Bio
Dr. Sharan Ramaswamy earned a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering (BME) from the University of Iowa in 2003. Following a post-doctoral fellowship at the NIH and a research faculty position at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Ramaswamy joined the BME department at Florida International University (FIU) in December 2009 as an Assistant Professor. He is currently a tenured Associate Professor at FIU. His research expertise is in the areas of Cardiovascular Mechanobiology, Regenerative Medicine and Mechanics. He directs the Cardiovascular Therapeutics Laboratory’s (CV-PEUTICS Lab). at FIU. He has numerous scientific articles published in his discipline in leading journals, proceedings, and book chapters. His work has been funded by the American Heart Association (AHA), the Florida Heart Research Foundation, the National Science Foundation (NSF), private industry and academia. He is a Fellow of the AHA and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Dr. Ramaswamy holds a patent in bioreactors for cardiovascular regenerative medicine, and a patent in materials and methods for accelerating cardiovascular tissue regeneration. He is a research advisor to several graduate and undergraduate students in the BME department at FIU.

Bio
Ngan F. Huang is Associate Professor in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Courtesy Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. She holds a co-terminus appointment as Principal Investigator at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. Dr. Huang completed her BSc in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by a PhD in bioengineering from the University of California Berkeley & University of California San Francisco Joint Program in Bioengineering. Prior to joining the faculty, she was a postdoctoral scholar in Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University. Her laboratory investigates the interactions between stem cells and extracellular matrix microenvironment for engineering tissues to treat cardiovascular and musculoskeletal diseases. Dr. Huang has authored over 90 publications and patents in journals like Nat Med, PNAS, and Nano Lett.

Bio
Dr. Jun Liao received his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation/Cleveland State University. After his postdoctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Liao has focused his research on tissue biomechanics and bioengineering, which cover cardiac bioengineering, heart valve biomechanics, tissue regeneration, and computational simulations. His research is to better understand the role of biomechanics in maintaining optimal cardiovascular tissue performance in physiological conditions as well as biomechanical abnormalities in diseased/injured states. His ultimate goal is to be able to apply the gained bioengineering knowledge to better design tissue replacements and medical interventions. Dr. Liao is a leading researcher in tissue biomechanics and bioengineering field. His productivity and contributions are evidenced by 106 peer-reviewed journal publications, 175 conference presentations/posters, 9 book chapters, and two books entitled: “Advances in Heart Valve Biomechanics” and “Advances in Biological Tissue Mechanics.” His research publications generated a cumulative citation of 4,451, an h-index of 40, and an i10-h index of 72. He was also granted three US patents. He has served as PI for AHA Grant-in-Aid and Beginning Grant-in-Aid Awards, PI for NIH R01 and R15 grants, Co-I for NIH R01, R21, R15, and T32 grants, and Co-PI for Department of Defense, Department of Energy, NSF, and NASA grants. Due to his excellent contribution to tissue biomechanics and bioengineering research, mentoring, and service, Dr. Liao was elected as a Fellow of the American Heart Association in 2014 and a Fellow of the American Society for Mechanical Engineers in 2020.