Jeffrey R. Capadona PECASE Awardee
Jeffrey R. Capadona, PhD
Jeffrey R. Capadona, PhD, was presented with the PECASE on July 22, 2012, representing one of the nation’s 96 most promising young scientists for his pioneering work in bridging connections between artificial implants and the human body. The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) is the highest honor the U.S. government bestows upon promising scholars beginning their careers.
Jeffrey R. Capadona, PhD, was presented with the PECASE on July 22, 2012, representing one of the nation’s 96 most promising young scientists for his pioneering work in bridging connections between artificial implants and the human body. The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) is the highest honor the U.S. government bestows upon promising scholars beginning their careers.
Faculty and colleagues at the Veteran’s Administration and CWRU nominated Dr. Capadona for the presidential award. The group lauded him for his ability to merge the disciplines of biology and engineering to help restore those injured by war, accidents and disease. They also described him as conscientious and hardworking, creative and dedicated, unassuming and a team player. In addition, the nominators cited Dr. Capadona for his work to help develop a fabrication technique that produces materials that change from rigid to flexible and vice-versa, depending on cues from the environment. Inspiration for the breakthrough came from the sea cucumber, which turns from pliable to hard when touched.
"Capadona’s development of this revolutionary class of biologically inspired polymer nanocomposites will enable the pursuit of a wide range of biomedical devices that will positively impact Veteran health care in profound and important ways," the nominating panel wrote in a letter to the White House. They pointed to the materials used in probes and implants that record activity and stimulate nerves in the brain and elsewhere in the body, and to link the human brain to machines and artificial joints and prosthetic sockets to the body.
The chemist and material scientist joined the engineering school’s faculty in 2010 and studies the nervous system's response to implanted medical devices. "Within the nervous system, there are so many crippling diseases or injuries where medical devices can be life altering and/or saving," Capadona said. "Unfortunately, most of the technologies are limited by the body's reaction to the implant. The devices fail quickly and repeated surgeries or revisions are needed…. My goal is to enable the technologies of the brilliant people who came before me."
CWRU campus records show that Capadona is the second Case Western Reserve professor to receive the award while on the university faculty. Suchitra Nelson, professor of community dentistry at the Case School of Dental Medicine, won the Presidential Award in 2007.
Taken from http://blog.case.edu/think/2012/07/24/president_honors_case_western_reserve_university_researcher
