From left to right: Praneetha Pulyala, Dr. Ketul Popat’s lab student visiting from VIT; Dr. Popat, and Dr. Geetha Manivasagam, Dr. Popat’s collaborator visiting from VIT, at Bear Lake at Estes Park, Colo.
Two faculty members recently fulfilled their sabbatical leaves in New Zealand and other locations. The ME department at CSU has a longrunning tradition of faculty sabbatical exchanges with the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.
Drs. Ketul Popat and Christian Puttlitz spent six months to a year abroad to focus on research in their fields.
In 2015, Associate Professor Popat, spent his sabbatical in India, New Zealand, and Brazil to further his knowledge in biomaterials, nanotechnology, and tissue engineering, as well as to build collaborative relationships and diversify educational objectives at Colorado State University. In Vellore, India, he visited the Centre for Biomaterials and Technology at the Vellore Institute of Technology. At the Centre for Biomaterials and Technology, he visited a collaborator, Dr. Geetha Manivasagam at her lab, and hosted two of her students earlier this year. At VIT, he taught a course in tissue engineering.
Following his time in India, he traveled to New Zealand where he was an Erskine Fellow in the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. There, he taught a thermodynamics course to juniors. Dr. Popat was also involved with the Centre for Bioengineering, an internationally recognized interdisciplinary research center of excellence dedicated to servicing the biotech/bioengineering industry, where he developed collaborations with the BioMATE group in areas of advanced 3-D scaffolds and in-vitro culture techniques. He also gave seminars at the University of Auckland and Massey University.
Dr. Christian Puttlitz and his family doing the Routeburn Great Walk: three-day hut-to-hut hike from Mount Aspiring National Park into Fiordland National Park.
To finish his excursion, he spent time at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, Curitiba, and Universidade Estadual Paulista, Guaratinguetá, Brazil. He visited his collaborators’ labs at both universities, learned about their strengths, and developed collaborative projects. He also taught tissue engineering courses at each university.
“Part of my sabbatical plan was to establish collaborative relationships between Colorado State University and the universities that I visited during my sabbatical. Toward sustainable development, it is essential to integrate new educational programs that will diversify the landscape of medical technology. Such collaborations will have great potential to lead further interactions, where students and faculty can visit Colorado State University for advanced education and research, and vice versa.”
Dr. Christian Puttlitz and his family Heli-hiking on the Fox Glacier on the west coast.
At Dr. Woodfield’s lab at the Christchurch Hospital, the pair worked on a way to repair a portion of the intervertebral disc when it becomes damaged; low back pain is common and can be caused by disc herniation. They developed 3-D-printed scaffolds to be placed in the spine during repair surgery as, currently, there is no method to replace the damaged tissue when it’s removed surgically. In addition, they have developed sophisticated computer models to mimic the mechanical performance of the native disc tissue and, with this information, have printed a series of possible disc tissue replacement scaffolds.
Along with research, Dr. Puttlitz developed and taught an orthopedic biomechanics course at the University of Canterbury intended for senior undergraduates and junior graduate students. He has plans to begin teaching this course at CSU in the near future.
Dr. Puttlitz bungee jumping off the Kawarau Bridge, 141 feet above the Kawarau River outside Queenstown.
Dr. Puttlitz experienced New Zealand with his wife and daughter. His daughter attended school and learned a lot about New Zealand’s culture. They soaked in every second of the experience by planning excursions and four- and five-day trips around the country, as seen in his stunning photos.