John White, University of Victoria’s (UVic) new director of the biomedical engineering program, has spent his career at the leading edge of the field with time as chair of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University, executive director of the Brain Institute at the University of Utah, and president of the Biomedical Engineering Society. He explains why he believes this is a pivotal moment for the field in Canada.
Q. Why is a biomedical engineering (BME) degree meaningfully different from mechanical or electrical engineering with a biology minor?
A. A biomedical engineer has been trained specifically to apply engineering principles to biological systems—to understand them, or to fix them. That is not something you acquire as an add-on.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the mRNA vaccine represented one of the most significant technological achievements of the era. The underlying science came from chemists and biologists. But manufacturing that discovery into a vaccine that could be approved, produced at scale, and delivered globally within months was an engineering challenge that required professionals who understood both the biology and the regulatory, safety and manufacturing constraints unique to medicine.
Biomedical engineer graduates bring several unique attributes: they understand how to think about the human body from an engineering perspective, they know how to communicate with clinicians and healthcare professionals, they understand regulatory affairs, and their commitment to healthcare is primary, not secondary.
Q. Where is the biomedical engineering field headed, and what does that mean for how students are being trained?
A. We have to be ready to monitor people’s health in ways that are safe, respectful of their privacy, and inexpensive. That is especially important in a province like BC, where many people live far from a major hospital. The challenge of preserving patient privacy at the intersection of wearable technology and AI diagnostics is one of the defining tasks ahead.
There is also genuine tension between a high-tech economy that wants zero regulation and a medical field that is highly regulated for good reason. We need processes that can move quickly while protecting patients and their health records.
Q. What are exciting areas of focus in the biomedical engineering field?
A. Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine represent some of the field’s most transformative frontiers. The day will come when patients with osteoarthritis can receive a replacement meniscus grown from their own stem cells, or eventually, entire organs. It will take time, but the progress is real.
In terms of curriculum, we are focused on giving students the flexibility to pursue their interests while ensuring the degree remains rigorous and responsive to where the field and the job market are heading.
Q. You’ve led biomedical engineering programs in the US. Why UVic, and why is this the moment for Canada’s biomedical engineering field?
A. Canada has roughly eight standalone undergraduate biomedical engineering programs. The United States has 181. I keep a slide for my first-year students that charts the exponential growth in accredited BME programs in the US starting around 1990. Canada’s per-capita position today maps closely onto that earlier moment. I believe we are at the beginning of the same trajectory.
I was genuinely intrigued by the idea of helping grow this field in Canada. Biomedical engineering is going to be one of the great growth areas in engineering in the 21st century, and students coming through programs like UVic’s now will be among the people who define what the field looks like in this country.
