Meet the Dean

Dr. Elise Morgan

Dean, ad interim, College of Engineering
Maysarah K. Sukkar Professor of Engineering Design and Innovation

College of Engineering Dean ad interim Elise Morgan is the Maysarah K. Sukkar Professor of Engineering Design and Innovation and the inaugural director of the Center for Multiscale and Translational Mechanobiology at Boston University.  She has faculty appointments in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (primary), the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

Dr. Morgan received her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of California Berkeley and was a postdoctoral fellow in the departments of mechanical engineering and surgery at Stanford University.

Dr. Morgan’s research group focuses on the mechanical behavior and mechanobiology of skeletal tissues at multiple length scales. Her group uses experimental and computational methods to explore how the deformation and failure behavior of tissues depend on the tissue microstructure; and, conversely, how the differentiation and adaptation of tissues and cells are modulated by their mechanical microenvironment.

Dr. Morgan is strongly committed to expanding access, opportunity, equity and inclusion for all individuals in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). In her classroom teaching, academic advising, research supervision, mentoring of trainees and early career faculty, and outreach activities, she seeks to shift the culture of academia and STEM workforces towards embracing mutual differences and celebrating individuals’ authentic selves and unique contributions.

Dr. Morgan has received research funding from the NIH, the NSF, and multiple industry sources and private foundations. From 2016-2018, she was the chair of the Skeletal Biology, Structure, and Regeneration study section of the NIH Center for Scientific Review. From 2015-2022, she was an associate editor of the Journal of Biomechanics. She is the recipient of several research awards, including the 2013 Kappa Delta Young Investigator Award from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, and is the co-founder of a STEM outreach program, Summer Pathways, for high-school girls.

Dr. Morgan is the associate dean for Research and Faculty Development in the College of Engineering. She serves on the editorial board of Bone and is a member of the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.