Genius Is Created Through Collaboration | Erin Lavik | TEDxBroadway

Theater is the greatest gift one can ever give an aspiring scientist, because it’s dreaming realized, says Erin Lavik, an engineering professor currently researching ways to protect and repair the brain and spinal cord after injury. Lavik minored in theater in college, and through it discovered that true genius is created through collaboration.

Erin Lavik is a professor of Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Dr. Lavik’s research focuses on engineering polymers to protect and repair the nervous system and treat trauma more broadly. The lab does this through a set of approaches including developing intravenously administered nanoparticles to stop internal bleeding, developing drug delivery systems for traumatic brain injury as well as diseases of the eye, and by developing novel materials that can not only direct stem cells but report on their health and function. Dr. Lavik received her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from MIT in Materials Science and Engineering. She has won a number of awards including the TR100 award in 2003 and the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award in 2010. She became at Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers in 2014. She is also an Associate Editor at Bioconjugate Chemistry.