Dear Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Welcome back to Purdue for the Fall semester 2021. I am excited to see many new and returning students at the start of the semester. There is a lot to look forward to! This semester will likely be a semester of transition. We have a lot of hope and plans for a return to a greater sense of “normal” this semester, and to do it safely. Many steps are being taken in this direction- a return to in-person classes, a return to normal in-person class sizes, however some things are still needed to ensure a safe and effective environment for our students, faculty, and staff- including a full masking requirement while indoors and continued Covid testing for many, depending on vaccination status. Please be sure to follow Protect Purdue guidelines https://protect.purdue.edu/ <https://protect.purdue.edu/>. Remember- Protect yourself. Protect others. Protect Purdue. I want to take this time to introduce everyone in the BME community to our newest faculty member who just started this August as an Assistant Professor- Dr. Leopold Green. I’m thrilled to have Leo join us and bring his expertise in synthetic biology and systems biology and its role in human health through inflammation and inter-kingdom signaling. You can learn more about Leo at https://www.leopoldgreen.com/ <https://www.leopoldgreen.com/> . I’d also like to (re)introduce two faculty members who joined in fall of 2020: Dr. Deva Chan joined as an Assistant Professor and she brings expertise in in biomechanics, biomedical imaging, with impact in Osteoarthritis and Traumatic Brain Injury https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChanLab <https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChanLab> . Dr. Douglas Brubaker joined as Assistant Professor and his lab’s expertise is in computational biomedical engineering to support the predictive power of preclinical models and also in microbiome impact on human health https://engineering.purdue.edu/BME/People/ptProfile?resource_id=241420 <https://engineering.purdue.edu/BME/People/ptProfile?resource_id=241420>. As part of our welcome back and introductions, I invite you to join me and other members of the BME community this upcoming Friday, August 27, 2021 at 1:00 PM in the South Lawn outside of the BME building for Welcome Back remarks and Free Ice Cream (individually wrapped). BME Faculty, staff, students, and postdocs are all welcome and the College of Engineering Dean Mung Chiang will join us at the beginning for a few remarks, along with Dr. Matthew Tews (Director of IUSM-WL Medical Education), and Dr. Chris Rochet (Director of the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience). I’m excited to see you around- please say hello when you see me around campus and in MJIS and introduce yourself if we haven’t yet met! I look forward to this semester and all the great learning and research that you do that make the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering a truly vibrant school at Purdue! Boiler Up! David M. Umulis Dane A. Miller Head and Professor of Biomedical Engineering | Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Professor | Agricultural & Biological Engineering He/Him/His o: 765-494-1223 | dumulis@purdue.edu  <mailto:dumulis@purdue.edu>| https://engineering.purdue.edu/~dumulis <https://engineering.purdue.edu/~dumulis> Twitter: @professorthermo <https://twitter.com/professorthermo?lang=en>