPIE (International Society for Optical Engineering) for lifetime achievement in flow cytometry and nanomedicine.