Grace O’Connell

Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence, College of Engineering

University of California, Berkeley – Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grace O’Connell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the co-director of the Berkeley Biomechanics Laboratory, and her research interests are in soft tissue mechanobiology and tissue engineering. O’Connell received PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009, where her research focused on intervertebral disc biomechanics with age, degeneration, and injury. O’Connell’s research group focuses on tissue- and joint-level intervertebral disc mechanobiology. She has received many awards including the 2019 YC Fung Young Investigator Award, NSF CAREER Award. Since July 2021, she has been the Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence in the College of Engineering at Berkeley.