BME Faculty Retirements 2015

David Lipson

As one of the founding members of the M.Eng. program, David Lipson’s ingenuity and enthusiasm were fundamental in establishing one of the leading BME M.Eng. programs in the nation. Dr. Lipson completed his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering at Cornell in 1973. He went on to earn both his M.S. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western University before returned to Cornell in 2004 to act as Senior Lecturer and help build the Master of Engineering program. Dr. Lipson helped grow the M.Eng. program from a dozen students to over 90 per year. He specialized in both BME 5500: Medical Product Development Engineering and BME 4020: Medical Physiology. Dr. Lipson taught students in an interactive environment and prepared them for professional practice by bringing in guest lecturers from the industry to lead real-world simulations of engineering situations. His capacity for connecting students to clinicians and industry was unique. Under his leadership, students addressed a tremendous variety of biomedical problems ranging across applications in research labs, patient homes, clinical industry and global health. 

When asked about his time at Cornell, he said that he “will terribly miss learning students’ stories and helping them find jobs.” He went on to say “It was an honor to be part of the BME faculty and help make the M.Eng. program be both competitive and number one in the country.” We thank him for his dedication to building the BME M.Eng. program and enriching the lives of both faculty and students during his time here at Cornell.

Jonathan Black

Jonathan Black brought the engineering behind orthopedic implants to life for students in BME. One of the pioneers in the field of biomaterials for orthopedic applications, Prof. Black’s years of real-world experience in engineering for patient needs was a source of insight and inspiration. During his time at Cornell, Prof. Black lead design team projects in orthopedic and biomaterials applications. His experience in both academia and industry enabled him to guide several of these Cornell M.Eng. projects to evolve into new companies. He encouraged students completing their Biomedical Engineering M.Eng. degree at Cornell to think on their own and have the confidence and freedom to come up with their own conclusions. 

Prof. Black has been a researcher in several areas of Biomaterials, written many articles and several textbooks, served on several advisory and editorial boards, and was assistant editor of the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research from 1978-1995. Prof. Black received his bachelor’s degree in Physics from Cornell University in 1961 and his Ph.D. in Metallurgy and Materials Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972. Prof. Black is currently the Hunter Professor Emeritus of Bioengineering at Clemson University. He returned to Cornell as an adjunct professor of Biomedical Engineering from 2011-2015. We thank him for his contribution to the development of Cornell’s M.Eng. program in Biomedical Engineering and the numerous design teams he supervised during his career at Cornell.