Bioengineer pioneer Leslie Geddes never stopped solving medical problems or helping students succeed.

That is what colleagues and former students said while reflecting on the Purdue University professor who died Sunday in West Lafayette at age 88.

“He was incredibly curious and driven to test out ideas that he had to solve special medical problems,” said George Wodicka, head of Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. “He just loved getting into the medical laboratory with his students and figuring what would work out.”

Of the more than 30 patents Geddes created, his innovations ranged from burn treatments to miniature defibrillators and ligament repair to tiny blood pressure monitors for premature infants. A regenerative tissue graft made from a layer of pig intestines was another.

In January, at age 87, he was named the first recipient of Indiana’s Dr. Phillip E. Nelson Innovation Award, created by Gov. Mitch Daniels to recognize outstanding Hoosier scientists.

“He’s had such a long string of accomplishments,” Daniels said at the time. “As I’ve said before, the great scientist, the great inventor always does so much for the good of humankind.” The Nelson Innovation Award is named for Dr. Phillip E. Nelson, a Purdue scientist honored with the 2007 World Food Prize for his achievements in the field of food processing.

“Dr. Geddes has impacted any patient who has encountered sudden death,” said John DeFord, a student mentored by Geddes as an undergraduate through finishing his doctorate at Purdue in 1990. “He was a pioneer in that space of internal and external defibrillators.”

Even though Geddes, the Showalter Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biomedical Engineering, retired in 1991 after 17 years at Purdue, he continued teaching classes, thinking up new ideas and mentoring students.

In 2004 at 82, Geddes told the Journal&Courier he had no plans of hanging up his research coat.

“I wouldn’t know what else to do,” he said. “I’m not done yet.”

Geddes was still teaching Thursday at the Purdue campus.

“Everything Leslie Geddes did was focused on helping students,” said DeFord, senior vice president for science, technology and clinical affairs at C. R. Bard Inc., a medical device company. Previously, he was president and CEO of Cook Inc.

“I don’t know how you put into words the impact that Leslie Geddes had,” DeFord said. “He had as much impact on me as my father did.”

According to Purdue, Geddes was recruited in 1974 to help the university develop an organized biomedical engineering research center and create new technologies in the field.

Geddess’ research and teaching laid the foundation for creation of a department of biomedical engineering in 1998.

In 2004, Geddes received Purdue’s Outstanding Commercialization Award to recognize his 30 patents, many now licensed by Indiana companies. Indiana-based companies that have licensed and commercialized Geddes’ inventions include Eli Lilly and Co., Cook Biotech Inc., and Hillenbrand Industries. Those patents and technologies have generated more than $15 million in royalties for Purdue.

Leah H. Jamieson, the John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering, credited Geddes’ work with Indiana’s emergence as a leader in biomedical industries.

Geddess also was awarded the nation’s highest honor for technological innovation, the 2006 National Medal of Technology by President George W. Bush.

Wodicka attributed Geddes accomplishments to his focus of solving problems and helping people.

“Did it solve the clinical need, and could he work with it to make sure it was translated into clinical medicine?” he said. “That was what he wanted to do.”