Jing BI is a Technology Senior Manager at Dassault Systèmes SIMULIA Multiphysics/Structures Science & Technology focusing on machine learning technologies. She received her MS and PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2010 and 2012 respectively. She joined Dassault Systèmes in 2012 and since then worked in a variety of technical roles in machine learning, additive manufacturing, composites, multiscale modelling and crashworthiness.
Claire BIOT was appointed Vice President, Life Sciences & Healthcare Industry in 2019. Her multifaceted experience in healthcare-related research, business and government administration supports Dassault Systèmes’ aim to drive digital transformation in Life Sciences & Healthcare Industry. As Life Sciences companies shift their focus to precision medicine, she is responsible for helping companies adopt a new unified approach to sustainable innovation by using a scientific and business platform to improve the patient or physician experience. Claire also drives Dassault Systèmes long-term growth in healthcare, leveraging virtual twin experiences to achieve medical practice excellence and value-based care.
Claire holds an MSc in Engineering from Ecole polytechnique (Paris, France) and an MSc in Biological Sciences from the Watson School of Biological Sciences (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY, USA). She studied cancer immunotherapy at Institut Pasteur (Paris, France), where she graduated with a PhD in immunology in 2012, and she holds a Honorary Doctorate from Long Island University, NY, USA (2023).
Claire began her career at the French Ministry of Health as Head of Division, Health Products Pricing and Reimbursement (2012-2015). She then joined Greater Paris University Hospitals (AP-HP, Paris, France, 2015-2019), where she was appointed Managing Director of the Health Products and Technologies Central Agency, allowing her to build strong experience in health products development, manufacturing and procurement as well as patient care. Claire joined Dassault Systèmes in March 2019.
Claire is an independent Board Member at Mauna Kea Technologies. She is Knight (Chevalier) in the National Order of Merit and has been named Young Leader 2022 by the French-American Foundation. She has been named Qualified Person by the French Prime Minister in a Mission on health products spending (2023).
Melissa CERUOLO leads digital biomarker discovery with over 20 years of experience in medical device development. Her role in Medidata’s Sensor Cloud is to convert physiological data from connected devices into meaningful outputs that can serve as endpoints in clinical research. With expertise in devices and data, Melissa guides the industry in device selection for remote monitoring and protocol design. Melissa holds a MS in Engineering Management from MIT and BS in Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Bernard Charlès has been Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dassault Systèmes, since January 2024. He served as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer from 1995 to 2022, and was Chairman & CEO in 2023.
Charlès started his career in the company in 1983 to develop new design technologies. In 1986, he founded a dedicated New Technologies, Research and Strategy department, and in 1988 was appointed President of Strategy, Research and Development.
He has helped instill a culture of ongoing innovation to further consolidate Dassault Systèmes’ scientific capabilities and make science part of the company’s DNA. The inspiration behind digital mock-up, product lifecycle management and 3DEXPERIENCE®, he firmly believes that virtual technology is about making possible the impossible: 3DEXPERIENCE universes are the most powerful vehicle for testing concepts and creating the future, bringing dream and reality together, and stretching the limits of science and imagination to drive progress in society.
Charlès has positioned Dassault Systèmes as the preferred partner for sustainable innovation in three major sectors of the economy: Manufacturing Industries, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Infrastructure & Cities. The company, established in 1981 and world leader in virtual worlds, was recognized as one of Forbes’ "World’s Most Innovative Companies".
Bernard Charlès is co-author with philosopher Pierre Musso of The Industry Renaissance, which discusses the power of virtual universes to sustainably transform industry.
He is a foreign member of the US National Academy of engineering and a member of the French Academy of Technology. He holds the rank of Commander in the “Légion d’honneur” (French Legion of Honor). He is a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure engineering school in Cachan and has a PhD in mechanical engineering majoring in automation engineering and information science. He also holds an agrégation — the most senior teaching qualification achievable in France (specializing in mechanical engineering).
Debarun DAS is an Industry Process Consultant (IPC) in Dassault Systèmes supporting Life Sciences & Healthcare (LS&H) and Industrial Equipment (IE) customers in the NAM region for deployment of SIMULIA’s Fluids (CFD) portfolio. As a member of NAM IPC team, he is involved in pre-sales customer engagement, post-deployment support, technical account management, and presenting latest advancements in simulation technology in single-phase flow (internal, external), thermal management, particle modeling, acoustics, multiphase flow & FSI. He has Bachelors and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering, with nearly 10 years’ experience in multiphysics, multiscale computational modeling, engaging with commercial customers and government agencies in the LS&H and IE domains.
Chris Devries is a CATIA technical sales director with a background in aerospace engineering. In his time at Dassault Systèmes, he has helped customers with transformational projects including driverless cars, robots, drones, smart devices, electric vehicles, spacecraft, and commercial aircraft. In his current role, he manages a team of CATIA experts as they engage with customers in North America across in all industries.
Sean R. Farrell is a passionate mechanical engineer and startup enthusiast! With a knack for tenacious problem-solving and a strong team-oriented mindset, Sean is always ready to tackle the next challenge at hand!
With a deep understanding of design thinking, strategy, innovation, and the entrepreneurial mindset, Sean brings a unique blend of technical expertise and business acumen to his work. His versatility allows him to approach challenges from multiple angles, resulting in holistic solutions that meet both technical and commercial requirements.
Sean's journey in industry began at the renowned GE Global Research Center, where he honed his technical skills and gained valuable experience in developing cutting-edge technologies. Seeking to explore the dynamic world of startups, he embarked on ventures with wearable technology and medical device startups, further expanding his knowledge and expertise in product development and innovation.
Driven by a passion for pushing boundaries and delivering impactful solutions for technology startups, Sean joined Dassault Systèmes in the summer of 2022. Here, he continues to fuel his entrepreneurial spirit, helping some of the world’s most disruptive startups adopt Dassault Systèmes solutions through startup acceleration. His role allows him to leverage his technical expertise, strategic thinking, design skills and business acumen to create impactful solutions for global disruptive deep tech startups.
Beyond his professional pursuits, Sean actively seeks to contribute to the startup, technology, product design and art worlds through sharing his knowledge and experiences. He is passionate about collaborating with emerging talents, discussing how to navigate the intersection of technology, design, and business. Sean is an avid guitarist and music producer. He enjoys fitness, travel and watching Formula 1 and MotoGP racing. He also loves being a maker and spending time with family and friends!
As a passionate supporter for the success of startups, Jillian Friot combines her experience as a founder with leading global partnerships and customer teams to deliver retained net-new revenue growth for global SaaS companies.
At Dassault Systèmes, Jillian is the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab North America Senior Manager. She drives partnerships with North America’s top sustainability-focused Startup-Accelerators and Investor Networks in order to source disruptive startups to be accelerated by the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab.
Before joining the Lab team, Jillian was part of a small team that built the global Startup Program for Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS, with a reach of over 20,000 startups. Jillian developed strategy, communications, pricing, segmenting, and processes that now serve 400+ resellers, 50+ geographically based sales managers, as well as hundreds of venture capital, accelerator, incubator, and makerspace programs globally. Jillian first served Global Operations and Global Corporate Accounts at Dassault Systèmes, SOLIDWORKS.
At Orbit (Orbit.love), Jillian built the Customer Love Team, responsible for guiding Orbit’s customers through Orbit’s “Customer Love Continuum”. Jillian led with Orbit's mission to help people build and grow meaningful communities. She launched the Partner Program, Startup Program and Non-Profit Program at Orbit.
Jillian has a passion for ice cream that's equal to her passion for entrepreneurship. There is a reason for this - As a business builder, Jillian started Dolce Friot, a specialty frozen desserts company that built on her prior operations knowledge working from the ground-up in her family's ice cream business, Kimball Farm. When not supporting startups and building strategy, you can find Jillian traveling to the best homemade ice cream shops, painting on canvases and flying toward her pilot's license.
Elahe JAVADI is a Modeling and Simulation Industrial Process Consultant at Dassault Systemes Americas. Coming from an Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering education, She holds a PhD with a specialization in Modeling and simulation of Blood flow from the Northeastern University and is located in Boston, MA.
She participates in transformative Value Engagements involving 3DEXPERIENCE Modeling and Simulation solutions across the CATIA, SIMULIA and SOLIDWORKS brands of Dassault Systèmes in all industries.
Patrick JOHNSON is Executive Vice President, Corporate Research & Sciences at Dassault Systèmes. His mission is to define the scientific bases of the company’s solutions and invent disruptive technologies for the Industry Renaissance.
After joining in 1996, he held various positions in R&D, from Product Lifecycle Management foundations to product design for the CATIA flagship brand. In 2001, leading the Artificial Intelligence department, he contributed to important new practices now adopted in the industry for knowledge & know-how capture and automation.
Head of Research in 2004, he initiated many strategic technologies, resulting in key innovative products and patents and significantly grew the innovation ecosystem promoting multiple public/private partnerships with prestigious research institutes.
Finally, he launched a new diversification field for the company, with the BioIntelligence European research program, resulting in an innovative modeling, simulation and big data application suite for the life sciences sector, and the creation of the BIOVIA brand.
Mr. Johnson is based at 3DS world headquarters near Paris and is a member of the National Academy of Technology as well as of the scientific board of INRIA
Steven LEVINE, PhD is a biomedical engineer who has dedicated his career to advancing the field of medical simulation and modeling. Dr. Levine is currently Sr. Director of Virtual Human Modeling at Dassault Systèmes. Prior to his current role, he lead Strategy for SIMULIA, the simulation brand within Dassault Systèmes. Dr. Levine was elected into the College of Fellows in the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) in 2017 and holds a PhD in Materials Science from Rutgers University.
He is best known for his work as the director and founder of the Living Heart Project, an international consortium of researchers, clinicians, and technology experts led by Dassault Systèmes to develop a virtual twin of the human heart for medical research and education. Under his leadership, the project has grown to include more than 150 partners from around the world, and has received numerous awards for its innovative approach to medical modeling.
LEVINE is also a recognized thought leader in the field of medical simulation and modeling, and has published numerous articles and whitepapers on the subject. He is Principle Investigator on a joint project with the FDA to publish a playbook on the use of digital human twins as surrogates to augment a clinical trial. He is a sought-after speaker and presenter, and has delivered keynote addresses at major industry conferences and events worldwide.
Dr. Levine is a visionary leader in the field of medical modeling and simulation, whose work with the Living Heart and related Projects is helping to transform the way we approach medical research and education. His passion for innovation and commitment to improving patient outcomes has earned him a reputation as one of the most influential figures in the field of medical engineering.
Reza is Chief Strategy Officer of BIOVIA at Dassault Systèmes. Reza has over 20 years of experience in executive management, with a deep knowledge of both discrete and the formulated industries. As chief strategy officer, he is responsible for BIOVIA’s overall portfolio strategy and contract research. After beginning his career in R&D, Reza moved on to an executive role at a Palo Alto startup (MARC Analysis Research Corporation) which was later acquired by MSC Software, developers of scientific software with focus on modeling and simulation. As chief technology officer at MSC Software, Reza was responsible for R&D and strategy. He is a regular speaker at a number of international scientific events as well as holds a number of advisory board positions. He lives in La Jolla CA home of UCSD where he holds an adjunct status.
Afrah SHAFQUAT is a Senior Data Scientist II at Medidata, a Dassault Systemès company where she leads synthetic data solutions in clinical trials. At Medidata, her work focuses on innovative solutions to generate synthetic data, synthetic data evaluation (fidelity and privacy metrics), and new use cases for synthetic data. She has a Ph.D. in Computational Biology from Cornell University and an S.B. in Biological Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Rizzo is the Simmons Lessell Professor of Ophthalmology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School. He is a Board-certified Neurologist and Ophthalmologist who serves as Director of the Harvard-wide Neuro-Ophthalmology service. Dr. Rizzo’s primary clinical interests are the diagnosis of diseases that cause blindness, double vision or other abnormalities of sight. He is the co-Principal Investigator of an NIH grant that is studying the anatomical factors, especially blood vessel anatomy, that is relevant to better understand the cause of glaucoma and non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), which are the two most common forms of optic nerve disease in older adults.
Dr. Rizzo also co-founded the Boston Retinal Implant Project which has been a multi-disciplinary effort to develop implantable microelectronic devices to restore vision to the blind. This history of clinical and investigative work follows Dr. Rizzo’s goals of better understanding causes of blindness and developing treatments to restore vision to the blind. His efforts toward a better understanding optic nerve causes of blindness have been hindered by a lack of understanding of the intricate anatomy of the blood supply to the optic nerve head and of how age-related mechanical efforts might predispose to blindness.
Dr. Rizzo has been exploring opportunities with leaders at Dessault to study the impact of eye motion on the integrity of the small vessels that supply blood to the optic nerve, with the goals of developing a customizable tool to assess the risk of optic nerve blindness for individuals and to potentially uncover insights into new therapies.
Dr. GALLO is an Assistant Professor at the College of Pharmacy of Long Island University with 10 years of experience in medical engineering research and education. Dr. Gallo is working to contribute to the digitalization of healthcare through the development of computational modelling to address current life science issues in our society. He is committed to innovative research by connecting multiple scientific disciplines and driving the digital revolution in Life Science education. His research focuses on multiphysics and multiscale modelling of human systems to understand disease progression and drug metabolism for the purpose ofdeveloping adequate patient specific therapeutics and diagnostic technologies. Dr. Gallo holds a PhD from the Biomedical Engineering department of the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Dr. Reena Ghosh is a board-certified pediatric cardiologist, with advanced training in cross-sectional imaging. As a senior fellow at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, she co-founded the Cardiac Center 3D Imaging Collaborative, establishing a robust clinical 3D modeling service for surgical and transcatheter procedural planning in patients with congenital and acquired heart disease. Through this program Dr. Ghosh established multidisciplinary standard of care case reviews that utilized digital 3D, virtual reality, CAD-based modeling of potential surgical repairs and physical 3D multi-material models, to conduct patient-specific procedural planning.
Dr. Ghosh is currently a physician scientist in the Department of Cardiac Surgery at Boston Children's Hospital and an Instructor at Harvard Medical School. She focuses her efforts on valve modeling, CMR research and promoting clinical translation of novel imaging and modeling techniques for patient-specific procedural planning.
Dr. GOETZ is an accomplished clinician, scientist, and cardiac surgeon with a decade of clinical experience. He combines profound practical experience with his passion for curing structural heart diseases.
He started his career as a cardiac surgeon at the University Hospital in Regensburg, Germany. His passion for heart valve replacement and repair led him to join a research project at The International Heart Institute of Montana (Missoula, Montana, USA) in 2000-2001, studying physiology of the heart and the heart valves. After continuing clinical practice in Germany, Dr. Goetz went to the Nanyang Technical University, Singapore in 2005- 2006 to lead a humanitarian research project for development of an autologous heart valve prosthesis that is made from a patient’s own pericardium. This priceless valve prosthesis was implanted in humans in Asia. Back in Germany, Dr. Goetz worked at the German Heart Center in Munich. He set up a clinical trial for the implantation of the first transcatheter heart valve prostheses.
He decided in 2009 to give up a very successful career as a cardiac surgeon and to start-up Transcatheter Technologies GmbH to develop a transcatheter heart valve system that is designed to increase the safety and durability of aortic valve implantation. The proprietary technology was acquired by Venus Medtech (Hangzhou, China) in 2016.
Afterwards, Dr. Goetz became Partner of medifundo Life Science Investments. In 2018 Dr. Goetz founded Prima Medical Technologies GmbH in Germany and spun-off three technology companies: Semiflow Medical GmbH in Germany and Artract Medical Inc. and Venock Medical, Inc. in the USA.
Kevin HALLOCK received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry and Biophysics from the University of Michigan (U of M) where he studied the impact of antimicrobial peptides on lipid bilayers using solid-state NMR. After U of M, he moved to Boston University (BU) where used magnetic resonance techniques (MRM, MRI, MRS) to investigate questions in areas as diverse as solid-state imaging, insects, neurology, and obesity. He also taught two classes: Biology, Chemistry, and Physics of Natural and Man-made Hazards and Introduction to Systems Modeling, in BU’s Healthcare Emergency Management program. He continues to be an adjunct faculty at BU, but moved to Pfizer where he focused on data visualization and simulation techniques including virtual, augmented, and mixed realities during his tenure. While at Biogen, he has had several roles including leading the Modeling and Simulation group in Digital and Quantitative Medicine, where his team focused on data analytics, simulation, visualization and simulation using a variety of computational techniques, including targeted use of extended realities, and is currently part of Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics.
Alireza HEIDARI is a research scientist in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at McGill University. He received his Ph.D. in Structural Mechanics from the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow in 2014 and obtained Russian Candidate of Science from Moscow State University of Railway Engineering. He was a visiting researcher at Technical University of Berlin in Germany in 2013, and an assistant professor at Tehran University until 2016. The focus of his current research is on the simulation of heart failure caused by a number of pathological events including Covid-19, pulmonary hypertension, valvular diseases and Ischemia and the significance of stem cell and mitochondria therapy.
David is a pediatric cardiac surgeon at Boston Children’s Hospital with a clinical focus on neonates and infants with complex congenital heart disease. He has a background in engineering with industry experience as a biomedical engineer developing devices for cardiac surgery and interventional cardiology. He is the Director of the Computational 3D Visualization Program at Boston Children’s Hospital where he and Pete Hammer, PhD lead a team of engineers. They focus on patient specific 3D modeling, virtual surgery and computational fluid dynamics for preoperative planning and intraoperative guidance for patients with complex congenital heart disease. They run a clinical service that provides patient specific modeling and simulation with over 750 patients modeled. They are developing workflows for computational patch and reconstructive pre-operative planning. Medical device development remains a focus for David with multiple devices in various stages of development including devices for valve repair and cannulation technology.
Dr. Srinivasan JAYARAMAN is a Principal Scientist at DMMT- Business Transformation Group, USA, and has headed the Digital BioTwin of Organs since 2019. Prior to this, he worked as a Scientist at TCS Research Lab, leading the Human Sensing Group (2008-2016). During his sabbatical period, he worked as a Visiting Scholar at MCCHE, Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill, Montreal, Canada, in July 2017; Research Fellow at MuSAE Lab, INRS-EMT, Montreal, Canada, in July 2016; Scientific Manager at the University of Nebraska Lincoln (ULN), USA and New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), USA in 2013.
Dr. Srinivasan has been accolades as Young Innovator- MIT TR35, 2011 (MIT Review India edition), TATA Innovista 2011, 50 most social impactful innovators (global listing) in 2016, 10 international patents granted, 6 international patents published, and 5 International patents filed, 4 International Book Chapter and 30+ publications in professional journals and peer-reviewed international conference proceedings.
In Tata Consultancy Services, he initiated the Digital BioTwin program of human organs – a credible cloud platform driven by A high-fidelity computational Model and augmented with an advanced visualization tool. He exemplifies DBT technology with Cardiac System, Nose, and Colon system. DBT aims to refine, replace, and reduce spending in conducting tests at cellular, tissue, and organ levels while improving the efficacy of in-vitro tests.
Dr. Steven KREUZER is a Senior Managing Engineer at Exponent Inc, a scientific and engineering consulting company, based in the Natick, MA (Boston) office. Dr. Kreuzer received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and has been a consultant with Exponent since 2013. He specializes in stress analysis using both experimental and computational approaches, which includes finite element analyses and custom mechanical systems. He has worked with numerous companies and projects, supporting everything from design assessments to analyses and tests supporting regulatory submissions. He has been an active participant in the Living Heart Project with Dassault Systèmes since its inception and serves as a co-lead of the modeling team on the FDA / Dassault ‘ENRICHMENT’ in silico clinical trial. Dr. Kreuzer has applied his expertise to numerous domains, including electronics, aerospace, energy storage, and biomedical applications
Ellen KUHL is the Walter B. Reinhold Professor in the School of Engineering and Robert Bosch Chair of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. She is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering who received her PhD from the University of Stuttgart in 2000 and her Habilitation from the University of Kaiserslautern in 2004. Ellen’s research integrates physics-based modeling with machine learning and creates interactive simulation tools to understand, explore, and predict the dynamics of living systems. She has published more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and a textbook on Data-Driven Modeling of Covid-19. Ellen is a founding member of the Living Heart Project, a translational research initiative to revolutionize cardiovascular science through realistic simulation with 400 participants from research, industry, and medicine from 24 countries.
She is the current Chair of the US National Committee on Biomechanics and a Member-Elect of the World Council of Biomechanics. Ellen is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and of the American Institute for Mechanical and Biological Engineering. She received the National Science Foundation Career Award in 2010, the Humboldt Research Award in 2016, and the ASME Ted Belytschko Applied Mechanics Award in 2021. Ellen is an All American triathlete, a multiple Boston marathon runner, and a three-time Kona Ironman World Championship qualifier.
Hao LIU received his master from University of Florida in 2016 and finished his master thesis focusing on the remodeling of arteriovenous fistula. Then, he started his PhD at University of Texas at Austin in 2017 and his research was to investigate mitral regurgitation followed by myocardial infarction. During his PhD, he interned with Dassault Systèmes to model MitraClip with Living Heart Model platform for six months. After obtaining his PhD degree, he is currently working at Abbott, CRM division as a senior mechanical engineer. The focus of his job is to evaluate new mechanical design and assess fatigue risk at in-vivo state with computational modeling as well as involving in bench test and pre-clinical animal study.
Dr. PEIRLINCK currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Biomechanical Engineering at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Before that, he joined the core Living Heart Project R&D team as a Virtual Human Modeling Intern, completed his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Ghent University (Belgium) and worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University (USA). Dr. Peirlinck's research focuses on the multiscale behavior of the human heart, bridging the cell, tissue and organ scale. An improved understanding of the tissue's biophysical functioning is crucial for the choice for, and development of, efficient clinical treatment strategies focused on patient- specific pathophysiology. Using finite element analysis and machine learning techniques, dr. Peirlinck integrates information from various data sources into computer models that simulate the patient-specific biophysical behavior of the heart as accurately as possible.
Ashley PETRSON is a computational expert with an extensive background in medical device and energy efficiency design. In his current position he plays a key role in the growth and diversification of our life science capabilities, with an emphasis on product optimization, virtual clinical trials, clinical decision support as well as non-medical aspects of human-centric engineering. Ash is well-versed in fluid dynamics, heat transfer, structural dynamics, medical device analysis and data interrogation and visualization. During his career, he has led computational teams in the development of stent graft implant design and other endovascular applications as well as securing their patents. He also participates in American Society of Mechanical Engineers Verification and Validation panels for the development of guidelines on the usage of digital tools that are aligned with industry and regulatory best practices.
Owen RICHFIELD is a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of W. Mark Saltzman in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Yale University. His current research focuses on developing nanoparticle-based drug delivery methods to target kidney diseases, with a focus on modulating endothelial cell-immune interactions through gene therapy. Owen began his study of the kidney during his PhD in Bioinnovation at Tulane University, wherein he developed novel mathematical models of glomerular filtration and mechanics to investigate how disease states (i.e. hypertension and diabetes) alter the mechanical environment of glomerular cells. At Yale, Owen spends half his time on the computer developing models to predict the efficacy of different drug delivery strategies. The other half of his time is spent in the laboratory, working with mouse models of kidney disease and ex vivo perfused human kidneys through a collaboration with transplant surgeons at the University of Cambridge.
Ellen is the Latham Family Career Development Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at MIT. She directs the Therapeutic Technology Design and Development Lab. Her research focuses on applying innovative technologies to the development of cardiac devices. Her research includes development of novel devices to repair or augment cardiac function using disruptive approaches such as soft robotics. Her work has been published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, Science Translational Medicine, Science Robotics, Advanced Materials among others. She is the recipient of multiple awards including the Wellcome Trust Seed Award in Science, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, an NIH Trailblazer Award, a Hood Award for Excellence in Child Health Research, the LabCentral Ignite Golden Ticket and the inaugural Future Founders Grand Prize.
Kevin SACK is Biomedical Engineer, Finite Element (FE) enthusiast and pursuer of patient-specific computational cardiac solutions. Kevin received his doctoral degree at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, the same institute he served as a lecturer, teaching FE methods for several years. In 2018, after a postdoc at the University of California, San Francisco, Kevin began working for Medtronic Inc. Kevin currently leads the cardiac physiology modeling efforts at Medtronic, simulating the electrical, mechanical, and hemodynamic effects between medical devices and the heart. This work spans a wide range of devices, emerging therapies, and patient populations.
Mohan THANIKACHALAM, the CEO of Dynocardia, is leading the development of ViTrack technology, a unique continuous blood pressure and heart monitor. A cardiovascular surgeon, Mohan also has a keen interest in public health. He is a faculty member at Tufts University School of Medicine, where he conducts research on point-of-care technologies for monitoring and assessing cardiovascular risk factors in the comfort of people's homes. This research aims to promote more comprehensive strategies for preventing and treating cardiovascular disease in the community.
Dr. Jithesh VEETIL, PhD serves as the Senior Program Director of Digital Health and Technology portfolio at the Medical Device Innovation Consortium (MDIC). His prime focus at MDIC is to aid in the development of regulatory science resources and regulatory grade tools working collaboratively with government and industry stakeholders in an effort to advance solutions that promote patient access to innovative medical technologies. Jithesh’s current portfolio at MDIC includes projects in Computational Modeling & Simulation (CM&S), Medical Device Cybersecurity, Medical Extended Reality (MXR), Software as/in Medical Devices (SaMD/SiMD), and Digital Pathology.
Previously, Jithesh worked with Global Biological Standards Institute (GBSI), a Washington DC based non-profit as its Scientific Program Manager, leading the development and implementation of multiple programs on science policy, communications, and advocacy, including those related to cell line authentication, antibody validation, and reproducibility in biomedical research and development. Jithesh has extensive experience in designing and development of programs towards modernizing scientific workforce and practices by building academic-industrial-nonprofit collaboration through his work at National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus as the Lead Scientist and Program Manager for the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (FAES). Jithesh also served as the Operations Manager for Preludesys Inc., working with international clientele from medical, IT, insurance and paralegal organizations on medical/healthcare data management.
Jithesh completed his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, followed by postdoctoral fellowship at NIH. He has published numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts, reviews and book chapters.
Dr. Jonathan WEISSMANN comes from a background in mathematics and computer science. He holds an MD degree and has recently completed his PhD in biomechanical engineering at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Dr. Gil Marom and Prof. Shmuel Einav (RIP). His areas of focus are primarily on modeling heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), mitral valve regurgitation, and exploring potential therapeutic interventions.
I am a clinical and interventional cardiologist, who heads the Center of Valve Disease at Washington University School of Medicine, and the Associate Director of the Interventional Cardiology Fellowship and Director of the Structural Heart Disease Fellowship Program. I am actively involved in the training of residents and fellows. My particular area of interest is the natural history of valvular disease and their catheter related treatments. I encounter patients in a specialized valve clinic that is aimed at the evaluation and treatment of complex valvular disease. I actively participate in trials that evaluate the role of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis. In addition, I study the role of multidetector computed tomography in the evaluation and selection of patients undergoing TAVR in order to improve procedural success and safety; the effect of balloon aortic valvuloplasty in left ventricular recovery in patients with severe aortic stenosis and left ventricular dysfunction. From a clinical and epidemiological perspective I am interested in the development of aortic stenosis and its potential genetic components. I also am involved in elucidating the role of mitral regurgitation in left ventricular dysfunction and antiarrhythmic therapy. In addition I am interested in the use of percutaneous left ventricular support in patients with severe decompensated heart failure: patient selection, timing and duration of use.
Dr. Zachary DARBY graduated from Seton Hall University with a degree in physics where he focused on using CNC milling and 3D printing techniques to design and create atmospheric micro plasma reactors to study the effect they had on bacteria. He then went on to pursue a medical degree from Lewis Katz School of Medicine and matched into the general surgery residency at the MedStar Baltimore hospitals. After completing his first two years of general surgery residency, he is now a post-doctoral research fellow for the division of cardiac surgery at Johns Hopkins where he is working to improve the mitral valve translocation procedure previously developed by Dr. James Gammie and the structural heart lab.
Mohammed CHERKAOUI is an award-winning professor, author, and internationally recognized researcher, and a pioneering figure in micromechanics, nuclear engineering, nuclear medicine, and drug discovery. Stanford University Report Ranks Dr. Mohammed Cherkaoui Among the World’s Top 2% Scientists.
Dr. Mohammed Cherkaoui has authored more than 200 publications including the firstever micromechanics textbook. His international accolades include a tenured
professorship at Georgia Institute of Technology, an Endowed Chair and professorship at Mississippi State University, the France Medal from the National Center for Scientific Research, the Obama Award under the Material Genome Initiative, and the Lorraine Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer.
Brent CRAVEN is a Research Scientist and Program Manager in the Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories, Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in 2008. His areas of expertise include computational fluid dynamics, fluid-structure interaction, multiphysics modeling, patient-specific modeling, and verification, validation, and uncertainty quantification (VVUQ) methods applied to medical devices such as mechanical circulatory support devices, artificial heart valves, intravascular blood clot filters, and inhalers. His research at the FDA primarily focuses on advancing computer modeling and VVUQ methods for medical devices.
In addition to research, he regularly serves as a subject matter expert on medical device regulatory submissions. He has authored over 55 refereed journal articles and more than 100 conference proceedings and abstracts. He is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of Verification, Validation and Uncertainty Quantification and Frontiers in Physiology. He has received a number of awards for his research and regulatory contributions, including the 2022 FDA Scientific Achievement Award for Excellence in Analytical Science, the 2018 FDA CDRH Excellence in Scientific Research Award, and an FDA Commissioner’s Special Citation Award in 2021 for his regulatory contributions in the technical review of emergency use ventilators.
Dr. BRIANT is the director of mechanical engineering and a principal engineer at Exponent, a scientific and engineering consulting firm based in Menlo Park, California. Drawing on his expertise in mechanical and materials engineering, finite element analysis, and biomechanics, he assists clients in performing a wide array of failure analyses and device evaluations. These analyses range from automotive, rail, and piping systems to electronic solder joints and implanted medical devices. In particular, Dr. Briant has extensive experience in long term reliability analysis of medical devices and he has assisted numerous medical device companies prepare for submission to regulatory bodies. The medical products that he has worked on include cardiovascular implants, insulin pumps, blood glucose sensors, in vitro diagnostic devices, and surgical tables. In addition, Dr. Briant has been retained in product liability and intellectual property matters and has given both deposition and trial testimony.