Shelly Sakiyama-Elbert, PhD

Shelly E. Sakiyama-Elbert, PhD, is the Vice Dean for Research and Graduate Education and Professor of Bioengineering in the University of Washington School of Medicine. From August 2016 to June 2022, she served as Department Chair of Biomedical Engineering and the Fletcher Stuckey Pratt Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.

Her research focuses on developing biomaterials for drug delivery and cell transplantation for the treatment of peripheral nerve and spinal cord injury. Dr. Sakiyama-Elbert is funded by the NINDS & NIAMS (NIH), and previously she received early career awards from the Whitaker Foundation and the WH Coulter Foundation. Her honors include the Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (2017), Society for Biomaterials Clemson Award for Basic Research (2017), WU Distinguished Faculty Award (2013) and Outstanding Faculty Mentor from the WU Graduate Student Senate (2015). She is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the Biomedical Engineering Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the International College of Fellows in Biomaterials Science and Engineering.

Her other professional service includes acting as Associate Editor for Biotechnology and Bioengineering and the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, serving as a member of the Editorial Board of Acta Biomaterialia, and serving as a standing member of the Biomaterials/ Biointerfaces (BMBI) study section for the NIH (2010- 2013). She served as Chair for the 2013 Gordon Research Conference on Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering and the 2017 Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting. She is co-editor of the 4th edition of the seminal textbook Biomaterials Science: An Introduction to Materials in Medicine.