Joshua Smith | Photo by Adam Atkinson
Research area: My primary area of research is on modeling a medical procedure called convection-enhanced delivery, in which a therapeutic agent is directly infused into the brain tissue through a surgically implanted catheter (i.e., a needle) for the treatment of a tumor (rather than delivered indirectly via the vascular system). Over the past 10 years, I have focused on studying the effect of backflow, in which the infused fluid leaks backward along the shaft of the catheter rather than flowing forward from the tip of the catheter into the targeted region of tissue. Insights from the models may help clinicians determine the direction and depth of the catheter to yield the best distribution of the drug.
My Lafayette journey: I was an undergraduate student at Bucknell University, and I benefited from the small class sizes and a very close academic relationship with a professor, who taught me in several classes and supervised my honors thesis. From that experience, I knew that I wanted to be a professor at a small liberal arts college where I could have similar mentoring relationships with students.
What receiving a full professorship means to me: When I was informed by former President Byerly in 2014 of being promoted to associate professor, she wrote that “tenure constitutes a reciprocal commitment between the candidate and the College, in which the College’s continued support is matched by the candidate’s continued productivity to dedication to excellence.” I think of those words frequently, and being promoted to professor means that I have been honoring that commitment.
What I will be teaching in the fall: ES 301: Bioengineering Systems and Design, a core course for students competing in the bioengineering focus area of the B.S. integrative engineering major.
Learn more about faculty who have been promoted to the rank of professor.
