junior1 at ibm.net (Bernie Arruza) writes:
: agree, is that there is a desperate need for a new discipline.
: Universities need to come up with a new breed of individuals
: that are comfortable with being engineuroscientists (please,
: quote me on this one and quote me frequently <G>)
:: The closest thing that comes to mind is a biomedical engineer,
: but s/he would probably too focused on medical instrumentation,
: and would not be able to operate on a frog (I'm probably
: exaggerating a bit).
Depends on what kind of biomedical engineer you are....
I am a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering, got a masters' in
Biomechanical engineering. I study motor control from a biomechanics
point of view. I am interested in studying neural organization
strategies for control of movement and will probably postdoc in a
neurophysiology lab looking at cat muscle coordination. I have no
interest in instrumentation and very little in clinical problems. Do
I consider myself to be an engineer? Yes and no. I don't think I
want to teach in an engineering department per se, but I wouldn't rule
it out. Given my interest in neuroscience, I would prefer to be
around other biologists. But from my experience I have found that
people with engineering background who are flexible enough to consider
biological problems often have a lot to offer traditional fields of
biology, but we are also sort of stuck in the middle when you are
looking for labels--biologist refer to use and engineers, engineers
refer to use a biologists.
Lena
