Grace O'Connell

Grace D. O'Connell is an American biomechanical engineer known for her research on the biomechanics of the human spine, on the degeneration and regeneration of spinal tissue, and on the comparison of its properties with the spines of animals used in the study of lumbar disc disease. She is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, where she also held the Don M. Cunningham Chair in Mechanical Engineering. Quotes There’s a big challenge ahead to balance the gender numbers in the engineering professions. Research indicates that girls are usually around middle school age when they become turned off to math and science. I’m finding the culture here to be very open to collaboration and working across disciplines—there’s a real generosity in sharing information. Whenever anything broke in our house, before we threw it out, my dad would say, ‘Let’s take it apart just to look inside.’ Because it was already broken, we could break it even more. That was a lot of fun. External links Category:Women engineers from the United States Category:Mechanical engineers Category:Women academics from the United States Category:21st-century African-American women Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty Category:Living people