Aaron Fields, PhD
Aaron Fields, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at UCSF. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Denver in 2005, and his Masters and Doctoral degrees, also in Mechanical Engineering, from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008 and 2010. His undergraduate research was on the use of probabilistic techniques to evaluate knee implant performance, and both of his graduate thesis projects focused on discovering the mechanisms of vertebral fragility using high-resolution computational models. Aaron was appointed to a faculty position at UCSF after completing his post-doctoral fellowship in Orthopaedic Surgery in 2015. His background includes extensive research in experimental and computational biomechanics. Aaron is an active member of the Orthopaedic Research Society and the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine.
Aaron currently directs the Orthopaedic Biomechanics and Biotransport Laboratory at UCSF. The lab's broad research interests are related to structure-function relationships in musculoskeletal tissues, with a particular focus on the mechanisms of nutrient transport in bone and cartilage and harnessing nutrient transport for tissue repair and regeneration. The lab combines engineering and biology approaches for (1) understanding the effects of aging and disease on structure-transport relationships and (2) developing translatable diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. An overall theme of this research is the use of advanced experimental and computational tools to measure how tissue constituents at the nano- and microscales impact whole-organ behavior.
Interests: orthopaedic biomechanics, spine, intervertebral disc degeneration, bone fragility, finite element analysis, osteoporosis, micro-CT, image analysis, materials testing, big data