Rebecca M. Bergman

Award of Distinction Recipient

College of Science and Engineering, November 6, 2014

Rebecca M. Bergman, role model for women engineers, completed graduate studies in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Minnesota in 1979 after graduating from Princeton. Before she completed her University of Minnesota degree, Bergman accepted a full-time job at Medtronic in 1987, where she had a distinguished career as an engineer and leader in the medical device industry. She recently retired as vice president, Research, Technology and Therapy Delivery Stems for the Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management business (CRDM) to become president of Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota, starting July 2014. Bergman is a co-inventor on six issued U.S. Patents, a Medtronic Technical Fellow, a member of the Bakken Society, and a recipient of the Wallin Leadership Award. She was elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering (AIMBE) in 2001, and she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2010. Bergman serves on numerous boards and academic advisory boards including, the Board of Directors of Sigma-Aldrich, The Bakken Museum, and the Board of Trustees for Gustavus Adolphus College. She has also served on the National Advisory Council of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) of the NIH. Bergman has been an advocate of biomedical engineering programs at the University of Minnesota. She has also provided invaluable advising in her role as an industrial representative to the Industrial Partnership for Research in Interfacial and Materials Engineering (IPRIME), and in her role as a member of the industrial advisory boards to the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Institute for Engineering in Medicine.

Biographies are as-of time of award presentation.