Dissertations & Theses
Dissertations
Silvia Enders-Wognum (7/2010)
Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow, Academic Medical Center, Department of Radiotherapy, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
A multi-phase structural constitutive model for insights into soft tissue remodeling mechanisms
Erinn M. Joyce (7/2009)
Current position: Post-Doctoral Fellow, Cardiovascular Biomechanics Laboratory, Department of Bioengineering
Micromechanical Mechanisms of Fetal Membrane Failure
David E. Schmidt (4/2009)
CMU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Current position: Visiting Research Assistant Professor, Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh
Dissertation title: “Multi-Scale Biomechanical Modeling of Heart Valve Tissues.”
Rebecca Long (8/2008)
Dissertation title: "Strain Induced Remodeling of Urinary Bladder Smooth Muscle"
Current position: Post doctoral fellow, National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences.
W. David Merryman (8/2007)
Current position: Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University.
Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham (2007-2009)
Dissertation title: “Mechanobiology of the aortic valve interstitial cell”
George Engelmayr (11/2005)
Current Position: Assistant of Professor, Department of Bioengineeirng, The Pennyslvania State University
Dissertation title: “Optimizing engineered heart valve tissue extracellular matrix”
Hsiao-Ying Shadow Huang (1/2004)
Dissertation title: "Micromechanical simulations of heart valve tissues"
Currently: Postdoctoral Associate, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT
Wei Sun (10/2003)
Dissertation title: "Biomechanical simulations of heart valve biomaterials"
Currently: Assistant Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of Connecticut
Claire Gloeckner (4/2003)
Dissertation title: "Tissue biomechanics of the urinary bladder wall"
Currently: Biomaterials Engineer at CR Bard, Urological Division
David Smith (5/2001)
Dissertation title: "A generalized thin-walled membrane shell approach for in-vivo stress analysis of anatomic structures"
Currently: Senior Research Engineer with the Ethicon Endoscopic Division, Johnson and Johnson, Cinncinati, OH
Kristin L. Billiar (6/1998)
Dissertation title: "A structurally guided constitutive model for aortic valve bioprostheses: Effects of slutaraldehyde treatment and mechanical fatigue"
Currently: Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, WPI.
Previously: Senior Research Engineer at Organogenesis, Inc., Canton, MA (1998-2002)
Theses
Kashayar Toosi (January 2006)
Thesis title: “The effects of long-term spinal cord injury on the urinary bladder wall tissue mechanics”
Jon Grashow (April 2005)
Thesis title: “Evaluation of the biaxial mechanical properties of the mitral valve anterior leaflet under physiological loading conditions”
Thanh Lam (December 2004)
Thesis title: “Mechanical Properties of Native Porcine Aortic and Pulmonary Heart Valve Leaflets”
Daniel Hildebrand (December 2003)
Thesis title: “Design and evaluation of a novel pulsatile bioreactor for biologically active heart valves”
Brent Sugimoto (April 2003)
Thesis title: “Effects of leaflet stiffness on the dynamic motion of the aortic heart valve”
Tiffany Sellaro (April 2003)
Thesis title: “Effects of collagen orientation on the medium-term fatigue response of heart valve biomaterial”
Greg Fulchiero (Professional track with project, 2002)
Project title: “Alterations in collagen fiber crimp morphology with cyclic loading in zero and low pressure fixed porcine bioprosthetic heart valves”
Claire Gloeckner (1998)
Thesis title: “Mechanical and structural analyses of an acellular collageneous biomaterial: Intestinal submucosa”
David Smith (1997)
Thesis title: “The effects of in-vitro accelerated testing on the porcine bioprosthetic heart valve”
Rony Abovitz (1996)
Thesis title: “Analysis of a proposed endosseous dental implant design: The effect of internal implant geometry on internal and external stress distributions”
Eric Heister (1996)
Thesis title: “Bovine pericardium as a bioprosthetic material: localization of optimal tissue selection sites”
Susan Otano (1995)
Thesis title: “The collagen fiber architecture and mechanical behavior of human cranial dura mater allografts