Caltech Alumna Ellis Meng Elected to IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Leadership Role

Ellis Meng, USC Viterbi’s vice dean for technology innovation and entrepreneurship and professor of biomedical engineering, has been elected vice president of technical activities-elect of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

The position, which will eventually become a full vice president role, has oversight of the technical activities portfolio of the society. Several other biomedical engineering department faculty members have held leadership roles in the society, including Michael Khoo, a professor in the department who has served as vice president for conferences.

Meng received her B.S. degree in engineering and applied science and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Caltech in 1997, 1998, and 2003.

Meng is also the Shelly and Ofer Nemirovsky Chair in Convergent Bioscience, established the USC Biomedical Microsystems Laboratory, which focuses on the development of micro- and nanotechnologies for biomedical purposes. In collaboration with Dong Song, research associate professor of biomedical engineering, Meng also established the Polymer Implantable Electrode (PIE) Foundry, which is a National Institutes of Health-funded technology resource.

Her research interests include biomedical microelectromechanical systems (bioMEMS), implantable biomedical microdevices, microfluidics, microsensors and actuators, biocompatible polymer microfabrication and packaging, and the development of thin, flexible polymer-based implantable materials that allow for better and safer mapping of the brain. She is also the co-founder of USC startup Senseer, which is developing self-aware sensing devices that can vastly improve the treatment of hydrocephalus, a pediatric condition that causes excessive fluid in the brain.

In addition to this latest recognition, Meng was previously honored by the IEEE Sensors Council with their 2019 Technical Achievement Award for her contributions in the sensors field and her work’s applications for drug delivery and microfluidics, neural interfaces and medical implants.

She was previously Dwight C. and Hildagarde E. Baum Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering from 2015-2018 and was an inaugural holder of a Gabilan Distinguished Professorship in Science and Engineering from 2016-2019.

Meng is a fellow of the IEEE, the National Academy of Inventors, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Biomedical Engineering Society, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.