Colleen Witzenburg
Principal Investigator
Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Postdoc, University of Virginia
Colleen is fascinated by the complexity and adaptability of cardiovascular soft tissues. She is interested in how the heart, vessels, and valves remodel and grow both temporally and spatially in response to disease. Colleen runs on curiosity and chocolate and loves jogging with her dog and gaining new computational skills.
Graduate Students
Ashley Hiebing
B.S., Milwaukee School Of Engineering
Ashley’s research involves computational modeling of cardiovascular growth and remodeling in hypoplastic left heart syndrome. When not in the lab, she enjoys drawing, creative writing, and learning foreign languages.
Daniel Pearce
B.S. and M.S., East Carolina University
Daniel’s research explores spatial heterogeneity in the material properties of infarct myocardium through mechanical testing and computational modeling. In his free time, he enjoys being active, creative writing, and all things music.
Callyn Kozitza
B.S., Minnesota State University – Mankato
M.S., University of Wisconsin – Madison
Callyn’s research involves developing a customizable computational model of pulmonary artery growth in hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Outside of the lab, she enjoys spending time with friends and family (and cat, Louis), crocheting, and true crime podcasts.
Cate Eberman
B.S., Smith College
M.S., Boston University
Cate’s research focuses on characterizing structural heterogeneity of myocardium via imaging modalities, and its effects on regional mechanical properties. In her spare time she enjoys sailing, gardening, and skiing.
Matthew Culver
B.S., University of Iowa
Matt’s research involves computational modeling of cardiovascular growth and remodeling in aortic coarctation. In his spare time, he enjoys golfing, spending time with friends and family, and snowboarding.
Undergraduate Students
Francisco O’Neill Rodriguez
Francisco’s research involves collating studies on myocardial infarction in rats in order to fit and validate a population model of ventricular remodeling and heart failure risk. In his free time he enjoys going to the beach, riding his bike outdoors and spending time with friends and family.
Mark Nemcek
Mark’s research is centered on biaxially testing soft tissues. Specifically, he is interested in methods of applying texture for digital image correlation based strain tracking approaches. Outside of lab Mark enjoys sports, nature, and travel.
Michael Chiariello
Michael’s research focuses on developing a reliable protocol to generate shear stress in tissue samples during biaxial testing. In his free time, he enjoys golfing and playing basketball with friends.
Shreya Sreedhar
Shreya is generating a protocol for the laser micrometer to produce consistent, low-noise 3D images of soft tissue samples.
Laboratory Alum
