Spring 2012 Graduate Newsletter

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Alumni Profile: Charley Della Santina - Restoring the World’s Balance

We caught up with Charley Della Santina (Ph.D. 1994), Professor of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery and Biomedical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. A Bay Area native, Della Santina received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from UC Davis before returning for a joint Ph.D. in Bioengineering and an M.D. from UCSF in 1997.

Della Santina talked to us about vestibular prostheses, his path to professorship, and his advice for graduate students.

“I often tell students to consider the opportunity costs of going to grad school, in terms of the years you would have spent out working and earning a living. If you pay $85 for a lift ticket at a ski resort, you’re going to ski as many runs as you can that day to get your money’s worth. Every day in school is a worthwhile but expensive investment: get the most out of it every day. Actively seek out opportunities to learn new techniques and to assume greater independence.”
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Student Profile: Mozzi Etemadi

BioE graduate student Mozziyar Etemadi was honored in this year’s Forbes Magazine “30 Under 30″ list. We had a chat about collaboration, the blending of medicine and technology, cooking, and Northern California’s laid-back vibe.

What year are you, and what are you researching for your Ph.D.?
I’m a third year in the M.D./Ph.D. program, meaning I did 2 years of med school at UCSF and am now in the 1st year of Ph.D.

I grew up in the Chicago area and was always fascinated with computers and technology. When I was about ten years old I did some work on the side designing websites for local businesses. For the longest time thought I would work in software development, until I went to Stanford as an undergraduate and discovered the joys of building medical devices. I came here because the fantastic environment combining top-notch physicians and engineers creates a “perfect storm” for innovating medical device solutions quickly and effectively.
 
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Berkeley will host the 13th annual UC Systemwide Bioengineering Symposium, June 21-23, 2012. This three-day conference promotes networking and collaboration between bioengineers from the entire UC system, distinguished speakers, and industry representatives. 
Alumni are welcome! Learn more at http://bioeng.berkeley.edu/2012systemwide.

D-Vice Squad Innovates for Children’s Health

UCSF’s Pediatric Device Consortium received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November to expand their groundbreaking work on children’s health.

The consortium brings together a diverse group of engineers, scientists, clinicians and other professionals to innovate new and improved medical devices for children, a field that usually lags ten years behind adult device development. Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences Professor Shuvo Roy is one of the founders and directors of the project. Read more >