New Heat Transfer Technologies for Better Health and Well Being

Speaker: Ken Diller, University of Texas Austin

Abstract: Heat transfer plays a central and critical role in the very existence of life. Mammalian and avian species are notable in holding a relatively constant core temperature that when violated results in disease and death. Effective mechanisms have evolved for efficiently moving heat between the core and body surface, and these transport pathways can be recruited to aid in the recovery from many serious illnesses and trauma and to enhance the quality of life and well being. The Diller lab has discovered how to access control of these pathways and applied this understanding to develop new technologies for manipulating key life maintaining and enhancing processes. Thus, it is possible toproactively precipitate sleep onset and lower systolic blood pressure overnight, all in the absence of pharmaceutical interventions that have known negative side effects. Simple and safe heat transfer stimulation is all that is needed. This seminar will discuss the discovery of these technologies and their practical application.

Bio: Dr. Diller is the Robert M. and Prudie Leibrock Endowed Professor in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Diller is an internationally recognized authority in heat and temperature related processes in living tissues and how they may be applied in the design of therapeutic devices. His first studies in the 1960’s were related to the frozen banking of cells and tissues for transplantation. He has also pursued advanced analysis of burn injury occurrence and treatment and the application of thermal therapy for cancer. Currently he is focused on the use of temperature manipulation to enhance the healing of injured soft tissues, the development of a new generation of safer and more effective devices for lowering body core temperature in patients with major organ ischemia as caused by cardiac arrest, stroke, or traumatic brain injury, and creation a thermal microenvironment to improve the ability to sleep well. Dr. Diller is a distinguished alumnus of the Ohio State University.