Deanna M. Thompson received her B.S.E in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan (1993). She received her M.S (1999) and Ph.D (2001) in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from Rutgers University as a NIH Pre-doctoral trainee in an interdisciplinary training program in Biotechnology. Dr. Thompson did her post-doctoral training at the Center for Engineering in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Shriners Burns Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital (2001-04). She joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering as an Assistant Professor at Rensselaer in 2004 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2011. Dr. Thompson is a member and her lab is located in the Center of Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Research Center. Dr. Thompson’s research interests are neural tissue engineering specifically related to peripheral nerve and spinal cord repair, neural stem cells, and biomaterials for nerve repair. Dr. Thompson is the recipient of the JD Watson Young Investigator Award and School of Engineering Research Award from Rensselaer. She is a member of several professional societies including Biomedical Engineering Society, Society for Biomaterials and Society for Neuroscience as well as the reviewer for several international and national journals and grant agencies. She is on the Executive Committee for the NIH Biomolecular Pre-doctoral training program and is the faculty co-advisor for the Society of Women Engineers