THOMAS J. SANTNER

My research interests are in the design and analysis of experiments, and the analysis of spatial data. With Professor William Notz and OSU graduate students, and in conjunction with colleagues from the Biomedical Mechanics Program of Cornell University Hospital for Special Surgery, I am working to adapt and extend methodology for design and analysis of computer experiments to analyze the mechanical behavior of contemporary prosthetic devices and to produce better engineering designs of such devices. For example, one current project is to evaluate the mechanical performance of knee designs by combining the output from a mechanical knee testing devise with the output of a finite element computer code of the same process. As part of a team with colleagues Noel Cressie, Peter Craigmile, and Kate Calder, I am working to develop a pathways model that describes the movement of certain types of heavy metals from their occurrence in natural and human sources through the body to excretion in blood or urine.