



Prof. Savio L-Y. Woo
Dr. Savio L-Y. Woo is a Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Bioengineering. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (1991) (formerly the Institute of Medicine), the National Academy of Engineering (1994), and the Academia Sinica (1996), only one of four persons who have gained all three of these honors.
After spending 20 years at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) as a Professor of Surgery and Bioengineering, Dr. Woo arrived at the University of Pittsburgh in 1990, where he was the Founder and Director of the world-renowned Musculoskeletal Research Center (MSRC), a diverse multidisciplinary research and educational center in the Departments of Orthopaedic Surgery and Bioengineering, Swanson School of Engineering.
Dr. Woo received his B.S. degree from Chico State College (1965), and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees (1966, 1971) from the University of Washington. In 1999, Dr. Woo was bestowed an honorary Doctor of Science Degree from the Board of Trustees of the California State University System; and in 2008, an honorary Doctor of Engineering Degree from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Dr. Woo is a pioneer in bioengineering and is renowned for his 50 years of translational research in healing and repair of tissues. Together with his team, they have authored 310 original research papers, 157 book chapters and review articles. Dr. Woo has also edited 12 books. Their work has had a significant impact on the management of ligament and tendon injuries including clinical paradigm shifts that have led to improved patient outcome.
More recently, Dr. Woo’s research focused on two areas: 1) measurement of the forces in the ligament and tendon and their contribution to joint function using robotics technology and 2) using functional tissue engineering (FTE) approach to regenerate ligaments and tendons. Dr. Woo’s team has explored the use of biodegradable magnesium (Mg) and Mg alloys for ligament regeneration. With their pioneering work on the use of robotic technology together with biplanar fluoroscopy, the in-vivo function of the ACL is better characterized and mechanisms of ACL injury can be better understood. Further, improved ways for ACL reconstruction are elucidated and quantitatively based scientific methods for injury prevention could be developed.
Dr. Woo has educated over 500 orthopaedic surgeons, post-doctoral fellows and students from the U.S., Japan, Germany, Greece, Italy, Taiwan, Turkey, Korea, Canada, England, Norway, India, Thailand, Hong Kong SAR, and China. He has also successfully mentored 37 junior faculty members.
Dr. Woo has been a leader in Bioengineering and Orthopaedics. He has served as Chair of ASME’s Bioengineering Division, United States National Committee of Biomechanics, and the World Council for Biomechanics as well as President for the Orthopaedic Research Society, American Society of Biomechanics, and International Society for Fracture Repair. He has also founded the International Symposium on Ligaments and Tendons (ISL&T) and World Association for Chinese Biomedical Engineers (WACBE).
He has received the highest honors from many professional societies, including the Kappa Delta Award (AAOS/ORS), the Herbert R. Lissner Medal (ASME), the O’Donoghue Sports Injury Research Award (AOSSM), the Giovanni Borelli Award (ASB), the Muybridge Medal (ISB), and the prestigious Diamond Award for Distinguish Achievement from the University of Washington, among others. He was also given the IEEE Gold Medal for Innovation in Healthcare Technology from the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers. In 1998, Dr. Woo received the Olympic Prize for Sports Science from the International Olympic Committee and the first Olympic Gold Medal at the Nagano Games in Japan.
The International Symposium on Ligaments and Tendons (ISL&T) honors him with the Savio L-Y. Woo Young Researcher Award; the World Association for Chinese Biomedical Engineers (WACBE) honors him with the Savio L-Y. Woo Distinguished Lectureship; and the American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME) honors him with the establishment of the Savio L-Y. Woo Translational Biomechanics Medal.
Prof. Shu Q. Liu
Dr. Shu Q. Liu received PhD in Bioengineering from the University of California at San Diego, CA and is Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. Dr. Liu is interested in cardiovascular protective and regenerative engineering in education and research, focusing on mechanical regulation of vascular regeneration, engineering modulation of vascular cell formation and function, and systems protective mechanisms and engineering against ischemic myocardial and neural injuries.


Dr. Stephanie I. Fraley is an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at the University of California San Diego. She earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering in 2006 from The University of Tennessee Chattanooga and her Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in 2011 from The Johns Hopkins University, where she contributed new understanding to the role of substrate dimensionality in regulating cell migration. Dr. Fraley then joined the Emergency Medicine department at The Johns Hopkins University as a postdoctoral fellow, where she developed novel approaches to sensitively and quantitatively characterize nucleic acids circulating in the bloodstream. Building on this interdisciplinary experience, her current research takes an integrative approach to develop and apply technologies that can improve our understanding of cancer metastasis. Dr. Fraley is the recipient of a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface for merging clinical and basic research technologies as well as an NSF CAREER award for developing integrative, data-driven approaches to study cell-extracellular matrix interactions underlying migration. She has been named a National Academy of Sciences Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow, Biomedical Engineering Society Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Rising Star, and SAGE Bionetworks Scholar.









Daniela Valdez-Jasso, University of California, San Diego, USA;
Gador Canton, University of Washington, USA;
Guixue Wang, Chongqing University, China;
Jacques Ohayon, University Savoie Mont-Blanc, France;
Jessica Zhang, Carnegie Mellon University, USA;
Ku, David N, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA;
Linhong Deng, Changzhou University, China;
Lizheng Wang, Beihang University, China;
Luis Cardoso, City College of New York, USA;
Lulu Wang, Hefei University of Technology, China;
Michael Sacks, The University of Texas at Austin, USA;
Yingxiao Peter Wang, University of California, San Diego, USA;
Conference Dates