Omar Benavides

Omar Benavides has a wealth of experience in the medical device industry, research, and teaching. Omar began their career in 2004 as a Minority Introduction to Engineering, Entrepreneurship, and Science Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) / Broad Institute / National Human Genome Research Institute. In 2006, they took on the role of Teaching Assistant, Undergraduate Tutor, and Freshman Honors Advisor at The University of Texas at Austin, College of Natural Sciences & Cockrell School of Engineering. In 2007, they worked as a Process Characterization Technician at SEMATECH Advanced Technology Development Facility. From 2008-2010, they were a Research Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Biological Engineering. From 2010-2012, they worked as a Graduate Research Scientist at Rice University, Department of Bioengineering. In 2012, they worked as a Computer-Aided Design/SolidWorks Consultant at Saranas and then joined Procyrion, Inc. as an Associate Director, Product Development. At Procyrion, they worked their way up to Director, Program Management, overseeing clinical production of the company's Aortix™ circulatory support device. Omar was responsible for approving production drawings, developing assembly protocols, designing in-process controls, and planning/executing verification and validation studies for regulatory submissions. Omar also developed tools to monitor project performance, identify areas of improvement, and generate program status reports.

Omar Benavides obtained a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Biomedical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin between 2005 and 2009. Omar then went on to earn a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Bioengineering from Rice University between 2009 and 2014. In March 2020, they obtained a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute.