Chilkoti Named Chair of Duke BME

Tosh Chilkoti has been named chair of Duke’s Biomedical Engineering Department, effective August 11, 2014.

Chilkoti, who holds the Theo Pilkington Professorship in Biomedical Engineering as well as appointments in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Chemistry, is one of the most recognized researchers in the biomedical engineering field, nationally and internationally. Among his recent honors are the Pritzker Distinguished Lectureship Award from the Biomedical Engineering Society, the Clemson Award for Contributions to the Literature from the Society for Biomaterials, and the Humboldt Senior Researcher Award from the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation. He also is one of the most successful entrepreneurs and prolific inventors at Duke, with many companies and innovations including an insulin delivery system for diabetics that reduces injections from once a day to once a week, a point-of-care immunoassay, and novel nanoparticle delivery systems for cancer therapies.   

Chilkoti succeeds Craig Henriquez, who completed his term as chair this summer. Chilkoti, like Henriquez, is a longtime and dedicated member of Duke’s Biomedical Engineering Department, having joined the department in 1996. He has served as director of graduate studies for Biomedical Engineering and as director of the Center for Biologically Inspired Materials & Material Systems, as well as an active mentor to both graduate and undergraduate students.  

“The excellence and commitment Tosh Chilkoti brings to Duke and the department, as well as his enthusiasm and new ideas, will serve Duke Biomedical Enginering well,” said Tom Katsouleas, dean of Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. “We are fortunate that Tosh is willing to take on the challenge of leading one of the best and largest biomedical engineering programs in the country to new heights. I am grateful that he has reached a point in his storied career where he is able and willing to direct his incredible energy and creativity to nurturing the department and all its constituents, and I’m excited about his ambitious plans to grow and strengthen the education, research and translational activities for which the department is known.”