William R. Wagner Joins Department of Bioengineering
On his first day at the University of Pittsburgh in 1991, William R. Wagner clearly remembers his instructions from the Provost: “You’re here to make the University of Pittsburgh famous.”
In Wagner’s 33-year career in Pittsburgh, he’s been a significant leader in developing nationally recognized multidisciplinary regenerative medicine research across the University. Now, Wagner is joining Pitt’s Department of Bioengineering as a Distinguished Professor to continue that work within the Swanson School of Engineering.
“I've always had a foot in engineering,” Wagner said. “I am happy to have this as my home base now, but my passion remains the same, which is applying engineering and materials science to develop better solutions for patients suffering with organ or tissue failure.”
Although the department appointed him as primary faculty in 2024, Wagner’s roots in Bioengineering run deep. He has served as a PhD advisor to bioengineering graduate students since the early nineties, and has taught Bioengineering courses while consistently mentoring both undergraduate and graduate bioengineering students during his time at the University.
Drs. Sang Ho Ye and Seungil Kim, post-doctoral researchers Drs. Taro Fujii and Keishi Kohyama, and staff members Mary Jo Dorsey, PhD and Hongbin Jiang, MD, are also joining the department with Wagner. Prior to his appointment in Bioengineering, Wagner served as Director of Pitt’s McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine from 2012 to 2023 and as Distinguished Professor of Surgery. Wagner hopes that by joining the department, some obstacles to collaborative research can be reduced.
“We have excellent engineers across different departments working in the health sciences, and it is clear that interdisciplinary teams are essential to developing new solutions,” Wagner said. “The modern research university needs to actively work against the tendency to form silos. It is essential to catalyze the formation of these teams across administrative structures —I’m focused on breaking down barriers as much as possible to help form new partnerships.”
Wagner’s research interests are in cardiovascular engineering with projects that address medical device biocompatibility and design, biomaterial development, and tissue engineering. A primary focus of his work is advancing biomaterials science to improve the lives of those suffering from heart disease. Looking ahead, Wagner has plans to create a collaborative center that emphasizes the application of materials science and bioengineering to clinical translation.
“Pittsburgh is a place that fundamentally understands materials science, and if you look at materials science applied to medicine or biomaterials, we have a world-class collection of individuals working on this topic,” Wagner said. “We don't really brand ourselves and organize ourselves in a way that the rest of the world is aware of, so looking into the future, I want to help raise our international profile and recruit the next generation of leaders in this field.”