Larry McIntire, a pioneer of biological transport phenomena and tissue engineering, left a legacy that continues to shape the field of biomedical engineering.
Rice University’s Michael King, E.D. Butcher Professor of Bioengineering, is leading a national effort to honor McIntire’s memory: a special session at the 2026 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting in Orlando, Fla.
The session, titled "Bioengineering Symposium to Honor the Legacy of Professor Larry McIntire, BMES Leader and Founder of Rice Bioengineering,” brings together nine of McIntire’s former colleagues, students and friends. Speakers will share their research and personal recollections of working alongside McIntire in a tribute to his transformative influence.
In addition to King, the speaker lineup includes:
- Antonios Mikos, Louis Calder Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice
- Jane Grande-Allen, Isabel C. Cameron Professor of Bioengineering at Rice
- Jeff Hubbell ’86, Biomedical Engineering Interim Department Chair and professor at NYU
- Eric Brey ’03, Dean of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UT San Antonio
- Konstantinos Konstantopoulos ’95, William H. Schwarz Professor at Johns Hopkins
- Barbara Rita Alevriadou ’89 ’92, SUNY Empire Innovation Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Buffalo
- Kyriacos Athanasiou, Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Irvine, and former Rice faculty member
- Jennifer West, Dean of the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science and former Rice faculty member
- Rena Bizios, Lutcher Brown Endowed Distinguished University Chair Professor at UT San Antonio
“Professor McIntire was an influential leader in the fields of biological transport phenomena and tissue engineering, and he left a lasting legacy on BMES, Rice’s Department of Bioengineering, and Georgia Tech’s Department of Biomedical Engineering,” said King. “Everyone we invited to participate in this session immediately accepted, which speaks to Larry’s generosity as a mentor and colleague.”
McIntire joined Rice University in 1970 and co-founded Rice’s Department of Bioengineering, serving as the inaugural chair. In 2003, he became the Wallace H. Coulter Chair of the joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, where he spent the remainder of his career until his death in January 2026.
"Larry McIntire played a pivotal role in establishing the department in 1997, building on the strengths of the school and its longstanding collaborations with leading institutions in the Texas Medical Center,” said Mikos. “As the founding department chair, he secured funding, recruited outstanding faculty, and established the educational and research foundations for the department's growth and international prominence.”
McIntire’s research focused on the cardiovascular system, where his work paved the way for improved treatment and recovery of heart disease. He was nationally recognized with elections to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Academy of Engineering.
His leadership also shaped BMES, as he served as the society’s president from 1995-96 and as Editor-in-Chief of the Annals of Biomedical Engineering from 2002-07.
“Larry was the president of BMES when I was a graduate student, and he also worked closely with the Whitaker Foundation to promote the development of new biomedical engineering academic programs at universities around the country—including Rice,” said Grande-Allen, the current BMES president-elect. “This was an exciting time of tremendous growth in our field, and Larry took the time to connect with students and learn about their progress and aspirations. I remember very well the experience of meeting him in the mid-90s, and it was a pleasure to reconnect when he hired me several years later into my faculty position at Rice.”
BMES is the nation’s leading society and professional home for biomedical engineering and bioengineers, with more than 6,700 members and four professional journals. Rice’s Department of Bioengineering has seven BMES Fellows among its faculty.
The special session honoring McIntire is scheduled for October 23, 8:30 AM, at the Orlando World Center Marriott.