Tricia is a 2010-2014 Self Fellow pursuing a Ph.D. in bioengineering. Tricia received her B.S. in biomedical engineering (2007) at St. Louis University in St. Louis, MO, and also completed an M.S. (2009) in Marriage and Family with an emphasis in bioethics from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute in Rome, Italy.
As an undergraduate Tricia received numerous awards including the Saint Louis University Deans' Scholarship, Parks College of Engineering and Aviation Alumni Scholarship, the Mathematics and Computer Science Department Calculus Award and Mathematics Award, and the Earnest Lyder Memorial Fellowship. Her undergraduate research included work at St. Louis University studying the role of vascular mitogens in a rat model of subarachnoid hemorrhage, and work at Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA., fabricating patterned microscaffolds for directing cell migration in tissue engineering.
At KU her research has focused on synthesis and characterization of hybrid hydrogels for biomedical applications and also on insect cuticle as a motif for developing novel and mechanically superior biomaterials. In the future Tricia hopes to have her own research lab in a higher education setting where she integrates biological science and materials engineering with a focus on bioethics.