Eugene Goldberg Lecture Series

Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023

featuring Chris Widenhouse, Ph.D.

IN-PERSON EVENT • FREE and OPEN TO ALL
3 p.m. EST • Reitz Union Chamber Room, Ground Floor

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE SEMINAR RECORDING

Solve the Right Problem and Never Stop Learning

So much of what I learned in the brief time I worked with Gene Goldberg has impacted my career. I have taken some of his lessons and made them my own through my experiences.

I’ve had the absolute privilege of working on a wide spectrum of devices and patient treatments in the medical device industry for the past 22 years. As I share some of these technologies and the stories behind them, I hope the audience walks away with an appreciation for taking ownership of their own careers, whether it be in academics, research, or industry, by following a handful of guiding principles.

About Chris Widenhouse, Ph.D.

Senior Director, Product Development

Atricure, Inc.

Dr. Chris Widenhouse was a graduate student and postdoctoral fellow under the guidance of Dr. Eugene Goldberg from 1990 through 2001.

Dr. Widenhouse graduated from the University of Florida with an M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering in 1996. He also holds a B.S. in MSE from North Carolina State University and an MBA from Pennsylvania State University.

This was purely in pursuit of being able to declare loyalty across three major NCAA conferences.

Dr. Widenhouse is currently Senior Director of R&D at AtriCure, Inc., where he has been since 2017. Prior to AtriCure, Chris worked within Johnson & Johnson for multiple operating companies (Cordis Endovascular, Cordis, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, and Ethicon) over a 16-year period. During that time, he contributed to developments in the areas of cardiovascular combination products, peripheral vascular devices, laparoscopic and thoracic surgical devices for surgical access, surgical stapling and general surgery. In his roles at AtriCure, he has had end-to-end product lifecycle responsibilities for Left Atrial Appendage Management, RF Surgical Ablation, CryoAblation, and CyroNerveBlock product, procedure and technology families.

In his free time, Dr. Widenhouse is a husband, a father of four, a youth soccer coach and a part-time sheep farmer.

The Eugene Goldberg Lecture Series was founded in 2019 to honor the enduring legacy of Dr. Eugene Goldberg and the lasting impact he had on his students at the University of Florida. The fund provides support to bring top industry leaders, visiting professors and scholars to deliver a lecture/lectures, engage with our students and faculty and participate in other activities during their visit.

Prior to joining the University of Florida, Dr. Goldberg was hired as a research chemist at General Electric Chemical Division in Pittsfield, Massachusetts where he discovered and, as co-inventor, developed a new class of high-impact, thermally stable aromatic polycarbonates, namely Lexan. In 1966, he was hired by Xerox Research as the Director for the Chemistry Research Laboratory where he pushed the boundaries of electro-chemistry, biochemistry and the biomedical sciences.

In 1975, Dr. Goldberg left Xerox to become a Professor of Materials Science & Engineering and Adjunct Professor in the University of Florida’s Department of Chemistry. He later gained additional faculty appointments in the Departments of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in 1985 and Biomedical Engineering in 2001. He graduated 29 Ph.D. and 24 MS students and was a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (FAIMBE) and Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE). Dr. Goldberg was the Genzyme Professor and Director of the Biomaterials Center in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering. He passed away on Friday, February 15, 2019.

Department of Materials Science & Engineering