Post-Doctoral Fellows

Jun Liao (2005)

• Awarded a 2 year $100,000 Beginning Grant-in-Aid from the AHA, PA-Delaware Affiliate to study the effects of decellurization on native aortic valve extra-cellular matrix.
• Assistant professor, Mississippi State.

Jiro Nagatomi (2003)

• Awarded a 2 year $150,000 grant from the Spinal Cord Research Foundation to study the effects of spinal cord injury on the urinary bladder wall.
• Assistant professor, Department of Bioengineering, Clemson University, SC.

Sarah M. Wells (2000)

• NSERC fellow.
• Assistant professor, Department of Physics (Materials) and Biomedical Engineering, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia.

Arun K.S. Iyengar (1998)

• Awarded a 2 year $100,000 Beginning Grant-in-Aid from the AHA, PA-Delaware Affiliate to study the bioprosthetic dynamic heart valve motion.

Ph.D. Students

Chad Eckert

• BiRM T32 Trainee.
• NSF EAPSI Award to study in New Zealand, 2008.

Diana Gaitan

• Fullbright Fellow.

Erinn Joyce

• University of Pittsburgh's Provost's Development Fund Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, 2008.

Silvia Wognum

• Fullbright Fellow.
• 2nd place award, student competition at the 43rd Annual Technology Meeting, Society of Engineering Science, August, 2006.

John Stella

• Cardiovascular Bioengineering Training Program Trainee.
• Presented one of top 10 abstracts at the Society of Heart Valve Disease 4th biennial meeting, New York, June 2007.

Rebecca Long

• Recipient of an ORAU fellowship to attend a meeting of the Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany, July, 2005.
• CATER T32 trainee.
• Selected to attend the Second Annual NIH National Graduate Student Research Festival, October 2007, on the NIH main campus, Bethesda, MD.
• Finalist, Student Paper Competition (Ph.D. level) at  the 2007 ASME Annual Conference.
• Awarded McGowan Trainee Career Advancement Program Travel Award to attend the Society of Biomaterials Meeting in Chicago, IL, April 18-21, 2007.
• Awarded one of five Graduate Research Awards for travel to the 2008 annual fall BMES meeting in Los Angeles, CA.

David Merryman

• 3rd place award, Student Paper Competition at the Ph.D. Level, 2006 ASME Annual Conference.
• Recipient of "TA of the Year" award, Department of Bioengineering, spring 2007.
• AHA Pennsylvania-Delaware Predoctoral Fellowship entitled “Effects of local stress on aortic valve interstitial cell phenotype and resulting synthetic function,” July 1, 2005 – June 30, 2007.

George Engelmayr

• AHA Pennsylvania-Delaware Predoctoral Fellowship Awardee.
• NRSA Post-doctoral awardee.
• PhD Paper Award Finalist at the ASME Summer Bioengineering Conference in Vail, Colorado (2005).
• ISACB Young Investigator's Award for 2006 ISACB meeting in La Jolla, CA.

M.S. Students

Thanh Lam

• Outstanding TA/TF for academic year 2002-2003.