Dr. Roderic Pettigrew, CEO of Engineering Health (EnHealth) and Texas A&M Vice Chancellor of Health and Strategic Initiatives, has been elected to a three-year term on the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) council.
In the NAE appointment, Pettigrew will serve as part of the NAE’s governing body, providing oversight for general policies and programs while advancing the welfare and prosperity of the nation through independent advice on matters involving engineering and technology and by promoting a vibrant engineering profession and public appreciation of engineering.
“I am honored and humbled by this appointment,” said Pettigrew, founding dean of the School of Engineering Medicine (EnMed) and the Robert A. Welch Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. “The NAE is vitally important in addressing the nation’s future technological needs, and I will be especially devoted to advancing how the merger of engineering and medicine will play an increasingly pivotal role in advancing safe and effective treatments and technologies used in every aspect of health care.”
The NAE – established in 1964 under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) – is celebrating 60 years of engineering leadership in service to the nation. It works together with the National Academy of Science (NAS) and the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) as the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
The NAE is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members and shares with the NAS and NAM the responsibility for providing independent, objective advice to advance science, engineering, and medicine for the benefit of society. It operates under a congressional mandate with offices in the District of Columbia and a facility in Irvine, Calif.
Pettigrew brings to the NAE council his experience as CEO of EnHealth, the nation’s first comprehensive educational and research program fully integrating engineering into all health-related disciplines. With his recent appointment as vice chancellor for Health and Strategic Initiatives, he will still be leading EnMed until an interim dean is named.
His leadership at EnMed paved the way for the program that partners with the College of Engineering and School of Medicine at Texas A&M and Houston Methodist Hospital to develop a new type of invention-minded doctor or “physicianeer.” Trailblazing faculty at the Houston campus educate and mentor students who earn both a medical doctorate and a Master of Engineering in four years of a uniquely blended curriculum, leaving inspired and equipped to provide translational research and clinical treatment to transform the future of health care.
Pettigrew received his Ph.D. in radiation physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and earned his medical doctorate from the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami. He also obtained a master’s degree in nuclear science and engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Connecticut and holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Morehouse College, where he was a Merrill Scholar.
