Beth Pruitt, PhD

Beth L. Pruitt: Pioneering Leader in Bioengineering and Mechanobiology

As professor and chair of bioengineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Beth Pruitt moved to UCSB in 2018 to help launch the biological engineering degree program and has served as the department’s founding chair since 2021. She also holds positions as professor of mechanical engineering and directs both the NSF Research Training Program in Data Driven Biology and the NIH T32 Training Program in Quantitative Mechanobiology.

Beth graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, supported by a Navy ROTC fellowship, where she honed her skills in leadership and perseverance. She later earned a master’s degree in manufacturing systems engineering from Stanford University and served as an officer in the U.S. Navy, working in the Navy nuclear program and teaching systems engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Beth completed her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Stanford, specializing in MEMS and small-scale metrologies for electrical contacts, supported by a Hertz Foundation Fellowship. She conducted postdoctoral research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, focusing on polymer MEMS.

Beth’s research centers on mechanobiology—how mechanical forces influence biological processes such as cell adhesion, remodeling, and signaling. Her lab develops technologies to study and manipulate cell responses to mechanical stimuli, using tools designed and fabricated in-house. Her work spans multiple disciplines, including physiology, cardiology, stem cells, and neuroscience.