Bruce Wheeler, the Editor in Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering (TBME), completes his second term on December 31, 2012. His successor is Dr. Bin He of the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Wheeler succeeded Dr. Jose Principe, of the UF Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, whose term ran from 2001 through 2006. Dr. Donald Childers, also of the UF ECE Department, served as Editor in Chief in the 1990’s. Having three Editors in Chief from the same university, and two in succession, is highly unusual and speaks highly of UF leadership in the field of Biomedical Engineering.

The Transactions on Biomedical Engineering is the largest and most cited general topic biomedical engineering journal in the world. This year there will be over 1800 submissions and approximately 360 published papers, both representing a doubling of activity since the end of 2006. Dr. Wheeler has also reduced the time to first decision from 100 days to 40. Dr. Principe also saw a significant reduction in turnaround time when he introduced electronic reviewing to TBME as well as a doubling of submissions during his editorship. Articles published in the journal will be cited nearly 12,000 times this year, in substantial part because of the journal’s outstanding citation “half-life” of over 8 years, much greater than most scientific journals. The Transactions is also exceptionally international, with submissions from Europe exceeding those from North America and those from China exceeding all other nations except the United States. In all, the growth of the journal is a credit to Dr. Wheeler, but more significantly a sign of the rapidly growing importance of biomedical engineering world-wide.

Dr. Wheeler estimates that he has sent over 50,000 emails – admittedly many automated — identifying the University of Florida as the home of the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. This identity will continue when Dr. Wheeler assumes the Presidency of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society in January.