In Memoriam: Banu Onaral, 1949-2024

Banu Onaral, the H.H. Sun Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia, passed away on December 17. She was 75 years old.

Dr. Onaral joined the Drexel University faculty in 1981 and remained there for the next 43 years. As an engineer, her work focused on complex systems, biomedical signal processing, functional optical brain imaging, and healthcare technology. In 1997, she founded Drexel’s School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, and Health Systems and served as its inaugural director until 2014. Later on in her tenure, she served as a senior presidential advisor for global innovation partnerships.

Throughout her career with Drexel University, Dr. Onaral was instrumental in the creation of several laboratories and interdisciplinary research partnerships. She established the CONQUER (Cognitive Neuroengineering and Quantitative Experimental Research) CollabOrative, an initiative aimed at advancing the use of functional optical brain imaging in healthcare, cognitive performance, and human-system integration. She also helped develop the Coulter-Drexel Translational Research Partnership Endowment, as well as several international collaborations in China, Israel, Italy, Spain, and Türkiye.

Dr. Onaral’s experitse in biomedical engineering led to memberships with several professional organizations. She was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a founding fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and a fellow of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, where she also had a stint as president.

A native of Istanbul, Türkiye, Dr. Onaral received her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in electrical engineering from Boğaziçi University. She earned her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.