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Stephen C. Cowin
City University of New York Distinguished Professor
Director, New York Center for Biomedical Engineering
email: scowin@earthlink.net
College Office: T-404A
Convent Avenue at 140th Street
New York, NY, 10031
Tel: (212)650-5208
Fax: (212)650-8727
http://www.bonenet.net

Home Office:
2166 Broadway, #12D
New York, NY 10024
Tel: (212)799-7970
Fax: (212)799-7970
http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/NYCBE
 
Education and Awards:
B.S.E. (Civil Engineering), 1956, Johns Hopkins University;
M.S. (Civil Engineering), 1958, Johns Hopkins University;
Ph.D. (Engineering Mechanics), 1962, Pennsylvania State University.
Fellow: AAM, AIMBE, ASME, AAAS
Best Paper Award, ASME, Bioengineering Division, 1992
The Melville Medal, ASME, 1993
European Society of Biomechanics Research Award, 1994
The H. R. Lissner Metal, 1999, ASME
Elected to the National Academy of Engineering, 2004
The Maurice A. Biot Medal, 2004, ASCE
 
Research Interests:
Mechanics of materials, particularly in the determination of the influence of microstructure on the gross mechanical behavior of granular, composite, and biological materials;
Current publications are in orthopedic biomechanics and anisotropic elasticity.

Professor Cowin also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Orthopedics at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He is the author of over two hundred research papers and editor or co-editor of five books. He is presently or has been an Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Mechanics and the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, a member of the Editorial Board of the Annals of Biomedical Engineering and the Editorial Advisory Board of the Handbook of Bioengineering and the Handbook of Mechanics, Materials, and Structures and the International Journal of Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology. Professor Cowin is known for his analysis of static bin pressure induced by granular materials, his development of a continuum theory for granular materials (with M. A. Goodman), the creation of the continuum theory of materials with small voids (with J. W. Nunziato), for the development of models of granular material slip zones (with M. M. Mehrabadi), basic theorems in anisotropic elasticity (with M. M. Mehrabadi) and the development of the bone remodeling theories and computational algorithms with many co- investigators over a twenty-five year period. In particular, in the last twelve years he has worked with Shelly Weinbaum to develop a physiological model for mechanotransduction in living bone. For information on his forthcoming Tissue Mechanics book with Steve Doty, please visit http://tissue-mechanics.com/.
 
Recent and frequently cited publications:
  • Goodman MA, Cowin SC. 1971. Two problems in the gravity flow of granular materials. J. Fluid Mech. 45: 321-39
  • Goodman MA, Cowin SC. 1972. A Continuum Theory for Granular Materials. Arch. Rational Mech. Anal. 44: 249-266
  • Cowin SC, Hegedus DM. 1976. Bone remodeling I: A theory of adaptive elasticity. J. Elasticity 6: 313-25
  • Cowin SC, Hart RT, Balser JR, Kohn DH. 1985. Functional adaptation in long bones: Establishing in vivo values for surface remodeling rate coefficients. J. Biomechanics 18: 665-84
  • Cowin SC. 1985. The relationship between the elasticity tensor and the fabric tensor. Mechanics of Materials 4: 137-47
  • Cowin SC. 1986. Wolff's law of trabecular architecture at remodeling equilibrium. J. Biomechanical Engineering 108: 83-88
  • Cowin SC, Moss-Salentijn L, Moss ML. 1991. Candidates for the mechanosensory system in bone. J. Biomechanical Engineering 113: 191-97
  • Cowin SC, Sadegh AM, Luo GM. 1992. An evolutionary Wolff's law for trabecular architecture. J. Biomechanical Engineering 114: 129-36
  • Weinbaum S, Cowin SC, Zeng Y. 1994. A model for the excitation of osteocytes by mechanical loading-induced bone fluid shear stresses. J.Biomechanics 27: 339-60
  • Cowin SC, Mehrabadi MM. 1995. Anisotropic symmetries of linear elasticity. Appl. Mech. Rev. 48: 247-85
  • Cowin SC, Weinbaum S, Zeng Y. 1995. A case for bone canaliculi as the anatomical site of strain-generated potentials. J. Biomechanics 28: 1281-96
  • Cowin SC. 1999. Bone Poroelasticity. J. Biomechanics 32: 218- 38
  • Yang G, Kabel J, van Rietbergen B, Odgaard A, Huiskes R, Cowin SC. 1999. The anisotropic Hooke¡¯s law for cancellous bone and wood. J. Elasticity 53: 125-46
  • Cowin SC. 2000. How is a tissue built? J. Biomechanical Engineering 122: 553-69
  • Weinbaum S, Zhang X, Han Y, Vink H, Cowin SC. 2003. Mechanotransduction and flow across the endothelial glycocalyx. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, 100: 7988-95
  • Cowin SC. 2003. Adaptive elasticity: A review and critique of a bone tissue adaptation model. Engineering Transactions 51: 1-79
  • You L, Weinbaum S, Cowin SC, Schaffler MB. 2004. Ultrastructure of the osteocyte process and its pericellular matrix. Anal. Rec. 278A, 505-513.
  • Cowin SC. 2004. Tissue growth and remodeling. In Annual Reviews of Biomedical Engineering, 6:77-107.
  • Han Y, Cowin SC, Schaffler MB, Weinbaum S, 2004. Mechanotransduction and strain amplification in osteocyte cell processes and flow across the endothelial glycocalyx. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, 101: (#47) 16689-16694

  •  
    Books:
  • Cowin SC, Satake M, eds. 1978. Continuum Mechanical and Statistical Approaches in the Mechanics of Granular Materials, Tokyo: Gakujutsu Bunken Fukyu-Kai
  • Cowin SC, ed. 1989. Bone Mechanics, Boca Raton, FL:CRC Press
  • Cowin SC, ed. 2001. Bone Mechanics Handbook, Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press (ISBN/ISSN: 0849391172)
  • Cowin SC, Humphrey JH, eds. 2001. Cardiovascular Soft Tissue Mechanics, Kluwer (ISBN 1-4020-0220-3)
  • Huyghe JM, Raats PA, Cowin SC, eds. 2005. IUTAM-Proceedings on Physicochemical and Electromechanical Interactions in Porous Media, Kluwer, Boston/Dordrecht/London, ISBN-10 1-4020-3464-X (HB)
  • Cowin SC, Doty, SB. Tissue Mechanics. Springer, in press




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