Members of the F² Lab

Claire Acevedo, PhD

Dr. Acevedo's research concentrates on the mechanical behavior of skeletal tissues and their biological responses to aging and metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. Her studies span from the cellular level to millimeter-length scales, utilizing advanced multiscale experiments. Her work has been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Harold M. Frost Young Investigator Award (ASBMR, 2017), the John Haddad Young Investigator Award (ASBMR, 2018), the NSF Career Award in 2021, and the Alice Jee Award (ORS, 2022).

After earning her PhD at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Prof. Acevedo secured both early and advanced postdoctoral fellowships, enabling her to conduct research at UC Berkeley and later at UC San Francisco. In 2018, she established her own research laboratory, the Fracture and Fatigue of Skeletal Tissues Lab, at the University of Utah. In August 2023, she was hired at UC San Diego.

Email: csacevedo@ucsd.edu

William Woolley

William Woolley graduated back in France with a Master of “Training, Biology, Nutrition, and Health” and then he obtained a second master’s degree in “Bioengineering of Tissue and Implants”. He joined the University of Utah in 2019, first as an intern, then stayed to pursue his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. His research interest is assessing the effect of bone quality on the mechanical properties of bone. Specifically, he is working on the effect of high fracture risk diseases, such as diabetes, on collagen. In his spare time, William enjoys the outdoors and many different sports such as biking, skiing, and tennis.

Email: wwoolley@ucsd.edu

Yoshihiro Obata 

Yoshihiro (Yoshi) Obata is a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. student who joined the Fracture and Fatigue of Skeletal Tissues Lab in 2019. He graduated from North Carolina State University with a BS in Aerospace Engineering. During this time, Yoshi interned at NASA Langley Research Center where he developed a passion for fracture mechanics research. In the F² lab, he works primarily with synchrotron radiation micro-computed tomography (SRuCT) datasets to understand how changes in bone quality and bone fragility are related, as well as using deep learning to enable low-dose micro-CT imaging. His other interests include climbing, running, skiing, and listening to music.

Email: yobata@ucsd.edu

Louis Grodman

Louis Grodman is a Medical Device Engineering Master’s student at UC San Diego and will graduate with his MEng in June 2024. He is also a student at the University of Michigan Medical School and will graduate with his MD in May 2025. After graduating from UC San Diego, he will return to UM to complete medical school and apply into orthopedic surgery residency. His research interests include orthopedic surgery, bone mechanics, medical devices, mental health, and medical education. He spent his undergraduate years at UM, where he was a walk-on on the football team and graduated in 2019 with a BS in Movement Science. In his free time, he enjoys working out, listening to music, and the outdoors.

Email: lougrod@med.umich.edu

Naomi Chin

Naomi Chin is pursuing a Master’s degree in Applied Mechanics after receiving her BS in Mechanical Engineering from UCSD. Her research interests include biomaterials and mechanics of materials. In the lab, her work is focused on detecting and analyzing collagen damage in bone and evaluating its effect on the mechanical properties of bone. In her free time, Naomi enjoys exploring the outdoors, including hiking, climbing, and photography.

Email: nchin@ucsd.edu

Akarsh Srivastava

Akarsh is a Master's student in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department at the University of California, San Diego, with a focus on the analysis of synchrotron radiation micro-computed tomography (SRuCT) datasets. Akarsh’s research involves image segmentation and data analysis of CT images to understand bone quality and its impact on mechanical properties. Outside the lab, Akarsh is an avid enthusiast of bullet chess and soccer, and has recently taken up the gym and running!

Email: a9srivastava@ucsd.edu