PITTSBURGH (April
4, 2018) … This year’s Distinguished Alumni from the University of Pittsburgh Swanson
School of Engineering have worked with lesson plans and strategic plans,
cosmetics and the cosmos, brains and barrels and bridges. It’s a diverse group,
but each honoree shares two things in common on their long lists of
accomplishments: outstanding achievement in their fields, and of course, graduation
from the University of Pittsburgh.
This year’s recipient for the Department of Bioengineering is
David VanSickle, PhD BIOE ’98, MD ’01, Founder of South Denver Neurosurgery
and Director of Denver DBS
Center.
The six individuals representing each of the Swanson
School’s departments and one overall honoree representing the entire school
gathered at the 54th annual Distinguished Alumni Banquet at the University of
Pittsburgh’s Alumni Hall to accept their awards. Gerald D. Holder, US Steel
Dean of Engineering, led the banquet for the final time before his return to
the faculty this fall.
“In the very early days of the bioengineering program here
at the Swanson School, David joined Pitt from California State University at
Sacramento along with Dr. Rory Cooper. Together they would establish what would
become one of Pitt’s most innovative and life-changing programs – the Human
Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL),” said Dean Holder. “Today, HERL has
gained international recognition and awards for technologies that help the
lives of differently abled people, especially our wounded veterans.”
About David VanSickle
Dr. David VanSickle earned a PhD in Biomedical Engineering
at the University of Pittsburgh in 1998 and an MD in 2001.
Originally coming to Pittsburgh with Dr. Rory Cooper in
December 1993, Dr. VanSickle co-founded the Human Engineering Research
Laboratories (HERL). To get the lab off the ground, he drove one of two trucks
of laboratory equipment from Dr. Cooper’s lab at California State University in
Sacramento to Pittsburgh, towing his car behind.
After graduating from Pitt medical school, Dr. VanSickle
pursued a career in neurosurgery and completed a six-year neurosurgery
residency at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He is
board-certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery and is a fellow of
the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. He has authored
numerous peer-reviewed journal articles.
For the past 10 years, Dr. VanSickle has been in private
practice as a founding member of South Denver Neurosurgery located on the
campus of Littleton Adventist Hospital, a Level II trauma center. While
providing trauma and general neurosurgery care, his practice has strong
emphasis on deep brain stimulation (DBS). This therapeutic system consists
of placing electrodes into target areas of the brain to modify disease states
such as Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, obsessive compulsive disorder,
or dystonia.
Dr. VanSickle adapted the Mazor surgical robot to an
image-based electrode placement technique in 2014 – becoming the first surgeon
in the U.S. to place electrodes robotically. Subsequently, Littleton Adventist
Hospital established the Denver DBS Center directed by Dr. VanSickle, and it’s
recognized as the worldwide leader in robotic deep brain stimulation
surgery. Dr. VanSickle also performs surgery for epilepsy and holds a
patent for a surgically-implanted device to record epileptic events.
Dr. VanSickle is married with two children residing in
Denver.
###
4/4/2018
Contact: Leah Russell