Melanie Ecker

2015 Doctor of Natural Sciences (equivalent to Ph.D.)

• Freie Universistät Berlin, Germany
• Thesis: Development, characterization and durability of switchable information carriers based on shape memory polymers

2010 Diploma in Chemistry (equivalent to MS)

• Freie Universistät Berlin, Germany
• Thesis: Sequence-defined insertion of anionic groups into linear and monodisperse poly(amidomines)

2006 Intermediate Diploma in Chemistry (equivalent to BS)

• Freie Universistät Berlin, Germany

Dr. Ecker is Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. She is the Principal Investigator of the Ecker Lab – Smart Polymers for Biomedical Applications.

Her research interests lie in polymer science and biomedical engineering. She wants to combine both fields to develop biomedical devices, such as conformal and biocompatible neural devices to study the electrophysiology of the enteric nervous system.

Dr. Ecker is originally from Germany, where she studied Chemistry at the Freie Universität Berlin and perused her Ph.D. research on shape memory polymers at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) under Dr. Pretsch before she moved to the US.

She conducted her postdoctoral studies at the University of Texas at Dallas in the Advanced Polymer Research Lab of Dr. Walter Voit in close collaboration with the Neural Networks and Interfaces Lab of Dr. Joseph Pancrazio.