Todd Giorgio, Ph.D.
Biomedical Engineering names chair
Todd Giorgio, Ph.D., has been named chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University.
He succeeds Thomas Harris, Ph.D., who is retiring in May.
Giorgio said he wants biomedical engineering to achieve greater visibility within the university and throughout the academic world.
“Biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt brings together quantitative engineering with fundamental science, leading to innovations in medical practice,” he said.
His goals include hiring more faculty members, expanding research areas, attracting additional graduate students, strengthening undergraduate education, and forming small businesses from promising research.
Giorgio is a researcher at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, where he has contributed new ideas to the treatment of cancer through his work on the disease at the cellular and molecular levels.
He and his team have discovered new materials to infiltrate the nuclei of malignant cells to deliver therapy more effectively than conventional methods. They have also developed methods to detect breast cancer at very early stages by using nanoparticles that bind to the cancer cells.
Giorgio joined the Vanderbilt faculty as an assistant professor of chemical engineering in 1987.
He earned his B.S. degree in 1982 from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Penn., and his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Rice University in Houston.