Combined with a strong and growing alumni base, the support of the State of Indiana, and the generous support of the Whitaker Foundation, the Weldon School was able to construct a 91,000 square-feet, state-of-the-art research and education facility in 2006.  This public-private venture broke the mold for academic facilities, and also serves as the academic gateway to Purdue’s translational Discovery Park.

Strategically located just across the street from Birck Nanotechnology Center, the Bindley Bioscience Center, and the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, the building’s location facilitates research interactions between faculty, staff, and students in the biomedical field.  The entire first floor is dedicated to hands-on and experiential learning through a unique mix of highly flexible classrooms and instructional laboratories. The second and third floors as well as the basement feature state-of-the-art wet laboratory, prototype design, and specialized measurements facilities, as well as ample areas for interactions and meetings.  This unique facility provides unprecedented opportunities for truly collaborative education, research, and technology transfer. 

Named the Martin C. Jischke Hall of Biomedical Engineering in 2007, the upcoming formal investiture honors the President Emeritus for his outstanding support of biomedical engineering at Purdue.  It was under his leadership that the first decade of accomplishments saw not only the creation of the department, but the growth of that department into the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, and laid the foundation for our next decade of achievement. 

With a state-of-the-art facility, Purdue recruited a growing cadre of the best and brightest faculty and staff members to develop a research and educational program that would attract the best of students.  Twenty core faculty and ten research and instructional staff members are now a part of the school, providing significant educational depth and scientific expertise in biomaterials, drug-delivery systems, implantable neural devices, molecular imaging, and bionanotechnology.  Nearly half of the Weldon School’s faculty, staff, and students are women. An active mentorship program within the school has resulted in 100% faculty promotion success to date, and has been also proven a successful model for research program development. 

Historically, a significant fraction of the research funding of Purdue biomedical engineering faculty members is through company partnerships, reflecting the strong academic-industrial ties and a focus on applications-oriented research.  Recently, Cook Group, Inc. endowed a professorship in honor of Leslie Geddes to mark their long-standing research relationship.