Scientific Advisory Board

Candace L. Floyd, Ph.D.

Candace L. Floyd, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and its Center for Glial Biology in Medicine. The central focus of her research is to understand glial-neuronal interactions in traumatic brain and spinal cord injury.  Previously, Dr. Floyd was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, Davis. She conducted her post-doctoral training in traumatic CNS injury at the University of California, Davis from 2001 to 2004. Dr. Floyd received her M.S. from the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University in 1998 and received her Ph.D. from the same institution in 2000. She has served annually as an invited instructor in the Reeve-Irvine Spinal Cord Injury Techniques Course since 2002, is an ad-hoc member of an NIH study section, and has reviewed grant applications for the Department of Defense. She is also an ad-hoc reviewer for several neuroscience journals, including the Journal of Neurotrauma.

Todd C. McDevitt, Ph.D.

Todd C. McDevitt, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, and a Petit Faculty Fellow of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience. In 2009, Dr. McDevitt was appointed as the founding Director of the Stem Cell Engineering Center at Georgia Tech and he has received several awards and honors, including the 2010 Young Investigator Award from the Society for Biomaterials. The McDevitt laboratory for the Engineering of Stem Cell Technologies is focused on innovating novel approaches to translate the potential of stem cells into viable regenerative therapies and diagnostic applications. Dr. McDevitt graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) from Duke University in 1997 after majoring in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering. He received his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Washington in 2001. After completing his Ph.D., Dr. McDevitt conducted post-doctoral research in Dr. Chuck Murry's lab in the Department of Pathology at the University of Washington before joining Georgia Tech as an Assistant Professor in 2004.

W. David Merryman, Ph.D.

W. David Merryman, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Medicine, and Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University. His research interests are cardiovascular mechanobiology, cell and soft tissue biomechanics, tissue engineering, and bioengineering ethics. Prior to his arrival at Vanderbilt, Dr. Merryman was an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He previously was a Research Associate of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Merryman has been awarded an Early Career Award from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, a Scientist Development Grant from the American Heart Association, and a K Award from the National Institutes of Health (NHLBI). He received BS and MS degrees in Engineering Science from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh, where he was an American Heart Association Pre-doctoral Fellow.