BE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Head, Department of Biological Engineering
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Biological Engineering Director, Division of Comparative Medicine
Eric Alm earned his Bachelors from the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana), his Masters from the University of California (Riverside), and his PhD from the University of Washington (Seattle). He held a postdoctoral appointment at the University of California (Berkeley) and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab before joining the faculty at MIT. His research group is an interdisciplinary team of computer scientists, computational biologists, molecular biologists, and microbial ecologists.
Professor Angela Belcher is the James Mason Crafts Professor of Biological Engineering, Materials Science and the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT and the head of the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT. She is a biological and materials engineer with expertise in the fields of biomaterials, biomolecular materials, organic-inorganic interfaces and solid-state chemistry and devices. Her primary research focus is evolving new materials for energy, electronics, the environment, and medicine. She received her B.S. in Creative Studies from The University of California, Santa Barbara. She earned a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at UCSB in 1997. Following her postdoctoral research in electrical engineering at UCSB, she joined the faculty at The University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Chemistry. She joined the faculty at MIT in 2002. Some recent awards include 2022 NAS (National Academy of Science), 2018 NAE (National Academy of Engineers) Fellow, 2015 NAI (National Academy of Inventors) Fellow, the 2013 $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize for her Inventions, 2012 AAAS (American Academy of Arts and Sciences) Fellow, a MacArthur Fellow, 2010 Eni Prize for Renewable and Non-conventional Energy, in 2009 Rolling Stone Magazine listed her as one of the top 100 people changing the country. She has founded five companies. She also holds 36 patents with many pending. In July 2019, she took over as the head of the Biological Engineering Department at MIT. In 2022 she joined the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology.
Dr. Metcalf Pate is a veterinarian-scientist with expertise in virology, platelet immunology and the development and refinement of animal models of human disease. She received her B.A. through the University Professors Program at Boston University, obtained her D.V.M. from Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine, and pursued both veterinary specialty training in laboratory animal medicine and her Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Prior to joining M.I.T., she was faculty at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where she facilitated the development and refinement of animal models of HIV pathogenesis as a chair of the Center for AIDS Research Cure Scientific Working Group, and oversaw the research training programs for veterinarians and veterinary students and founded the J.H.U. summer Veterinary Scholars Research Program and the summer Laboratory Animal Fellowship. Dr. Metcalf Pate serves on multiple national committees, including as Chair of the Animal Welfare Advisory Board for Morris Animal Foundation and as an Ad Hoc Specialist for AAALAC International.