Since its relaunch in 2023, The Semcer Center for Healthcare Innovation (CHI) has had “interdisciplinary research at its core.” The CHI’s mission to improve the patient experience through technology will now continue under the leadership of researcher and biomedical engineering professor Dr. Jennifer Kang-Mieler, who has long been involved in health research. Dr. Kang-Mieler’s NIH-supported research projects include ocular drug delivery, retinal imaging, and biomarkers, as shown on the Stevens Faculty page. Alongside her research record, she brings a strong focus on translational work, aligning closely with the CHI’s vision of advancing healthcare innovation and creating real-world impact for patients.
Dr. Kang-Mieler didn’t always know she’d end up in biomedical research. As a math major at Northwestern University, she first pictured herself taking a different path — until an opportunity in a biophysics lab introduced her to modeling protein crystals. This experience pulled her toward lab work and eventually to a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, where she began focusing on vision science. Over the years, her research has grown to cover ocular drug delivery, retinal imaging, biomarkers, and blood flow, gaining recognition both nationally and abroad. Now Chair and George Meade Bond Professor of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Stevens, Dr. Kang-Mieler is taking on the role of CHI director, where she hopes to expand lab opportunities and build stronger ties with clinical and industry partners to better serve patients. Outside of her research, she often engages with her personal hobbies, which include playing the ukulele, building Legos, and attending Broadway shows. She explained that these creative outlets help her stay balanced as she focuses on her goals as a researcher
As the new director of the Semcer Center for Healthcare Innovation, Dr. Kang-Mieler envisions CHI as a hub where interdisciplinary research can move quickly from lab to clinic. She hopes to expand lab capabilities, strengthen ties with hospitals, biotech, and pharmaceutical companies, and develop new opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience. Diabetes, for example, is one possible unifying theme she sees for CHI, since it connects research at the cellular level to patient care and daily quality of life. By rallying faculty expertise around such challenges, Kang-Mieler sees potential in CHI and says that she believes that CHI researchers “move the needle” faster than individual labs working in isolation. Looking ahead, she also points to CHI’s student-led Next-Gen Healthcare Innovators Symposium and new partnerships with New York–area institutions and businesses as ways the center can grow into a premier collaborative platform. For Kang-Mieler, the opportunity to lead CHI is not just about advancing healthcare technology but also about training the next generation of problem-solvers. By mentoring students and encouraging collaboration across disciplines, she hopes to make the center a place where innovative ideas can grow into real solutions that improve lives for patients facing chronic illness.
