Rate My Professor Lisa Friis

Lisa Friis, formally known as Elizabeth A. Friis, is the C.E. and M.J. Spahr Professor and Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kansas. She earned a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering and a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Iowa, followed by a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Wichita State University. Prior to joining the KU faculty in 2001, she worked as a Research Scientist at the Orthopaedic Research Institute in Wichita, Kansas, from 1987 to 2001. Friis has led efforts to incorporate technology entrepreneurship education into the engineering curriculum and has received several NSF and NIH Small Business Innovation Research awards, with licensed technologies that are currently commercialized.

Friis's research interests include structural biomaterials, spine biomechanics, design and testing of medical devices, mechanical testing of materials and structures, medical implant design, and the use of piezoelectric materials in implants to stimulate biological tissue healing. Key publications comprise 'Negative Poisson's ratio polymeric and metallic foams' (1988, Journal of Materials Science), 'Primer of Biomechanics' (1999), and 'Mechanical testing of hydrogels in cartilage tissue engineering: beyond the compressive modulus' (2013, Tissue Engineering Part B: Reviews). She holds multiple U.S. patents covering spinal biomechanics, medical implant design, and piezoelectric regenerative devices. Her impact is evidenced by awards such as Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2019), Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors (2026), KU Outstanding Woman Educator Award (2007), Kemper Fellowship (2006), and Kauffman Entrepreneurial Faculty Scholar (2004). Friis co-directs the Product Design and Development track in the KU Bioengineering Graduate Program since 2007, serves on the Editorial Board of The Journal of Biomedical Materials Research – Part A since 2007, directed the Graduate Fellowship Program for the Institute for Advancing Medical Innovation from 2009 to 2011, and acts as Faculty Lead for the KU site of the Great Plains Hub NSF I-Corps program.