The Weldon School continues to grow with the addition of three new faculty members. These additions to the Weldon family bring new strengths to the School and add new depth and capabilities in research and education.

Edward L. Bartlett, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, brings expertise in neurophysiology and neuroanatomy, with an emphasis on auditory systems. His research focuses on understanding how the auditory thalamus controls and shapes the flow of information between the auditory periphery and the auditory cortex in normal and pathological conditions. He earned his B.A. in physics from Haverford College, his Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, served a summer fellowship in computational neuroscience at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, and served as a Postdoctoral Fellow and as a Research Associate at the Johns Hopkins University.

Lynetta Freeman, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Associate Professor of Small Animal Surgery in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, brings extensive experience in the development of surgical procedures and devices. Her research and development experience includes more than 15 years with Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc., finishing as Director of the Bariatric Surgery Innovation Team. Her clinical research interests are in the areas of laparoscopy and thoracoscopy, including exploratory laparoscopy, laparoscopic liver biopsy, laparoscopic ovariohysterectomy, and thoracoscopic procedures. She earned her B.S. in agriculture and D.V.M. degrees at Oklahoma State University, completed a small-animal internship program at Colorado State University, earned a M.S. in veterinary clinical sciences and completed a small-animal surgical residency program at Washington State University, and earned an M.B.A. in business administration from Xavier University.

Gudrun Schmidt, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, provides extensive experience in polymers, biomaterials, particularly hydrogels for three-dimensional cell growth and smart materials for controlled drug release, through research at the interface of polymer chemistry and physics, as well as nanocomposite materials. Her research focuses on the synthesis, development, and fundamental characterization of new multi-component and nanocomposite materials with hybrid properties. She earned her B.A. in chemistry, and M.S. and Ph.D in macromolecular chemistry from the Albert Ludwigs University of Freibrug, Germany; was a Postdoctoral Associate in a joint program with Lund University (Sweden), Institut Laue Langevin (France), and the University of Freiburg (Germany); was the Alexander von Humboldt/Feodor Lynen Postdoctoral Fellow in the Polymers Division of the Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. An NSF CAREER awardee, she will join the Purdue faculty this summer from Louisiana State University.