Ellen Roche honored by AIMBE, Sony
April 16, 2026
Ellen Roche

IMES

Ellen Roche, Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor, core faculty at IMES, professor, and associate department head, Department of Mechanical Engineering, has recently received two important honors.

  • The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has announced the induction of Roche to its College of Fellows. Election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is among the highest professional distinctions given to medical and biological engineering (comprised of the top two percent of engineers in those fields). Roche was elected “for pioneering contributions in implantable dynamic assist devices, high fidelity cardiac models of biomechanics and advocacy for women in engineering.”
  • In addition, Sony Group Corp. and Nature selected Roche, giving her the mid-career award, “for her interdisciplinary research in applying innovative technologies to the development of implantable and wearable medical devices, as well as building robotic and computational simulators for enhanced testing of device/ tissue interaction with the goal of improving cardiac care.”

Roche was inducted on April 13, 2026, along with 175 colleagues who make up the AIMBE College of Fellows Class of 2026. Most AIMBE Fellows are from the United States, though Fellows represent more than 35 countries, and their ranks include 4 Nobel Prize laureates, and 27 Presidential Medal of Science and/or Technology and Innovation awardees. 

Now in its second year, the Sony award recognizes exceptional early- to mid-career researchers in technology (including science, engineering, and mathematics), who, through their research, are driving a positive impact on society and the planet.

Roche received her bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from NUIGalway, Ireland and went on to work in the medical device industry (Mednova, Abbott Vascular and Medtronic) before receiving her MSc in Bioengineering from Trinity College Dublin. She completed her PhD at Harvard University. She directs the Therapeutic Technology Design and Development Lab (TTDD) at MIT. Since the creation of her lab, she has explored the intersection of mechanical and biological therapy delivery, achieving many scientific and engineering innovations.