Aaron Baker has been promoted to full professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, effective September 1, 2021. He has made significant impacts on the department's culture of innovation, teaching, and research.
Baker, who holds the W.A. (Bill) Cunningham Professorship in Engineering, joined The University of Texas at Austin in 2010.
He specializes in cardiovascular biology, including devices and interventional technologies to prevent atherosclerosis and restenosis. His research focuses on vascular mechanotransduction, or the study of cell and tissue responses to mechanical forces. Additionally, his lab works to advance vascular drug delivery and testing of drugs to be used for vessel regrowth and heart revascularization.
He has served on a number of university committees, currently as chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering’s undergraduate curriculum committee and on the department’s faculty search committee. He is a full member of the Quantitative Research Program with Dell Medical School's LIVESTRONG Cancer Institutes.
Baker is a finalist in the MassChallenge Texas in Austin Program and a recipient of a Texas Health Catalyst Award, a UT Austin Moncrief Grand Challenge Award Winner, and the National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award. He is a member of many professional and honorary societies including the American Chemical Society, International Society for Stem Cell Research, and the American Association for Cancer Research among others.
He received his Ph.D. in medical engineering and medical physics from MIT-Harvard Medical School, an S.M. degree in biological engineering from MIT, and an M.S.E. and B.S.E. in bioengineering from the University of Washington.
