{"id":16288,"date":"2015-06-16T16:01:18","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T20:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/?p=16288"},"modified":"2025-06-11T12:33:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T17:33:14","slug":"chelsey-simmons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/mae\/chelsey-simmons\/","title":{"rendered":"Get to Know Chelsey Simmons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"lead\"><b>Home is where the heart is\u00a0for this\u00a0Florida-born Ivy-Leaguer.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Get to Know A Gator Engineer: Chelsey Simmons\" width=\"1640\" height=\"923\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aGew8ukNqKQ?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>After growing up in the Gainesville area, Chelsey Simmons ventured out to Harvard for her undergraduate degree, followed by a master\u2019s and PhD from Stanford. But when it came time to find a tenure-track position at a top research university \u2013 with a mechanical engineering department within walking distance of a medical school \u2013 she was pleasantly surprised to find there was no place like home. Here\u00a0at UF, Simmons runs a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gatorbaitlabs.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">lab that engineers biomimetic systems<\/a> that the College of Medicine uses to study cardiovascular cells.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t need to build something that acts like the heart to <em>replace<\/em> the heart. We can build something that acts like the heart to learn and understand how to get the heart to fix itself!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-16626\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/249\/2015\/06\/simmons-at-beach-1024x837-1-300x245.jpg\" alt=\"simmons-at-beach\" width=\"300\" height=\"245\" \/>As a youngster, Simmons caught the engineering bug at a UF E-Week event in the O\u2019Connell Center. Nowadays, she rewards her hard-working grad students with trips to memorable\u00a0childhood destinations. Her favorite?\u00a0A\u00a0mile-long stretch at St. Augustine Beach that ends at the Beachcomber Restaurant, where wings and cold drinks are served on a \u201cno-shoes-required\u201d surf-side deck. Engineering good health requires good times.<\/p>\n<h2>Q &amp;\u00a0A with Chelsey<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><b>What is your official title at Gator Engineering?<\/b>\u00a0<br \/> Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical &amp; Aerospace Engineering<\/li>\n<li><b>Coffee or tea? With milk or sugar?<\/b>\u00a0<br \/> Coffee with half and half and sweetener, not picky about the type.<\/li>\n<li><b>What are you reading right now, or what is the last book you read?<br \/> <\/b>A Jack Reacher book by Lee Child.<\/li>\n<li><b>What was your first music purchase or concert you attended?<br \/> <\/b>My first concert was MC Hammer at the O-Dome when I was in middle school. Boyz II Men opened for him!<\/li>\n<li><b>Where was your hometown, or where is your favorite place you&#8217;ve lived, other than Gainesville?<br \/> <\/b>Zurich, Switzerland. I lived there for the better part of a year doing my postdoc, and I traveled to 13 countries using Zurich as a home base.<\/li>\n<li><b>What&#8217;s your favorite restaurant in Gainesville? What do you order there?<\/b>\u00a0<br \/> Southern Charm, and I order the meatloaf or the roasted beets. And I always order the sweet potato hush puppies, usually for dessert!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"lead\">Follow Chelsey on Twitter via <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chelseyphd\" target=\"_blank\">@ChelseyPhD<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home is where the heart is\u00a0for this\u00a0Florida-born Ivy-Leaguer. After growing up in the Gainesville area, Chelsey Simmons ventured out to Harvard for her undergraduate degree, followed by a master\u2019s and PhD from Stanford. But when it came time to find a tenure-track position at a top research university \u2013 with a mechanical engineering department within [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2592,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-templates\/single-sidebar-none.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"featured_post":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mae"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2592"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16288"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38617,"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16288\/revisions\/38617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}