The fundamental mission of the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida is to better the world and improve the human condition through interdisciplinary and creative merging of engineering with biology and medicine.

---

Contact

Administration & Advising

---

What do Biomedical Engineers do?

A biomedical engineer uses traditional engineering expertise to analyze and solve problems in biology and medicine, providing an overall enhancement of health care. Students choose biomedical engineering to serve people, to work with living systems and to apply advanced technology to the complex problems of medical care. The biomedical engineer is called upon to design instruments, devices and software, to bring together knowledge from many technical sources to develop new procedures and to conduct the research needed to solve clinical problems.

Bioengineering integrates sciences and engineering for the study of biology, medicine, behavior or health. It advances fundamental concepts, creates knowledge for the molecular to the organ systems levels, and develops innovative biologics, materials, processes, implants and devices. Biomedical engineers create informatics approaches to prevent, diagnose and treat disease, applying systematic, quantitative and integrative thinking and solutions to problems important to biology, medical research and population studies.

BME typically is among the three most popular engineering majors and very often is the largest. The job market in biomedical engineering is the fastest growing of all engineering disciplines. It has become clear that the nation needs a variety of engineers with knowledge of biomedicine, including a cadre of exceptional people whose education thoroughly immerses them in engineering and biomedicine. The intellectual foundation of this limited-access undergraduate program is captured in this vision: Biomedicine comprises the science core while engineering provides the framework for inquiry. The curriculum incorporates exceptional rigor in both.

Source: UF Catalog

The J. Crayton Pruitt Family

The J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering is UF’s first named department. In 1995, Dr. J. Crayton Pruitt Sr., a cardiothoracic surgeon from St. Petersburg, Fla., received a heart transplant at Shands at UF. A biventricular assist device — a classic example of biomedical engineering technology — kept him alive for 10 days while he waited for a heart. The experience left Dr. Pruitt and his family with a profound appreciation for biomedical engineering. Several years later, he made a donation that is expected to create a $20 million endowment for the department that now bears his name.