Karen May-Newman, professor of mechanical engineering at San Diego State University, has received the 2026 Pushpa and Kewal Gupta Lifetime Achievement Award in the Development of Therapies for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Diseases from the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs.
The award honors Dr. May-Newman’s contributions to the field of cardiovascular biomechanics and the understanding of heart-support technologies, including artificial heart valves and left ventricular assistant devices (LVADs) — mechanical pumps used to help circulate blood in people with advanced heart failure. Over the course of her career, Dr. May-Newman has helped illuminate how the interaction between those devices and human physiology influences patient outcomes, including complications such as blood clot formation and the heart’s ability to adapt during treatment.
Dr. May-Newman joined the San Diego State faculty in 1998 to develop a bioengineering program, which now encompasses an undergraduate concentration, a master’s degree, and a joint doctoral program with the University of California, San Diego. She earned her Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego and completed postdoctoral training in cardiology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.