Contact: Bob Ratliff
Joel D. Bumgardner of Mississippi State University is receiving a National Institutes of Health international fellowship to conduct biomedical engineering research at a Japanese university.
A member of the agricultural and biological engineering department since 1994, Bumgardner leaves in October for the Osaka Dental University. NIH's Fogarty International Center and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science are funding his six-week investigation of biomedical alloys.
Bumgardner's MSU research focuses on materials used in surgical and dental implants.
Fewer than 20 of the NIH fellowships are awarded annually to American researchers for collaborative projects in Japan. Awards generally are reserved for senior researchers who can develop substantive projects of interest to both countries.
In 1999, Bumgardner was among biomedical investigators at 20 U.S. universities receiving a $141,000 Whitaker Foundation grant. That two-year award supported his study of interactions between the human body and orthopedic and dental implants.
A Raleigh, N.C., native, he holds a bachelor's degree from Florida State University and master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.