Every year, the Southeastern Conference (SEC) selects one faculty member from each school in the conference to receive the SEC Faculty Achievement Award. The award recognizes professors with outstanding records in research and scholarship.
This year, the SEC honors Dr. Roderic I. Pettigrew, CEO of Engineering Health, executive dean for Engineering Medicine (EnMed) and holder of the Robert A. Welch Chair in Chemistry. EnMed is the result of a partnership between Texas A&M University’s colleges of medicine and engineering and Houston Methodist Hospital, and is overseen by Pettigrew.
“EnMed is a new training program converging two distinctly different disciplines that will transform the nature of health care as we know it,” said Dr. Carrie L. Byington ’85, vice chancellor for health services at The Texas A&M University System, senior vice president of the Texas A&M Health Science Center and dean of the Texas A&M College of Medicine. “Through Dr. Pettigrew’s leadership and innovation, Texas A&M is creating a new type of health care provider for the 21stcentury—the physicianeer.”
Pettigrew’s ideas are helping the Texas A&M Health Science Center create a new generation of professional, the ‘physicianeer.’ With his guidance, we can encourage others to embrace this concept. The possibilities are endless.”
The SEC selected Pettigrew to highlight his innovative thinking and transformative plans for EnMed.
“EnMed will train a new kind of medical mind,” said Pettigrew. “Our graduates will understand that life springs from a seamless integration of the biological and physical sciences and engineering. We seek to train invention-minded physicians who see problems in health care and dream up solutions.”
Pettigrew joined Texas A&M at the end of 2017. With a portfolio of international accomplishments in advancing biomedical innovation, he served as founding director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health. He is an elected member of both the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering, is an elected member of the National Academy of Inventors and is an elected foreign fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India.
“EnMed is complete paradigm shift from conventional thinking about what it means to be an engineer or a physician. Dr. Pettigrew has taken on the challenge of leading this ambitious program and making it a success. We need his kind of vision to face the major health care challenges of the future, and the lead the way for these new ‘physicianeers,’” said M. Katherine Banks, vice chancellor of engineering and national laboratories at The Texas A&M University System, dean of the Texas A&M College of Engineering and director of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station.
To be eligible for consideration, the individual must be a teacher or scholar at an SEC university; have achieved the rank of full professor; have a record of extraordinary teaching; and have a record of research that is recognized nationally and/or internationally.
Each SEC Faculty Achievement Award winner will receive a $5,000 honorarium from the SEC and will become Texas A&M’s nominee for the SEC Professor of the Year Award. The SEC Professor of the Year, to be named in April, receives an additional $15,000 honorarium.
Dr. Marcetta Darensbourg, distinguished professor in the Department of Chemistry at Texas A&M, won the honor last year.