The Cockrell School of Engineering has named professor Tyrone Porter, an accomplished imaging scientist, as the next chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin.
Porter joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering as a full-time professor and holder of the Donald J. Douglass Centennial Professorship in Engineering in September 2020. His appointment as Department Chair is effective August 22, 2022.
The Cockrell School selected Porter after an internal search that began when previous chair Shelly Sakiyama-Elbert stepped down after six years to take a position as vice dean for research and graduate education at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Professor Andrew Dunn served as the department’s interim chair while the search was conducted.
Porter has served on the department’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee and Faculty Search Committee. He is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the Acoustical Society of America, and a member of many professional societies including the Acoustical Society of America, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Controlled Release Society, National Society of Black Engineers and others.
Porter’s research interests include image-guided drug delivery, ultrasound, acoustics, with an overall goal to push the application of ultrasound technology in new and exciting directions, including immunomodulation and reversible opening of the blood-brain barrier.
Porter previously worked as an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Boston University. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in biomedical engineering at the University of Cincinnati. He received his Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of Washington and his B.S. in electrical engineering from Prairie View A&M University.
