Khine Named Inaugural Samueli Scholar

Dec. 21, 2021 – Michelle Khine, biomedical engineering professor and associate dean for the Division of Undergraduate Education, has been named one of six inaugural Samueli Scholars by the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute.

The Samueli Scholars Award Program recognizes current UC Irvine faculty whose achievements show extraordinary promise to advance basic, translational or clinical scholarship in integrative health and have a history of contributions of national distinction in their disciplines. Funding for Samueli Scholars is $50,000 per year for three years and appointments begin Jan. 1, 2022.

Her research involves developing innovative, low-cost and scalable point-of-care and continuous physiological monitoring solutions, including respiratory and blood pressure sensors. A fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, Khine blends her engineering research with entrepreneurship and has co-founded six start-up companies. She has also received the MIT TR35 Award from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the NIH New Innovator Award and been named Fast Company magazine’s 100 Most Creative People in Business, Marie-Claire magazine’s Women on Top: Top Scientist, and a Diverse Issues in Higher Education Trailblazer. 

Khine’s current research goals are to implement integrative health interventions while monitoring patients’ response in real time. This includes a project to employ mindfulness training in children with severe autism as well as to monitor the physiological signals of meditative practice on stress reduction. With this work, she hopes to better understand the magnitude and temporal response to meditation, offering insight into the immediate benefits of meditation practice. She also plans to investigate the physiological response to non-pharmacological pain reduction.

– Tonya Becerra