Dr. Weiyong Gu is a professor and the undergraduate director of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Previously, he served for 13 years as a professor in the University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering. Gu is an internationally recognized researcher in biomedical engineering, in particular in the field of soft tissue biomechanics and mechanobiology, with an expertise in computer modeling of human intervertebral discs for diagnosis and in-silico clinical trials. Over the past 20 years, Gu has developed new theory and constitutive relations for transport and mechanical properties of soft tissues; new computational methods for quantitatively investigating chemical, electrical and mechanical signals within cartilaginous tissue under mechanical loading; and innovative experimental techniques for biomechanics and mechanobiology of intervertebral disc tissues. Gu has published more than 180 papers, abstracts and book chapters in the areas of tissue mechanics, transport phenomena, computational biomechanics, and intervertebral disc nutrition and degeneration.
Gu received his PhD in mechanical engineering from Columbia University in 1994. In 1998 Gu joined the University’s College of Engineering as an assistant professor in the biomedical engineering department after completing postdoctoral training and serving as an associate research scientist in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. Since then, he has served as director of the tissue biomechanics laboratory. The National Institutes of Health has funded Gu’s research with grants totaling more than $2.5 million. He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a member of the Orthopaedic Research Society and the Biomedical Engineering Society.
Education
| 1993 | Ph.D. Biomechanics, Columbia University |
| 1991 | M.Phil. Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University |
| 1986 | M.S. Engineering Mechanics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University |
| 1983 | B.S. Engineering Mechanics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University |
Professional Experience
| 2011 - | Professor and Undergraduate Director, University of Miami |
| 2010 - | Professor (secondary) of Biomedical Engineering, University of Miami |
| 2011 - 2017 | Professor and Chair, University of Miami |
| 2004 - 2010 | Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University of Miami |
| 1998 - 2004 | Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University of Miami |
| 1995 - 1998 | Associate Research Scientist, Columbia University |
| 1994 - 1995 | Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Orthopaedic Research Lab, University of Miami |
| 1988 - 1994 | Graduate Research Assistant at the Orthopaedic Research Lab, University of Miami |
| 1986 - 1988 | Assistant Lecturer, Shanghai Jiao Tong University |
