Category: Uncategorized

Congratulations to Laryssa Abdala for successfully completing her PhD in Spring 2025.

Laryssa’s thesis is entitled, Electro-Fluid-Mechanical Computational Models of the Human Heart.

Good luck, Laryssa!

Congratulations to Kirsten Giesbrecht and Ed Terrell for successfully completing their PhDs in Fall 2024.

Kirsten’s thesis is on Elucidating Mechanosensitive Pathways in Cardiogenesis Through Combined Experimental and Numerical Approaches.

Ed’s thesis is entitled, An Efficient and Accurate Integrator for Nearly- and Fully-Incompressible Nonlinear Elastodynamics.

Good luck, Kirsten and Ed!

Congratulations to Marshall Davey for successfully completing his PhD.

Marshall’s thesis is entitled, Construction of a Four-Chambered, Fluid-Structure Interaction Model of the Heart with Validation Studies of Physiologic Left Heart Performance. Marshall will be staying on in the group as a postdoctoral research associate to continue leading our cardiac fluid-structure interaction modeling efforts.

Congratulations, Marshall!

Congratulations to Jordan Brown and Keon Kim for successfully completing their PhDs.

Jordan’s thesis is on Modeling Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement in Patient-Specific Anatomies: Fluid-Structure Interaction Models Using the Immersed Finite Element-Difference Method. Jordan will be starting a position as a (tenure-track!) Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Belmont University.

Keon’s thesis is entitled, Immersed Peridynamics Method. Keon will be a Peter O’Donnell Jr. Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin’s Oden Institute.

Good luck, Jordan and Keon!

Congratulations to Robert Hunt for successfully completing his PhD.

Robert’s thesis is entitled, Part I: Diffusion-Induced Flows and Particulate Aggregation. Part II: Experiments and Modeling of Replacement Aortic Valves. Part III: Enhanced Diffusion in Wall-driven Shear Flows. Robert is off to a postdoctoral position at Brown University’s School of Engineering.

Good luck, Robert!

Jordan Brown has been selected to be the Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Mathematics for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Congratulations, Jordan!!

Congratulations to Ben Vadala-Roth for successfully completing his PhD.

Ben’s thesis is on Stabilization of the Hybrid Immersed Boundary Method. Ben is off to a postdoctoral position at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center.

Good luck, Ben!

Congratulations to Fuhui Fang and Mike Lee for successfully completing their PhDs.

Fuhui’s thesis is on Numerical Advances for Fluid-Structure Interactions in Entangled Polymer Solutions with Applications to Active Microbead Rheology. Fuhui will be starting a position at Microsoft in the Fall.

Mike’s thesis is on Simulating In Vitro Models of Cardiovascular Fluid-Structure Interaction: Methods, Models, and Applications. Mike is off to a postdoctoral position at Johns Hopkins in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Institute for Computational Medicine.

Good luck, Fuhui and Mike!

Congratulations to Yanni Lai for successfully completing her PhD. Yanni’s thesis was on Multigrid Methods for the Bidomain Equations. Yanni has already started a position at Amazon in Seattle. Good luck, Yanni!

Congratulations to Ben Vadala-Roth, who successfully completed his oral qualifying exam on stabilization methods that improve the accuracy of nonlinear solid mechanics formulations used in the immersed finite element method and their application to modeling bicuspid aortic valves!