Naomi C. Chesler

by | Feb 21, 2024

Naomi C. Chesler
University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
2018

Naomi C. Chesler obtained her BS in Engineering (General) from Swarthmore College, MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and PhD in Medical Engineering from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. She is Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her contributions to research are in two main areas: cardiovascular biomechanics and engineering education. With regard to the first, she is internationally recognized for her work investigating the vascular and ventricular consequences of pulmonary hypertension and the importance of pulmonary arterial stiffening in the progression of this disease. She has had NIH, American Heart and NSF funding as principal investigator on this topic (supporting mechanistic rodent studies as well as large animal and clinical/translational investigations) and as co-Investigator. She has given several invited talks at international scientifically- and clinically-oriented conferences on these topics and is well published and cited.

Her contributions to engineering education center around the impact of novel instructional approaches on student learning. This work is supported by several concurrent grants from the NSF and has been published in the Journal of Engineering Education, Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, International Journal of Engineering Education and others. In addition to being Vice Chair (2013-2015), Dr. Chesler has held a number of leadership positions at UW-Madison including Chair of the UW-Madison Physical Sciences Divisional Committee (which makes recommendations for tenure), Chair of the BME Assessment Committee, Chair of the BME Hiring Committee and Chair of the BME Diversity and Inclusivity Committee. More broadly, Dr. Chesler has held leadershippositions with the ASME Bioengineering Division including founding chair of the Inclusion and Diversity Committee.

She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the NSF Career award, Denice D. Denton Emerging Leader Award, Polygon Teaching Award for Biomedical Engineering, two Fulbright Scholar Awards, Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and was named recipient of the 2014 Diversity Award from the Biomedical Engineering Society and the 2017 Diversity Award from the UW-Madison College of Engineering.