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January 16, 2006 Vol. 77, no. 1S
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BioE and ME professor Dorian Liepmann is chair of the
BioE Department and co-chair of the UCSF/UCB Joint
Graduate Group in Bioengineering. He joined
the Berkeley faculty in 1992.
Before that, he was a research engineer at the
Institute for Non-Linear Science at UC San Diego. He
received a Ph.D. from UCSD in applied mechanics in
1990. His primary research interests are BioMEMS,
microfluid dynamics, experimental biofluid dynamics,
hemodynamics associated with valvular heart disease, and
other cardiac and arterial flow.
(Photo Credit: Peg Skorpinski)
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Professor
Minute with BioE/ME professor Dorian Liepmann
What first inspired
you to go into engineering?
I didn't choose to become an engineer. After I got my
M.S. in chemical engineering, I couldn't find a job and
ended up doing policy analysis at the Arroyo Center,
which was a new think tank for the Army. It was great.
Then I went down to San Diego to work on the
America's Cup boat, Stars and Stripes '87, which is how
I got involved in fluid mechanics, and on a path
towards my Ph.D. from UC San Diego.
Whom do you most admire?
I have more and more respect for Tom Budinger, the first
chair of BioE. I admire what he did to set up the department
and keep it running for six years. In addition, I'm always
amazed at the number of important scientific and medical
events in which he played an active role. For example, he is
one of the developers of PET (positron emission tomography) scanning and he was involved in the first liver transplant.
If you had a few extra hours, what would you do?
I like to mountain bike with my dog. I usually ride in the
Briones Regional Park area, which is very close to my house.
I also love to go skiing, which I do with my 13-year-old son.
What is one thing you would like to learn how to do?
I would love to learn how to kiteboard. But, since this probably won't happen, I'll be happy if I just learn how to mountain bike better. I'm looking forward to a guided trip in Moab this spring that my wife gave me for my birthday.
Hopefully I can still learn something new and not come back damaged.
If you would like us
to feature your favorite professor, please e-mail his or her name to
engnews@coe.berkeley.edu.
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