Puleo joined UK in 1991 after receiving his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He became director of the Center for Biomedical Engineering (now the F. Joseph Halcomb III, M.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering) in 2005 and associate dean for research and graduate studies in 2015. Puleo was named Dean of the University of Mississippi School of Engineering. He began his duties on August 27, 2018.
An internationally recognized authority in biomaterials and biomedical engineering, Puleo is a Fellow of the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering, the Biomedical Engineering Society and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He received UK’s Excellence in Teaching for Biomedical Engineering in 2011, 2013 and 2015 and the College of Engineering Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research in 2013.