In order to support the Healthy China initiative and to further optimize the medical discipline layout of Tsinghua University, the School of Biomedical Engineering (BME) and its Communist Party of China (CPC) Committee were established in January 2024, which was approved by Tsinghua University CPC Committee at the 61st Standing Committee Meeting of the 15th CPC Tsinghua University Committee. Under the framework of Tsinghua New Medicine development, the faculty, staff, and students at the School of BME will remain true to their mission, uphold firm convictions, and strive forward with dedication and innovation.

The discipline of BME at Tsinghua University was born in 1979 within the Department of Electrical Engineering, in step with China’s reform and opening up. The discipline of BME began to enroll master's degree candidates in 1979, and undergraduate students in 1982. In 1986, it was approved to offer doctoral programs and began to enroll doctoral degree candidates. In 1998, a postdoctoral mobile station was established. Relying on the engineering strengths of Tsinghua University, the discipline of BME forged ahead in the 1980s and 1990s, achieving a series of high-level results in fields such as biomedical signal processing and ultrasound imaging, and cultivating a large number of key academic talents.

With the arrival of new opportunities in medical and healthcare development, Tsinghua University established the School of Medicine on October 25, 2001. The discipline of BME was incorporated into the new school, where the Department of Biomedical Engineering was founded as one of its inaugural departments. In 2002, biomedical engineering was designated as a national key first-level discipline. In 2004, the discipline expanded to the Tsinghua Shenzhen Graduate School. In 2006, Jing Cheng, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and his system-biology team joined the discipline. Subsequently, several cross-disciplinary university-level platforms were established, including the Center of Biomedical Imaging Research in 2010 and the Tsinghua Laboratory of Brain and Intelligence in 2017. The discipline has consistently pursued academic frontiers and contributed to China’s innovation-driven development strategy, advancing in fields such as medical imaging, neural engineering, micro/nano medicine and tissue engineering, and advanced medical devices.

In 2012, the School of Medicine pioneered a personnel reform initiative at Tsinghua University, drawing on international models for building competitive and world-class faculty teams. Through the “Special Research Fellow” system and leveraging national talent programs, over ten leading scholars and young academic talents were recruited globally. Since then, a categorized faculty management system has been established, with a primary focus on the tenue track, supported by an internationalized recruitment and management mechanism. Based on the developmental trends of biomedical engineering, four key research directions were identified,including neural engineering, micro/nano medicine and tissue engineering, medical imaging, and medical instrumentation.

The School of BME will continue to further develop the personnel system reforms, strengthen mechanisms for selecting and nurturing young innovative talents, and contribute to building the national strategic talent pool. Currently, the School of BME has 102 faculty and staff members, including 20 on the teaching and research track, 1 on the teaching track, 8 on the research track, 4 on the experimental technology, and 7 administrative staff. Among the teaching and research track, there is one CAE Member. In addition, the school hosts 28 postdoctoral fellows and 34 contract-based employees.

The school currently has 340 students, including 18 undergraduates and 322 graduate students. Among the graduate students, there are 45 master’s students (36 in academic master’s programs in biomedical engineering and 9 in professional master’s programs in electronic information) and 277 doctoral students (201 in academic doctoral programs in biomedical engineering, 10 in full-time doctoral programs in electronic information engineering, and 66 in professional doctoral programs for innovation leaders in electronic information).

Standing at a new historical starting point, the faculty, staff, and students at the School of BME will remain committed to their mission, uphold their ideals, and move forward with determination. With high-quality discipline development and talent cultivation, the school will contribute to the advancement of Tsinghua Medicine and make greater contributions to the Healthy China initiative.