Faculty and student news roundup

December 2019

Faculty

Pat Alford—Received an NSF award titled, "Mechanics of Trauma-Induced Tauopathy."

Matt Johnson—Appointed Associate Director of the Earl E. Bakken Medical Devices Center and successfully renewed his R01 titled, "Algorithms for programming DBS systems for Essential Tremor" from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).

Dave Odde—Elected as Fellow of the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE).

Brenda Ogle—Appointed Director of the Stem Cell Institute.

Alex Opitz—Received two major awards: A NINDS R01 titled, "Investigating the molecular, cellular and circuit effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation" and an RF1 from the National Institute of Mental Health titled, "An open software solution to integrate non-invasive brain stimulation with functional imaging data."

Jonathan Sachs—Awarded an R35/MIRA titled, "Understanding the structural dynamics of TNF receptors" from NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences. 

Casim Sarkar—Co-authored Quantitative Fundamentals of Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering, a new textbook to be published by the MIT Press in January.

Alena Talkachova—Appointed Director of Graduate Studies.

Bob Tranquillo—Awarded a T32 from the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, titled, "Multidisciplinary training in cardiovascular engineering."

Zhi Yang—Promoted to Associate Professor and received an NSF award titled, "CAREER: Peripheral nerve recording, analysis and modulation for neural communication and control" and a NINDS R21 titled, "Evaluating and understanding the effects of deep brain stimulation using novel electrophysiology technique and device in Parkinson's disease."

Department-wide

Awarded Creating Inclusive Cohorts (CIC) Training grant to provide fellowship offers to six eligible doctoral students.

Students

NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Annie Brinda (Matt Johnson)

Sophie Givens (Brenda Ogle)

Katie Hornberger (Allison Hubel)

Chia-Ling “Jennifer” Kang (Casim Sarkar)

NIH Predoctoral Fellowship

Casey Chitwood (Brenda Ogle)

UMN Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships

Emily Bermel (Victor Barocas)

Nick Braun (Patrick Alford)

Other fellowships and awards

Mackenzie Callaway: UMN President's Student Leadership and Service Award

Graduate Women in Biomedical Engineering student group: UMN’s Tony Diggs Excellence Award for Outstanding Graduate or Professional Student Group