Corina S. Drapaca, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics
Member, Center for Neural Engineering at Penn State
The Pennsylvania State University
409C Earth and Engineering Science Building
University Park, PA 16802, USA
Phone: 814-867-2313
E-mail: csd12@psu.edu

• B.S. in Mathematics-Mechanics, Faculty of Mathematics - University of Bucharest, Romania, 1995.
• M.S. in Applied Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematics - University of Bucharest, Romania, 1996.
• Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematics - University of Waterloo, Canada, 2002.

• 1996-1997: Teaching Assistant, Institute of Civil Engineering and Faculty of Mathematics, Bucharest.
• 1997-2002: Teaching and Research Assistant, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo.
• 2002-2004: Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Radiology, University of California in San Francisco.
• 2004-2005: Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo.
• 2005-2006: Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic.
• 2007-June 2014: Assistant Professor, Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Pennsylvania State University.
• July 2014-Present: Associate Professor, Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Pennsylvania State University.

MATHEMATICAL MODELING WITH APPLICATIONS TO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY:

• Brain Neuro-mechanics: mathematical modeling of the coupling of brain's electro-chemistry and biomechanics at various time and length scales and across scales; computer simulations of hydrocephalus, TBI, tumor growth.
• Theoretical Mechanics: mathematical models of multiple time and length scales phenomena, non-locality, damage; fractional model of continuum mechanics; electro-chemico-mechanical models of multi-phase and multi-functional materials built upon classic theories of viscoelasticity and porous media.
• Computational Methods: numerical methods for non-linear heat equations, reaction-diffusion equations, coupled hyperbolic-parabolic system of equations.
• Medical Image Processing: segmentation, registration, denoising/deblurring techniques based on variational formulations.
• Image Elastography and Inverse Problems: mathematical models and regularization methods for improving MRE; multiple modalities (electric, acoustic, MR Spectroscopy, MRI) to estimate dynamic stiffness values of tissues in vivo.
• Mathematical Modeling of Tumor Classification and Growth.

IN PREPARATION:

S. Sivaloganathan, C.S. Drapaca, Mathematical Modeling and Biomechanics of the Brain, Monograph in Lecture Notes in Mathematics, Springer.

JOURNAL PAPERS:

1. C.S. Drapaca, An electromechanical model of neuronal dynamics using Hamilton’s principle. Front. Cell. Neurosci. 9:271 (2015). doi: 10.3389/fncel.2015.00271 (invited paper).
2. A.E. Segall, D. Engels, C. Drapaca, J. Harris, An Inverse Method for Determining Temperature Dependent Thermophysical Properties based on a Remotely Measured Temperature History, Inverse Problems in Science and Engineering vol. 22, no. 4 (2014): 672-681.
3. A.J. Palocaren, C.S. Drapaca, Biomechanical Modeling of Tumor Growth: Its Relevance to Glioma Research, Int. J. Numer. Anal. Model. B, vol.3, issue 1 (2012): 94-108.
4. A.E. Segall, D. Engels, C.S. Drapaca, Inverse Determination of Thermal Boundary Conditions from Transient Surface Temperatures and Strains in Slabs and Tubs, Materials and Manufacturing Processes, vol.27 (2012): 860-868.
5. K.P. Wilkie, C.S. Drapaca, S. Sivaloganathan, A Mathematical Investigation of the Role of Intracranial Pressure Pulsations and Small Gradients in the Pathogenesis of Hydrocephalus, Int. J. Numer. Anal. Model. B, vol.3, issue 1 (2012): 36-51.
6. C.S. Drapaca, S. Sivaloganathan, The Fractional Model of Continuum Mechanics, Journal of Elasticity, vol.107 (2012): 105-123.
7. C.S. Drapaca, J.S. Fritz, A Mechano-Electro Chemical Model of Brain Neuro-Mechanics: Application to Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, Int. J. Numer. Anal. Model. B, vol.3, issue 1 (2012): 82-93.
8. K.P. Wilkie, C.S. Drapaca, S. Sivaloganathan, Aging Impact on the Brain Biomechanics with Application to Hydrocephalus, Mathematical Medicine and Biology, vol.29, issue 2 (2012): 145-161.
9. K.P. Wilkie, C.S. Drapaca, S. Sivaloganathan, A Nonlinear Viscoelastic Fractional Derivative Model of Infant Hydrocephalus, Applied Mathematics and Computation, vol.217, issue 21 (2011): 8693-8704.
10. C.S. Drapaca, A. Palocaren, Biomechanical Modeling of Tumor Classification and Growth, Revue Roumanie des Sciences Techniques serie de Mechanique Apliquee, vol. 55, no.2 (2010): 115-124 (peer reviewed, in English).
11. J.G. Mandell, T. Neuberger, C.S. Drapaca, A.G. Webb, S.J. Schiff, The Dynamics of Brain and CSF Growth in Normal versus Hydrocephalic Mice: Laboratory Investigation, Journal of Neurosurgery Pediatrics vol.6 (2010):1-10.
12. C.S. Drapaca, A Novel Mechanical Model for Magnetic Resonance Elastography, Revue Roumanie des Sciences Techniques serie de Mechanique Apliquee, vol.55(1) (2010): 3-18 (invited paper; peer reviewed, in English).
13. R.I. Rosca, C.S. Drapaca, Direct and Inverse Problems for the Eversion of a Spherical Shell, Proceedings of the Romanian Academy, Series A, vol.11(1) (2010):33-40 (peer reviewed, in English).
14. K.P. Wilkie, C.S. Drapaca, S. Sivaloganathan, A Theoretical Study of the Effect of Intraventricular Pulsations on the Pathogenesis of Hydrocephalus, Applied Mathematics and Computation vol.215 (2010):3181-3191.
15. C.S. Drapaca, A Nonlinear Total Variation-Based Denoising Method with Two Regularization Parameters, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol.56 (2009): 582-586.
16. C.S. Drapaca, S. Sivaloganathan, G. Tenti, Non-Linear Constitutive Laws in Viscoelasticity, Mathematics and Mechanics of Solids, vol.12, no.5 (2007):475-501.
17. C.S. Drapaca, G. Tenti, K. Rohlf, S. Sivaloganathan, A Quasilinear Viscoelastic Constitutive Equation for the Brain: Application to Hydrocephalus, Journal of Elasticity, vol.85, no.1 (2006):65-83.
18. C. Studholme, C.S. Drapaca, B. Iordanova, V. Cardenas, Deformation Based Mapping of Volume Change from Serial Brain MRI in the Presence of Local Tissue Contrast Change, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol.25, no.5 (2006):626-639.
19. C.S. Drapaca, V. Cardenas, C. Studholme, Segmentation of Tissue Boundary Evolution from Brain MR Image Sequences using Multi-phase Level Sets, Computer Vision and Image Understanding, vol.100, issue 3 (2005):312-329.
20. C.S. Drapaca, G. Tenti, S. Sivaloganathan, J.M. Drake, Dynamical Morphology of the Brain’s Ventricular Cavities in Hydrocephalus, Journal of Theoretical Medicine, vol.6, no.3 (2005):151-160.
21. C.S. Drapaca, The Motion of a Viscous Incompressible Fluid with Free Surface through an Elastic Pipe, Annals of the University of Bucharest, Mathematics, vol.XLVI (1997):21-26.

CONFERENCE PAPERS AND ABSTRACTS:

1. D. Evans, C.S. Drapaca, J.P. Cusumano, Dynamics and Bifurcations in Low-Dimensional Models of Intracranial Pressure, Proceedings of 2015 Congress of the Applied Mathematics, Modeling and Computational Science (AMMCS) and the Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society (CAIMS) (refereed conference paper, under review).
2. Md. Mehedi Hasan, C.S. Drapaca, A Poroelastic-Viscoelastic Limit for Modeling Brain Biomechanics, 2015 Materials Research Society (MRS) Proceedings, 1753, mrsf14-1753-nn06-05 doi:10.1557/opl.2015.111.
3. Md. Mehedi Hasan, C.S. Drapaca, A Fractional Order Model for Local Electric Fields in Tissues, Mechanics of Biological Systems and Materials, Volume 7, Proceedings of the 2014 Annual Conference on Experimental and Applied Mechanics: 75-80.
4. C.S. Drapaca, J. Kauffman, A Study of Brain Biomechanics using Hamilton’s Principle: Application to Hydrocephalus, Interdisciplinary Topics in Applied Mathematics, Modeling and Computational Science, Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics Vol. 117 (2015): 191-197 (refereed conference paper). DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-12307-3_27.
5. J. Kauffman, C.S. Drapaca, A Fractional Pressure-Volume Model of Cerebrospinal Fluid Dynamics in Hydrocephalus, Mechanics of Biological Systems and Materials, Vol. 4, Proceedings of the 2013 Annual Conference on Experimental and Applied Mechanics:179-184.
6. J. Park, S.M. Shontz, C.S. Drapaca, Automatic Boundary Evolution Tracking via a Combined Level Set Method and Mesh Warping Technique: Application to Hydrocephalus, Mesh Processing in Medical Image Analysis 2012, Lecture Notes in Computer Science vol. 7599/2012: 122-133.
7. S. Roy, L. Heltai, C.S. Drapaca, F. Costanzo, An Immersed Finite Element Method Approach for Brain Biomechanics, Mechanics of Biological Systems and Materials, Volume 5, Conference Proceedings of the Society for Experimental and Applied Mechanics Series 2013: 79-86.
8. C.S. Drapaca, S. Sivaloganathan, Non-local Solutions to Direct and Inverse Problems in Mechanics: A Fractional Calculus Approach, Mechanics of Time-Dependent Materials and Processes in Conventional and Multifunctional Materials, Volume 3, Conference Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Mechanics (2011): 267-274.
9. K. Barber, C.S. Drapaca, A Multiscale Triphasic Biomechanical Model for Tumors Classification, Mechanics of Biological Systems and Materials, Volume 2, Conference Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Mechanics (2011): 105-109.
10. C. Antonio Sanchez, C.S. Drapaca, S. Sivaloganathan, E.R. Vrscay, Elastography of Biological Tissue: Direct Inversion Methods that Allow for Local Shear Modulus Variations, Proceedings to the International Conference on Image Analysis and Recognition (ICIAR) 2010, Lecture Notes in Computer Science LNCS 6112 (2010): 195-206.
11. C.S. Drapaca, A.J. Palocaren, A Novel Mechanical Model for Tumors Classification, Proceedings of the Symposium of the Institute of Solid Mechanics (SISOM) and Session of the Commission of Acoustics (2010): 15-18.
12. D. Engels, A.E. Segall, C.S. Drapaca, Inverse Analysis of Thermal States from Transient Histories with Nonlinear Thermo-Physical Properties, Proceedings of the 2009 ASME Pressure Vessel and Piping Conference, PVP2009-77049.
13. R. Rosca, C.S. Drapaca, Direct and Inverse Problems for the Eversion of a Spherical Shell, Proceedings of SISOM 2009: 7-12.
14. J.S. Fritz, C.S. Drapaca, A Study of the Effect of the Pulsatile Ventricular Pressure in the Development of Hydrocephalus, the Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference in Computational Mechanics and Virtual Engineering COMEC2009 vol.1 (2009): 254-259.
15. J.S. Fritz, C.S. Drapaca, A Triphasic Mechano-Electrochemical Model of Brain Neuro-Mechanics: Application to Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, the Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference in Computational Mechanics and Virtual Engineering COMEC2009, vol.1 (2009): 260-265.
16. D.L. Andre, B. Shanmugasundaram, C.S. Drapaca, B. Gluckman, Mechanisms Determining Safety and Performance of Brain Stimulating Electrodes, Proceedings of the 31st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society IEEE EMBS(2009):689-692 (refereed conference paper).
17. C.S. Drapaca, A New Multi-Scale Model for Magnetic Resonance Elastography, Proceedings of SISOM 2008, (2008): 66-70.
18. M. Yin, A. Manduca, A.J. Romano, K.J. Glaser, C.S. Drapaca, D.S. Lake, R.L. Ehman, 3-D Local Frequency Estimation Inversion for Abdominal MR Elastography, Proceedings of the 16th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) 15 (2007): 960 (refereed conference 1-page abstract).
19. C. Studholme, C.S. Drapaca, V. Cardenas, Intensity Robust Viscous Fluid Deformation Based Morphometry Using Regionally Adapted Mutual Information, Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology 27th Annual Conference (2005): 470-473 (refereed conference paper).
20. C. Studholme, C.S. Drapaca, V. Cardenas, M. Weiner, Challenges and Progress Toward Quantitative Deformation Morphometry of Gyral Anatomy, International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) (2004):599-602 (refereed conference paper).
21. C.S. Drapaca, V. Cardenas, C. Studholme, Robust Space-Time Extraction of Ventricular Surface Evolution using Multi-Phase Level Sets, Medical Imaging 2004: Image Processing, Proceedings of SPIE, vol.5370 (2004): 538-548 (refereed conference paper).
22. C.S. Drapaca, An Application of the Korteweg-De Vries Equation, Annals of the University of Bucharest, Mathematics - Informatics, Special Issue, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Faculty of Mathematics, November 28-30, 1996, vol.XLVI (1997):121-126 (refereed conference paper).

TECHNICAL REPORTS:

1. D. Aruliah, R.D. Donaldson, C.S. Drapaca, G. Lewis, A. Sanchez, V. Takeva-Volkov, Constitutive Models for Tumor Classification, Proceedings of the OCCAM-Fields-MITACS Biomedical Problem Solving Workshop 2009 (online).
2. C.S. Drapaca, Direct Inversion using Potentials, Mayo Clinic Technical Report, March 2006.
3. C.S. Drapaca, Space-Time Segmentation of Brain Structures using Level Set Methods, UCSF Research Report, May 2003.

BOOKS CHAPTERS:

1. A.M. Yousefi, C.S. Drapaca, C.J. Kazina, Cryogel Tissue Phantoms with Uniform Elasticity for Medical Imaging, Invited Submission to Supermacroporous Cryogels: Biomedical and Biotechnological Applications, Taylor & Francis; CRC Press 2016 (in press).
2. J. Park, S.M. Shontz, C.S. Drapaca, A Combined Level Set/Mesh Warping Algorithm for Tracking Brain and Cerebrospinal Fluid Evolution in Hydrocephalic Patients, Invited Submission to Image-Based Geometric Modeling and Mesh Generation, Springer, Lecture Notes in Computational Vision and Biomechanics, Vol.3, 107-141, 2013. ISBN: 2212-9391; Online: 2212-9413.

OTHER PAPERS:

1. C.S. Drapaca, Brain Neuro-Mechanics, Fields Notes 11:1 (2010): 16-17.