Michigan State University (MSU) has named Christopher H. Contag, PhD, the first director of its new Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering. He will also be the chair of the school’s new department of biomedical engineering.

Contag previously worked as a professor at Stanford University, working in the departments of pediatrics, radiology, bioengineering, and microbiology and immunology. He was also co-director of Stanford’s Molecular Imaging Program and director of its Center for Innovation in In Vivo Imaging. In the past, his research has focused on such subjects as the development and transmission of HIV and using non-invasive imaging to study biology.

Contag said in a prepared statement that MSU has the potential to “become a national leader in biomedical research and development.”

“At MSU, the most pressing biomedical questions will direct the science, and if we don’t have the tools we need to answer those questions, we’ll build them,” he said. “Our goal is to understand complex biological processes in the context of living organs and tissues for the purpose of developing and engineering the most effective therapies to restore normal function. We have a real opportunity to drive the convergence of disciplines through biomedical engineering and make fundamental discoveries that change paradigms in biomedicine.”