Background
of Carl McMillin
Mechanical Engineering bachelors from General Motors Institute, MS & PhD in Macromolecular Science with minor in Operations Research from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) with doctoral thesis on structure/function of blood clotting proteins. NIH/NHLBI post-doctoral fellowship on blood platelet/surface interactions at CWRU and visiting scientist at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation Department of Artificial Organs. Contract manager at Monsanto Research Corporation directing acquisition and conduct of a wide range of government research contracts, including six years on the development of accelerated fatigue tests for rubbers of potential use in artificial heart manufacture for the NIH. Helped found the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Akron. Taught biomaterials & artificial organs courses and was Director of the Cardiovascular Laboratory for six years. Directed graduate students and post-doctoral fellows on topics such as fluid dynamics of artificial hearts in conjunction with NASA Lewis Labs and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, blood/flexing substrate interactions using an ex vivo loop, and heart preservation methods for transplantation. Co-investigator with the Cleveland Clinic on artificial heart programs, subcontractor to the University of Utah heart program on diaphragm permeability and conducted limited consulting under the name of Synthetic Body Parts. Spent eight years as senior scientific person in AcroMed, a spinal orthopedics company, developing new devices and bringing them to market - helping the company grow from $16M to $95M, and the previous ten months as a full time consultant – working primarily for AcroMed.
Member of Adjunct Staff of the Cleveland Clinic for most years since 1984. One of seven US scientists invited to USSR for joint symposium on artificial hearts – lead by Michael DeBakey. On commercialization and advisory boards of Edison Biotechnology Center, a State of Ohio funded center designed to help grow biotechnology companies in Ohio, since 1992. On Editorial Advisory Board of Medical Plastics and Biomaterials, Canon Communications, Inc., 1994-present. On External Advisory Board, Center for Cardiovascular Biomaterials, Case Western Reserve University since 1994. Executive Editor (USA) of the international journal, Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, Pergamon Press, 1990-1996. Eighty-seven published journal articles, book chapters, symposia and contract research publications, patents and theses. Author or co-author of 58 national or international meeting presentations.