Rate My Professor Cynthia Bir

Cynthia Bir serves as Professor and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering within the James and Patricia Anderson College of Engineering at Wayne State University since 2019. She holds a B.S. in Nursing from Nazareth College (1990), an M.S. in Bioengineering from the University of Michigan (1992), an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Wayne State University (1999), and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Wayne State University (2000). Bir began her academic career as faculty in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Wayne State University from 2000 to 2013, achieving the rank of Professor from 2009 to 2013. Subsequently, she served as Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Southern California from 2013 to 2019.

An internationally renowned expert in human injury tolerances, Cynthia Bir's research specializations encompass sports injury biomechanics, ballistic impacts, blast injury, and forensic biomechanics. Her studies examine the effects of impacts to all regions of the body, including biomechanical analysis of mild traumatic brain injury associated with football, cumulative concussive effects of heading in youth soccer, evaluation of acceleration techniques for measuring head impact biomechanics, correlation between punch dynamics and risk of injury in boxing, assessment of mild traumatic brain injury in female boxers, forensic bioengineering, and law enforcement safety. Key publications include "Assessment of Thorax Finite Element Model Response for Behind Armor Blunt Trauma Impact Loading Using an Epidemiological Database" (ASME Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, 2020), "Human Effects Assessment of 40mm Nonlethal Impact Munitions" (Human Factors and Mechanical Engineering in Defense and Safety, 2019), "Fatal Injuries of Law Enforcement/Correctional Officers Attacked with Sharp-Edged Weapons" (Journal of Forensic Sciences, 2017), and "Development of biomechanical response corridors of the thorax to blunt ballistic impacts" (Journal of Biomechanics, 2003). Bir has received the Fellowship of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2014), induction into the Wayne State University College of Engineering Hall of Fame (2015), two Emmy Awards as lead science consultant for ESPN's Sport Science, Outstanding Faculty Service Awards from the College of Engineering (2010 and 2011), Alpha Award of Innovation from the Engineering Society of Detroit (2009), Headliners Award from Women of Wayne (2009), and Crain’s Detroit Business Women to Watch (2008). She serves on the NFL Engineering Committee and the review committee for the Head Health Tech Challenge, and has consulted for science-based shows including National Geographic's Fight Science.