Announcements

Ryan Gilbert will receive $1.5M from NIH for his grant "Enhanced Neuroprotection Following Acute SCI Using Fibrous Materials" will be funded. The grant will allow the Gilbert group to explore the mechanisms by which electrospun fibers change astrocyte and neuron responses in vitro. Subsequently, they aim to translate these materials within animal models of spinal cord injury in consultation with neuroscientists at Ohio State.

The Graduation dinner was held at the Troy Country Club on May 29, 2015 to celebrate the achievements of the students graduating this year. A total of 68 students graduated with a BS, 16 with a Masters, and 8 PhDs were awarded. The number of students receiving each of these degrees are at or near record values, reflecting the popularity of the program. In addition to honoring the graduating students, several award recipients were also announced at the dinner: The Paul B. Daitch Memorial Award: Alexandra Rindone The Zelda & David G.

Dr. Guohao Dai, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, has been selected to receive the James M. Tien ’66 Early Career Award for Faculty, which honors productivity in both teaching and research. The award will be presented at the 52nd annual Faculty Recognition Dinner, held May 5 at the Heffner Alumni House.

Dr. Leo Wan has been selected as a recipient of the 2015 School of Engineering Research Excellence Award. The SoE awardees will be celebrated at the Faculty Achievement Recognition Dinner on 05/12/2015.

One of our undergraduate students, Alexandra Rindone, has been awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Alexandra is set to graduate this May and is planning to attend Johns Hopkins University for graduate school.

On March 10th, Dr. Samuel Sia from Columbia University gave the 2015 Undergraduate Seminar in Global Health. His talk, titled "Microfluidics for Personal Mobile Diagnostics" can be seen here: http://mediasite.mms.rpi.edu/Mediasite5/Play/3a14909e4cc7444182d0f15b33… The abstract of his talk is shown below: Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices have a tremendous potential for revolutionizing personal health.

Eric Ledet has been named the 2015 recipient of the very prestigious “ISSLS Prize”. This is an international annual award, which is largely considered to be the highest recognition a researcher can receive in the field of spine. It is awarded by a selection committee from the journal SPINE and the International Society for Study of the Lumbar Spine. More detail about the ISSLS Prize can be found on their web site: http://www.issls.org/fellowship-awards/the-issls-prize-for-lumbar-spine…

Five faculty members of the Biomedical Engineering Department were honored at the 2014 Trustee Celebration.