Faculty inducted into American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering College of Fellows

FIU professors Angela Laird and Jorge Riera Diaz were recently inducted into the 2024 Class of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows.

Election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to medical and biological engineers. Members comprise the top 2% of engineers in these fields. College membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to engineering and medicine research, practice or education, and to the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of medical and biological engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to bioengineering education.

Laird and Riera Diaz are now among the world’s most distinguished medical and biological engineers, AIMBE Fellows who count among their numbers three Nobel Prize laureates and 22 Presidential Medal of Science and/or Technology and Innovation awardees.

“I am honored to be recognized and included in AIMBE’s prestigious College of Fellows and I look forward to contributing to their mission of advocacy for medical and biological engineering to benefit society,” Laird said.

Laird was nominated, reviewed and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows for outstanding and high-impact contributions to the development and application of novel approaches for understanding brain function, connectivity and development. An authority in the field of neuroimaging, Laird has also been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher by the analytical firm Clarivate. She has produced multiple papers that rank in the top 1% by citations in the field of neuroscience and behavior. Her work focuses on mining and exploring big data in neuroimaging to better understand human brain function. She is the director of FIU’s Center for Imaging Science and co-principal investigator of the NIH-funded Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study — the largest long-term study of brain development and child health conducted in the United States.  

Riera Diaz is associate professor of Biomedical Engineering and director of the Neuronal Mass Dynamics lab at FIU. His work and research interests focus on the use of biophysical models and experimental techniques to understand the neurophysiological basis of imaging modalities to study the brain, facilitating their integration and interpretation. Riera Diaz was nominated, reviewed and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows for outstanding contributions in advancing the technology of simultaneous functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography.

"Being elected AIMBE fellow represents an honor and at the same time an immense responsibility as this institution is the frontline for the advocacy of medical and biological engineering research in the country," Riera Diaz said.

AIMBE is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., representing the most accomplished individuals in the fields of medical and biological engineering. Its mission is to recognize excellence, advance public understanding, and accelerate medical and biological innovation driving advocacy initiatives into action on Capitol Hill and beyond. Overall, the College of Fellows inductees represent more than 30 countries and are employed in academia, industry, clinical practice and government.

Laird and Riera Diaz were inducted in a formal ceremony during the AIMBE Annual Event at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel in Arlington, Virginia in March. They joined 162 colleagues who make up the AIMBE College of Fellows Class of 2024.