News Release

Shu Chien Elected Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences

 Shu Chien
Shu Chien is the director of the Whitaker Institute of Biomedical Engineering and a University Professor of bioengineering and medicine.
April 24, 2006--Shu Chien is one of six scholars from the University of California, San Diego named today as Fellows of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  Chien directs the Whitaker Institute of Biomedical Engineering and is a university professor of bioengineering and medicine. An expert on how blood flow and pressure affect vessels, his research has led to the development of better diagnostic tests and treatments for atherosclerosis and other diseases.

Chien is the founding chair of UCSD’s Department of Bioengineering, and is widely credited with building the department into a world class institution, with a focus on multi-scale bioengineering, tissue engineering, and systems biology. UCSD is ranked the #1 Ph.D. bioengineering program in the country according to a National Research Council survey, and the #2 graduate program according to U.S.News and World Report.

Chien received his M.D. from National Taiwan University, and his Ph.D. in physiology from Columbia University, where he joined the faculty in 1958. In 1987 he took a sabbatical from Columbia to set up Taiwan's Institute of Biomedical Sciences. Eighteen months later, Chien returned to the United States left Columbia to join UCSD.

Chien’s appointment to AAAS comes just one year after he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences, making him one of eight scholars worldwide to be elected to all the three U.S. national academies including the NAS, National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine.

Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences annually elects individuals who have made preeminent contributions to their disciplines and to society at large.  The AAAS added   175 new Fellows and 20 new Foreign Honorary Members to its ranks in 2006.   In addition to Chien, the UCSD faculty members elected today include:  Don W. Cleveland, 55, professor of medicine, neurosciences and cellular and molecular medicine; Kenneth Kaushansky, 52, chair of UCSD’s Department of Medicine; David A. Lake, professor of political science;  J. Andrew McCammon, professor of pharmacology and of chemistry and biochemistry; and Keith Poole, professor of political science.

Media Contacts

Denine Hagen
Jacobs School of Engineering
858-534-2920
dhagen@ucsd.edu