Ryan Black Successfully Defends Dissertation

Ryan Black has successfully defended his doctoral dissertation titled “Computational Fluid-Structure Interaction Modeling of the Cardiovascular System” under the mentorship of Assistant Professor George I. Park. His research aims to advance patient-specific computational modeling in cardiovascular clinical research, potentially improving disease study, medical device design, predictive surgery, and clinical decision-making. The research addresses challenges in creating accurate, robust, and efficient cardiovascular simulation tools, considering complex pulsatile hemodynamics and deformable structures like vessel walls and heart valves.

“My PhD journey at MEAM and Penn has been a rewarding experience,” comments Black. “Allowing me to work at the intersection of engineering and medicine. I have greatly benefited from my interactions with engineers and clinicians, being able to hear different insights and perspectives on the problems we were working on.”

Black will be continuing his research as a postdoc in the Jolley Lab at the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania.