Named Professors

John P. Fisher is a Distinguished University Professor and Chair of the Fischell Department of Bioengineering. Having served UMD for more than 20 years, he first joined the Department of Chemical Engineering in 2003 and was a founding member of the bioengineering department in 2006. Fisher heads the Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials Lab, where he leads a robust research team in investigating biomaterials, stem cells, bioprinting, and bioreactors for the regeneration of lost tissues. Fisher has served in numerous leadership positions within prominent societies and organizations: Currently, he is a member of the Biomedical Engineering Society Board of Directors; chair of the Council of Chairs, a national assembly of bioengineering and biomedical engineering department chairs; and co-editor-in-chief of Tissue Engineering. He is also the former president of the Americas Chapter of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society. Fisher serves on the editorial boards of key biomedical engineering journals such as the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, Bioprinting, Biofabrication, and the Journal of Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine.

William E. Bentley is a Distinguished University Professor and a Robert E. Fischell Distinguished University Professor of Engineering and was the founding Chair of the Fischell Department of Bioengineering. He is currently the Inaugural Director of the Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices and director of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech). He is also appointed to the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, and the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research. At Maryland since 1989, Dr. Bentley has focused his research on the development of molecular tools that facilitate the expression of biologically active proteins, having authored over 350 related archival publications. Recent interests are on deciphering and manipulating signal transduction pathways, including those of bacterial communication networks, for altering cell phenotype. To enable discovery, his lab develops new strategies for opening ‘communication’ between devices and biological systems by the creation and facile assembly of biologically functional interfaces. These concepts are emerging within the fields of ‘biofabrication’ that exploits biological components and processes for assembly and 'bioelectronics' that interface electronics with biology. He has served on advisory committees for the NIH, NSF, DOD, DOE, FDA, USDA, and several state agencies. He has mentored more than 40 PhDs and 15 postdocs, many now in leadership roles within industry, federal agencies, and academia.  He co-founded a protein manufacturing company, Chesapeake PERL, based on insect larvae as mini bioreactors. Dr. Bentley was a recipient of the SIM’s Schering-Plough Young Investigator Award, the Charles Thom Award of the SIMB, the Marvin Johnson Award of the BIOT Division in the ACS, and the AIChE’s FPB Division Award. He is also a Fellow of the ACS, AAAS, and AIMBE and is an elected member of the American Academy of Microbiology. 

Tao Lowe is the inaugural recipient of the Frederick G. Smith, MS, DDS, and Venice K. Paterakis, DDS, Endowed Professorship — the first endowed professorship established at the School of Dentistry. Lowe is a Professor at the Fischell Department of Bioengineering in the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a Professor in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry (UMSOD).In this role, Dr. Lowe leads translational research within UMSOD’s Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in addition to providing leadership in education, outreach, and service. 

Dr. Zhongjun “Jon” Wu is the Peter Angelos Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurial Surgical Science and a tenured Full Professor of Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Miami in 1996, his MSE from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1989 and his BSE from Tsinghua University in 1986. Prior to joining the faculty of the University of Louisville in 2014, Dr. Wu held several positions in China and the USA. From 1986 to1989, he was a graduate student researcher at the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics in Shanghai, P.R. China. He then held the position of Research Engineer at the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics from 1989 to1992. Upon immigration to the USA, Dr. Wu served as a graduate student researcher from 1992 to 1996 in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL. Wu joined the University of Pittsburgh in 1996 as a Research Staff and became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery in 1998. Dr. Wu joined the University of Maryland School of Medicine as Assistant Professor of Surgery on tenure track in 2003. While at the University of Maryland, he rose to the rank of tenured full Professor of Surgery. He joined the University of Louisville in 2014 as a full professor and serves as Division Chief of Research of the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery. He returned to the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2017 and appointed as the Peter G. Angelos Distinguished Professor in Entrepreneurial Surgical Science and Research Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland College Park.

Giuliano Scarcelli is the Edward and Jennifer St. John Endowed Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland in the Bioengineering department and the Biophysics program. Scarcelli is one of two inaugural co-directors of the new Edward & Jennifer St. John Center for Translational Engineering and Medicine, an initiative fostering face-to-face partnerships among researchers at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), which houses UMSOM, and the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP).  Giuliano obtained his PhD in physics with a EU-funded fellowship between the University of Bari, Italy and UMBC, USA under the supervision of quantum optics pioneer Prof. Yanhua Shih. Giuliano then was at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine of Harvard Medical School for eight years, first as a postdoc in Prof. Yun's Lab, then as an instructor and assistant professor. He joined University of Maryland in 2015. Giuliano has been the recipient of several awards such as the “Exceptional by example” award for outstanding PhD studies, the Tosteson Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard, the Human Frontier Science Program Young Investigator Award, the NIH Quantitative Career Award, the NSF CAREER award and “Teaching excellence” awards from both Harvard University and University of Maryland.

Huang Chiao Huang is the  Fischell Family Distinguished Professor and Associate Professor in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD). Huang Chiao earned a doctorate in Chemical Engineering from Arizona State University in 2012 under the guidance of Dr. Kaushal Rege. He then conducted his postdoctoral research with Dr. Tayyaba Hasan at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. In 2018, Dr. Huang established his lab at UMD. In 2020, Dr. Huang was elected to the American Society for Photobiology Council. He is the recipient of the Tosteson & Fund for Medical Discovery Fellowship, the UMD Faculty-Student Research Award, the NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, and the NIH NIBIB Trailblazer Award.