Dr. Stroka has received a teaching innovation grant from the Office of the Provost to redesign her Biomechanics (BIOE404) course!

BIOE Honors student Samantha Kraus ('21) was chosen as a 2020-2021 Phillip Merrill Presidential Scholar and named Dr. Stroka as the "faculty mentor who has had the greatest impact on her academic achievement." Congratulations to Samantha!

This highly selective program is made possible by the generosity of the Philip Merrill family. It recognizes students’ academic excellence and the important role that teachers and faculty have as mentors. In addition to recognizing the seniors, the Philip Merrill Presidential Scholars program honors the K-12 teachers and University of Maryland faculty selected by the students themselves. For more information about the Merrill Scholars Program, visit their website. 

Congratulations to Dr. Mary Doolin, who defended her PhD today! Mary is the 3rd member of the Stroka Lab to earn her PhD!

Mary's PhD dissertation focused on how mechanical confinement influences mesenchymal stem cell cytoskeletal organization, migration mechanisms, and nuclear volume regulation. She developed a novel method for confining cells in a micropillar device, which she used to explore the effects of confinement on lung fibroblast to myofibroblast transition in the context of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Mary published 6 peer-reviewed publications (4 first-author; see her Google Scholar page) and gave 11 conference presentations. Mary was awarded the prestigious NIH F31 Predoctoral Fellowship from NHLBI. She was also awarded the Goldhaber Travel Award from the UMD Grad School twice, the Graduate Student Summer Research Fellowship, and the BMES Student Travel Award. Mary has been a dedicated mentor to several undergraduate students in the Stroka lab, and she has also been active in the Bioengineering Graduate Student Society, serving as Vice President of Professional Development for 2 years.

Congratulations, Dr. Doolin - fantastic work!

A special thanks to all the cats (and humans) who showed up to a post-defense Zoom celebration!