Dr. Don Giddens, dean of Georgia Tech's College of Engineering, will be awarded the 2007 Biomedical Industry Growth Award by the Georgia Biomedical Partnership (GBP).

The GBP's annual Biomedical Industry Growth Awards honor people in the public and private sectors who have made extraordinary contributions to the growth of Georgia's life sciences industry. Giddens will be honored as the recipient from the public sector, and Dr. Eric Tomlinson, president and CEO of Altea Therapeutics, is the recipient from the private sector.

Giddens, one of the nation's pioneers in biomedical engineering, is being honored for developing Georgia Tech's bioengineering program, enhancing its research and technology commercialization efforts, and expanding the school's partnerships with Emory University. These partnerships have been critical in expanding the life sciences research base in Georgia and in creating an engine of growth for the life sciences industry.

"I'm honored to be recognized as a contributor to the impressive growth of Georgia's biomedical industry," Giddens said. "Georgia Tech's partnership with Emory has truly enhanced our opportunities for research innovation."

Giddens is the founding chair of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, a unique collaboration between a public engineering university and private medical school. The department is the No. 3 graduate program of biomedical engineering in the country, according to rankings from U.S. News & World Report.

Giddens received all three of his degrees (B.S.E. 1963, M.S 1965, and Ph.D. 1966) from Georgia Tech. He joined the Georgia Tech faculty in 1968. In 1992 he left his position as the chair of aerospace engineering to serve as the dean of the Whiting School of Engineering and professor of mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins University until 1997. Giddens then rejoined Georgia Tech to serve as chair of The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. Giddens became the dean of the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech in 2002.

Giddens is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), Big 10+ Deans Council, and a founding fellow and past president of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), fellow of the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He received the H.R. Lissner Award from ASME in 1993 and was the ASME Thurston Lecturer in 1996. Giddens currently serves on a number of advisory boards and councils for academic institutions, corporations, and professional societies. He is also the author of more than 100 refereed publications and book chapters, 190 paper presentations and proceedings, and maintains an active research program in cardiovascular hemodynamics.

The Georgia Biomedical Partnership (GBP), founded in 1989, represents more than 270 pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies, universities, research institutes, government groups and other business organizations involved in the development of products that improve the health and quality of life people worldwide.