President Distinguished University Professor and Director Musculoskeletal Research Center Department of Bioengineering Swanson School of Engineering University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Savio L-Y. Woo is a Distinguished University Professor of Bioengineering and the Founder and Director of the Musculoskeletal Research Center (MSRC), a diverse multidisciplinary research and educational center in the Department of Bioengineering, Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. He arrived at the University of Pittsburgh in 1990 after spending 20 years at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) as a Professor of Surgery and Bioengineering.
Dr. Woo is a pioneer in bioengineering and is renowned for his 40 years of translational research in healing and repair of tissues. Together with his team, they have authored 304 original research papers in refereed journals as well as 137 book chapters and review articles. Their work has significantly impacted the management of ligament and tendon injuries including clinical paradigm shifts that have led to improved patient outcome.
More recently, Dr. Woo has focused on using novel functional tissue engineering to heal and to regenerate ligament and tendon at the molecular, cellular, tissue and organ levels. Also, he has pioneered the use of robotic technology to study the function of ACL and to improve ACL reconstruction procedures. When combining it with biplanar fluoroscopy, he and his team will be able to better characterize mechanisms of ACL injury and find better ways for its prevention.
Dr. Woo has educated over 460 orthopaedic surgeons, post-doctoral fellows and students from all around the globe including, Japan, Germany, Greece, Italy, Taiwan, Turkey, Korea, Canada, England, Norway, India, Thailand, Hong Kong SAR, and China. He has also mentored 37 junior faculty members.
Dr. Woo has been a leader in Bioengineering and Orthopaedics. He has served as Chair of ASME’s Bioengineering Division, United States National Committee of Biomechanics, and the World Council for Biomechanics as well as President for The Orthopaedic Research Society, American Society of Biomechanics, and International Society for Fracture Repair. He has also founded the International Symposium on Ligaments and Tendons (ISL&T) and World Association for Chinese Biomedical Engineers (WACBE).
Dr. Woo has been inducted into the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Academia Sinica, only one of four persons who have gained all three of these honors.
He has also received the highest honors from many professional societies, including the Kappa Delta Award, the Herbert R. Lissner Medal, the O’Donoghue Sports Injury Research Award, the Giovanni Borelli Award, and the Muybridge Medal, among others. Most recently, he was given the prestigious Diamond Award for Distinguish Achievement from the University of Washington. In 1998, Dr. Woo received the Olympic Prize for Sports Science from the International Olympic Committee and the first Olympic gold medal at the Nagano Games in Japan.