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Today, we are very excited to announce the appointment of Shayn Peirce-Cottler, PhD, as the new chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering effective September 15, 2022. As both a graduate of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and a faculty member for the past 18 years, Professor Peirce-Cottler has a deep appreciation for the talented, accomplished team within the department, and we look forward to the ways in which she will build upon the department’s 55 years of innovation.

Because she is well-known to many of us, we risk being redundant by highlighting the background and accomplishments of our esteemed colleague. As a nationally acclaimed scientist, her research focuses on tiny blood vessels that are one-tenth the diameter of a human hair. Her lab studies ways to grow and regenerate damaged and diseased tissues by adjusting the structure of these vessels, to improve wound healing and develop new and better treatments for conditions that range from heart disease and cancer to diabetes. Professor Peirce-Cottler has co-authored more than 120 scientific papers and holds two patents. Her research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Defense, among others.

Professor Peirce-Cottler has held leadership positions both locally and nationally and her efforts have been widely recognized. At UVA, she serves as the BME graduate program director and has also taught courses on engineering and design, entrepreneurship, computational systems modeling, and cell and molecular biology to undergraduate students, graduate students, and medical school students. Her efforts with teaching and education were recognized when she became a Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professor at the School of Medicine in 2021. Nationally, she has served as president of The Microcirculatory Society, and she is a past recipient of MIT Technology Review’s “TR100 Young Innovator Award” and the National Biomedical Engineering Society’s “Rita Schaffer Young Investigator Award.”  

At this time, we would also like to thank Frederick H. Epstein, PhD, who has served as chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering – a joint program of UVA’s School of Medicine and School of Engineering and Applied Science – since 2011. Epstein was named the School of Engineering’s associate dean for research earlier this year.

Please join us in congratulating Professor Peirce-Cottler on her new appointment.

Sincerely,

Melina R. Kibbe, MD
Dean, UVA School of Medicine
James Carroll Flippin Professor of Medical Science
Chief Health Affairs Officer, UVA Health

Jennifer L. West, PhD, NAE
Dean, Engineering and Applied Science
Nancy and Neal Wade Professor of Engineering and Applied Science
Professor, Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering