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David Gau, PhD is a Postdoctoral Associate in the bioengineering department. Dr. Gau earned his BPhil in bioengineering and BS in Mathematics from the Pitt in 2012. After, he was awarded a Whitaker Fellowship and Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship to study and work in Australia for a year before returning and completing his PhD in bioengineering at Pitt in 2018. His pre-doctoral research focused on screening and developing novel agents to target aberrant and excessive angiogenesis, or blood vessel formation, was supported by NSF GRFP, Cardiovascular Bioengineering Training Program, and the Provost Development Fund. He continued his work in the Cell Migration Lab at the University of Pittsburgh after defending his thesis on novel compounds that inhibit excessive blood vessel formation. David has published 7 first author publications and has presented his work at local, national, and international conferences. In his spare time, Dr. Gau serves as the University of Pittsburgh Postdoctoral Association President. He is also the Director for University Engagement for the Pitt STRIVE Program at the Swanson School of Engineering, a program which supports underrepresented minority graduate engineering students.

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Deanna C.E.Sinex is a Bioengineering Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pittsburgh. She earned her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her research involves the development and application of engineering concepts and active learning techniques in clinical and institutional learning environments to help improve the literacy of fundamental, yet critical aspects of health.

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Dr. Mary Besterfield-Sacre is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Nickolas A. DeCecco Professor in Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the Founding Director for the Engineering Education Research Center (EERC) in the Swanson School of Engineering, and serves as a Center Associate for the Learning Research and Development Center. Her principal research is in engineering education assessment, which has been funded by the NSF, Department of Ed, Sloan, EIF, and NCIIA. Dr. Sacre’s current research focuses on three distinct but highly correlated areas – innovative design and entrepreneurship, engineering modeling, and global competency in engineering.

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Dr. Abramowitch’s is an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering in the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the director of the Translational Biomechanics Laboratory where his research applies approaches from mechanical testing, image analysis, mathematical and computational modeling, and device design to solve problems related to female pelvic health. He has secured funding from the NIH, DOD, NSF, and other sources to support these efforts. He is also co-director of 2 NSF sponsored programs focused on the success of underrepresented minorities and a national award winner (BMES 2019) for his work in diversity and inclusion.

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Sylvanus Wosu is the Associate Dean for Diversity Affairs and Associate Professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at the University of Pittsburgh. Wosu's research interests are in the areas of impact physics and engineering of new composite materials, dynamic problems in composites failure, and energy containment and responses of dynamical systems. Wosu is also interested in engineering education with particular interests in development models for effective recruitment, retention, and mentoring of women and under-represented students. Other research interests include experimental investigation of the dynamic failures and crack propagation of cylindrical composite storage tank with particular interests in the development of hydrogen storage tanks, failure behaviors of hydrogen-diffused porous composite materials, and the containment of the associated hydrogen embrittlement. Wosu established an integrative dynamic impact and high speed imaging system at the University of Pittsburgh Department of Mechanical Engineering that is capable of simulating low and high strain rate penetration loading and capturing the dynamic event at two million frames per second. Special sample fixtures he developed are used to study perforation impact and single and multi-mode fracture tests and general characterization of materials failure. His other research interests include experimental nuclear medical physics, laser-based medical physics research in cerebral metabolic pathways of oxygen, petro physics, and petroleum fluid characterization of reservoirs.

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