02 Oct 2025
Institute of Biomedical Engineering Announces new Director
Professor Robin Cleveland will succeed Professor Constantin Coussios OBE FREng FMedSci as Director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME) at the University of Oxford from 1st October 2025.
We thank Professor Constantin Coussios (left) for his outstanding leadership as Director and warmly welcome Professor Robin Cleveland (right) as the new Director of IBME.
Prof Constantin Coussios will have served as IBME director for nearly a decade, between October 2016 and September 2025. Under his directorship, the Institute of Biomedical Engineering grew from 16 to 30 academics and from 200 to some 300 researchers, expanding from 4 to 8 strategic research areas to include biomaterials, bioelectronics, sports technologies and bionanotechnology over 4,500 m2 of space at Oxford’s Old Road Campus.
"I am extremely grateful to all IBME faculty, staff and students for their support, passion and dedication over the last decade, and look forward to witnessing the next stage of biomedical growth and societal impact under Robin’s inspired leadership”
In 2022, he became the founding director of the Podium Institute for Sports Medicine and Technology, supported by a £40m 10-year partnership between the University and charity Podium Analytics to create the world’s first cross-disciplinary biomedical institute focused on safety in the youth, community, and female sports, housed at the IBME. Prof Coussios was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2019, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2024, and was awarded an OBE for services to biomedical engineering in 2022. He co-founded IBME spin-out OrganOx, which became the largest and first acquisition in excess of a billion pounds in the history of the University of Oxford.
Incoming IBME director, Robin Cleveland is a Professor of Engineering Science and a Tutorial Fellow at Magdalen College. He has been at Oxford for 14 years; previously he was on the Engineering faculty at Boston University in the USA and a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. His research expertise is in biomedical ultrasound particularly with respect to therapeutic applications. Recent research areas include, low-intensity ultrasound for transcranial ultrasound neuro-stimulation (TUS), disrupting bacterial biofilms with shock waves, high-intensity ultrasound for thermal ablation, ultrasonic drug-delivery include delivery vehicles, and laser and shock wave lithotripsy for fragmenting kidney stones. He is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America. Prof Cleveland says:
“I am excited to be stepping into a leadership role of the IBME which is a vibrant community of researchers that work at the interface of engineering and the medical sciences. I look forward to fostering more collaborations between engineering and the researchers and clinicians in the medical sciences both in Oxford and beyond. I am exceptionally grateful to Constantin’s leadership over the past 9 years and the wonderful community of talented researchers he passes on to me.”
Prof Coussios reflected, "Without talented performers and an incredible orchestra, a conductor is little more than a person with a stick. It has been my life’ privilege to have had the opportunity to lead one of Oxford’s foremost translational Institutes, and to support the brilliance of my IBME colleagues in translating cutting-edge technologies into impactful clinical solutions, innovative clinical trials and entrepreneurial companies for the benefit of patients. I am extremely grateful to all IBME faculty, staff and students for their support, passion and dedication over the last decade, and look forward to witnessing the next stage of biomedical growth and societal impact under Robin’s inspired leadership”
Please join us in thanking Professor Coussios for his exceptional leadership and service to the IBME and in welcoming Professor Cleveland as IBME director.
