Dr. Omens received both his undergraduate B.S. degree and Ph.D. from the University of California San Diego in Bioengineering. Since joining the School of Medicine faculty in 1991 at UCSD, he has devoted most of his effort to research and teaching. His joint affiliation between Bioengineering and Medicine enables him to combine resources from both departments, using combinations of imaging, mechanical testing, histology and computational modeling to look at mechanisms of cardiac diseases such as hypertrophy, myocardial infarction and heart failure. He is interested in research involving cellular mechanisms of mechanical function of the heart, using engineered cell cultures to examine the role of load-induced cellular adaptation in cardiac hypertrophy and the role of the cytoskeleton in mechanotransduction in myocytes. He has also developed and published computational modeling techniques for analysis of mechanical function in the heart. Dr. Omens devotes quite a bit of time to teaching at many levels at UCSD, including undergraduate courses in Bioengineering and a School of Medicine Lab course. He also teaches undergraduate and graduate students working the Cardiovascular Physiology and Cardiac Mechanics laboratories, as well as being a mentor for independent research projects a various levels and for medical students working on Independent Study Projects. He received the Distinguished Teaching Award at UCSD in 2005.Dr. Omens received both his undergraduate B.S. degree and Ph.D. from the University of California San Diego in Bioengineering. Since joining the School of Medicine faculty in 1991 at UCSD, he has devoted most of his effort to research and teaching. His joint affiliation between Bioengineering and Medicine enables him to combine resources from both departments, using combinations of imaging, mechanical testing, histology and computational modeling to look at mechanisms of cardiac diseases such as hypertrophy, myocardial infarction and heart failure. He is interested in research involving cellular mechanisms of mechanical function of the heart, using engineered cell cultures to examine the role of load-induced cellular adaptation in cardiac hypertrophy and the role of the cytoskeleton in mechanotransduction in myocytes. He has also developed and published computational modeling techniques for analysis of mechanical function in the heart. Dr. Omens devotes quite a bit of time to teaching at many levels at UCSD, including undergraduate courses in Bioengineering and a School of Medicine Lab course. He also teaches undergraduate and graduate students working the Cardiovascular Physiology and Cardiac Mechanics laboratories, as well as being a mentor for independent research projects a various levels and for medical students working on Independent Study Projects. He received the Distinguished Teaching Award at UCSD in 2005.

electrochemical energy storage, control of thermal energy, and fluid flow at the nanoscale