J. David Hellums Academic Papers

J. (Jesse) David Hellums was born on August 19, 1929 in Stamford, Texas and grew up in Rotan, Texas. He earned his B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1960. He worked as a process engineer for Mobil Oil in Beaumont, Texas and served as a lieutenant in the United States Air Force from 1954-1956. He joined the faculty of Rice University as an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering in 1960. He became Associate Professor in 1965, Full Professor and Director of the Biomedical Engineering Laboratory in 1968, and then Chairman of the Department in 1969. He retired from Rice in 1998.

Hellums was one of the pioneers and founders of the Bioengineering Department at Rice in 1964. He had adjunct faculty appointments in the Departments of Medicine at both the Baylor and University of Texas Medical Schools. He served as an advisor to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and was the first engineer to receive the NIH Research Merit Award in 1986. In 1998 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

He married Marilyn Biel Hellums in 1957 and had three children: Mark William, Jay David, and Robert James Hellums. Dr. Hellums died on June 26, 2016.