Rate My Professor Laura Fix

Laura Ellwein Fix is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she serves as Associate Chair and Director of Undergraduate Studies. She holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1999), an M.S. in Applied Mathematics with a concentration in Computational Mathematics from North Carolina State University (2005), and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics with a concentration in Physiology from North Carolina State University (2008), with a dissertation on Cardiovascular and Respiratory Regulation, Modeling and Parameter Estimation. Before pursuing graduate studies, she worked as a Quality Engineer at General Mills, Inc. (1999–2003). Following her Ph.D., she was a Postdoctoral Fellow and Guest Lecturer in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Marquette University (2008–2012). She joined Virginia Commonwealth University as an Assistant Professor in 2012 and was promoted to tenured Associate Professor in 2019.

Ellwein Fix develops mathematical models to simulate and analyze transport phenomena in cardiorespiratory physiology, focusing on lumped parameter models of system-level dynamics and regulation, as well as distributed parameter models of local hemodynamics. Her research interests include regulation in cardiovascular and pulmonary systems, numerical methods and optimization, computational fluid dynamics, data-driven patient-specific parameterization, differential equations, dynamical systems, and algorithm development for biomedical applications. She engages in interdisciplinary collaborations with researchers in biomedical engineering, medicine, and exercise science. Key publications include “Theoretical open-loop model of respiratory mechanics in the preterm neonate” (PLoS ONE, 2018, co-authored with J. El Khoury et al.), “Toward translating near-infrared spectroscopy oxygen saturation data for the non-invasive prediction of spatial and temporal hemodynamics during exercise” (Biomech Model Mechanobiol, 2017, co-authored with M. Samyn et al.), “Influence of image segmentation on one-dimensional fluid dynamics predictions in the mouse pulmonary arteries” (J R Soc Interface, 2019, co-authored with M.J. Colebank et al.), and “Patient-specific modeling of cardiovascular and respiratory dynamics during hypercapnia” (Math Biosci, 2013, co-authored with S. Pope et al.). She has 18 refereed publications. Ellwein Fix received the American Heart Association Midwest Affiliate Postdoctoral Fellowship (2010–2012), Faculty Council Research Award from VCU’s College of Humanities and Sciences (2016), Association for Women in Mathematics Travel Grant (2018), and several student and travel awards from SIAM. As principal investigator or consultant, she has obtained grants including Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program fellowships (2018, 2020, 2021) and the American Heart Association fellowship.