Veronica J. Santos earned a BS in mechanical engineering and a music minor from the University of California at Berkeley (1999), and an MS in mechanical engineering from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (2004). From 2000 to 2001, she was a Quality Engineer and Research and Development Engineer at Guidant Corporation in Santa Clara, CA, specializing in life-saving cardiovascular technology.
She is currently pursuing a PhD at the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. She is working with Prof. Francisco J. Valero-Cuevas on neuromuscular biomechanical models of the human thumb that incorporate anatomical variability and parameter uncertainty via Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations.
Her research interests include robotics, neural control of movement, and clinical applications of biomechanical modeling, specifically to surgical procedures and rehabilitation technology. Veronica has received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2001), an Exceptional Teaching Assistant Award from the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University (2005), and numerous travel awards to contribute to scientific conferences at the national and international levels.