What I Do My job as a professor consists of a variety of different activities that relate to research, teaching and service. My research focuses on the biomechanics and mechanobiology of bone, the material that makes up your skeleton. Much of the day-to-day research is performed by graduate and undergraduate students who work with me. I have taught both required mechanical engineering classes and biomechanics electives. My service activities include participating in committees at Cornell and in my professional community particularlh the Orthopaedic Research Society.
Why Engineering? My dad really steered me towards engineering as a career, after being more interested in biology initially. Then I discovered the two fields could be combined during high school when I saw a 60 Minutes segment on helping paraplegics regain walking skills. I started college at MIT as a mechanical engineer interested in biomedical problems and that continues to today.
School Days My SB (Science Bachelor) is from MIT, and then I moved to the West coast and received my MS and PhD from Stanford, all in mechanical engineering.
My Day At Work As a professor, my work involves both experimental and analytical work in orthopaedic biomechanics. Some of our experiments involve breaking bones to understand how strong they are and the factors that contribute to bone strength. This type of work is very similar to testing of conventional materials. We don't have nondestructive ways to measure bone strength and therefore directly measure the strength and stiffness of bones in the lab. The analyses often involve models that allow us to vary characteristics that can't easily be examined in the lab. The model predictions feed into our experiments, and then the data we measure contributes back to model development and validation. We also work on preclinical studies, to address questions that cannot be answered or are too early to address in the clinic. More recently, I spent 10 years as a department chair and am now an associate vice provost for research. In these administrative positions, I have been teaching less and continue to do research while spending more time on tasks that keep the department and/or institution running.
Best Part Lots of things! Solving problems, doing hands-on work, making things, especially when I’ve designed them myself and they work as planned. The teamwork and collaboration with others also make the work fun.
Inspiration My family very much influenced my choices. My parents moved to the US from the Netherlands when I was very young. We were a strong nuclear family because all my relatives were in Europe. In addition to my immediate family, my grandfather was a supportive influence. He was the director of the Dutch National Weather Service (KNMI) and had a physics background. He always encouraged me whenever I visited him in the Netherlands.
Want to be an Engineer? Engineering is a great career, particularly in this technology-based day and age. Keep taking math classes! Undergraduates graduating with engineering degrees have amazing opportunities, including many industries other than engineering. We teach how to solve complex problems, which can be applied to many different problems.
Hobbies Travel is a big part of my personal and professional life. These days I have less time for some of my former creative hobbies, but photography meshes well with my love of travel. I also enjoy outdoor activities, such as hiking, golf and snowshoeing, for which Ithaca is a great setting. And, I love art, especially Matisse and Calder. Calder was trained as a mechanical engineer.
Proud Moments As department chair, I am proud of the successful faculty who joined us and have helped to make Cornell Biomedical Engineering successful. As a researcher the students who worked in my lab have gone on to be successful in many different positions. Having a "people" legacy is one of the most inspiring aspects of being a professor. I love seeing where former students from classes, research and leadership have gone and the contributions they make.