Fast Fact:

HST faculty member and pioneering biomedical engineer Robert Langer has been awarded the National Medal of Science.

HST Highlights and History

HST's interdisciplinary approach to biomedicine stretches back to 1970 when MIT and Harvard Medical School agreed to develop a joint program in medical science. Since then, HST has expanded to include doctoral, master's, and training programs. Today our faculty, graduates, and students share a rare "dual citizenship" in medicine and fields from physics, chemistry, and engineering to computer science and business.

A few key HST academic milestones:

In 1971, Dr. Irving M. London, the founding chairman of the department of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, was selected to design and direct a new medical sciences program leading to a Harvard Medical school MD degree.
In 1978, HST added the Medical Engineering and Medical Physics (MEMP) program, the first formal biomedical engineering PhD program at MIT.
In 1992, HST offers the Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology (SHBT) program.
In 2002, HST offers a predoctoral program in bioinformatics and functional genomics (BIG).
In 2002, HST and MIT's Sloan School of Management create the Biomedical Enterprise Program (BEP), a program designed to create a new generation of leaders of biomedical enterprises.
In 2006, with funding from the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI), HST created the bioastronautics training program, which combines training in biomedical sciences, aerospace engineering, and space medicine and the Graduate Education in Medical Science (GEMS) program, which introduces MIT graduate students to medical sciences.

In addition to its focus on educating biomedical pioneers, HST researchers are pioneers themselves. Our faculty members are active basic science, translational and clinical investigators who do their work in labs at MIT, Harvard and in research centers at Boston area Hospitals.

A few key HST research milestones:

In 1974, HST's oldest research center, the Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center, is established.
In 1994, HST establishes the Children's Hospital Informatics Program, a research center focused on bioinformatics, public health informatics, and clinical informatics.
In 2000, HST establishes the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Engineering at Massachusetts General Hospital, a center that applies biomedical imaging to basic science as well as clinical investigations.
In 2006, the HST-Brigham and Women's Hospital Center for Biomedical Engineering is created with the goal of pioneering technological advances that can be rapidly transferred to a clinical setting.