Joseph M. Wallace

Associate Vice President for Research Development For Indianapolis

Joseph M. Wallace is associate vice president for research development, overseeing the short-term portfolio and long-term vision for research for the Indianapolis expansion of Purdue University. He is also the inaugural director of the Purdue Center for Musculoskeletal Engineering and a professor in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering.

Wallace earned his Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology before earning a Master of Science and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He stayed at Michigan as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemistry, building the first rung on his federal funding ladder when awarded an NIH F32 individual postdoctoral fellowship in 2008. He joined the faculty ranks at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in 2010 and has held an adjunct faculty position in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine since that time. He is also a research health scientist for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. His path in university administration began in 2020 when he took on the role of chair for the IUPUI Biomedical Engineering Department, a position he held until his transition to Purdue University in July 2024. During the year prior to that transition, he simultaneously served as the acting dean of the IUPUI School of Engineering and Technology.

In addition to his administrative roles, Wallace is an active musculoskeletal researcher, with a focus on bone mechanics (ability to bear loads) and mechanobiology (how cells respond to mechanical stimulus). He has authored over 130 peer-reviewed journal articles or reviews and 5 books or book chapters. He is currently principal investigator on four federal grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and co-Investigator on five additional federal grants established through strong collaborations with the Indiana University School of Medicine and other national and international universities. These 9 grants total over $24M (with $4M in total budget allocated to the Wallace lab).