Geert Schmid-Schönbein

Dr. Schmid-Schonbein is a Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering, Adjunct Professor in Medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and director of the UCSD Microcirculation Laboratory where he and his team are studying organ injury mechanisms, apoptosis in hypertension, and triggers for inflammation in the blood circulation. Dr. Schmid-Schonbein earned his Ph.D. in bioengineering from UCSD in 1976. After a three-year post-doctoral fellowship at Columbia University, he returned to UCSD in 1979 as an assistant professor. Some of Dr. Schmid-Schonbein's early research discoveries involved the behavior of infection-fighting white blood cells. Using engineering techniques, he made the first determination of the force with which white blood cells adhere to the walls of blood vessels as part of the initial process of inflammation. Later, Dr. Schmid-Schonbein concluded that the survival of an acutely ill patient can hinge on the degree to which white blood cells are activated. Recently his group discovered a mechanism that leads to the activation of white blood cells, which is due to digestive enzymes and may cause cardiovascular disease. Among his many distinctions, Dr. Schmid-Schonbein is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Heart Association. He is a founding fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the winner of the Melville Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineering.