Pratap Khanwilkar, PhD, MBA is the Director of the Professional MS Programs in Pitt Bioengineering.
After 40 years in medtech, in a range of organizations including start-ups, public companies, non-profits, higher education institutions, and leadership development roles, Pratap’s focus is to prepare MS-MPE graduates to become leaders themselves and have a significant positive impact on human health and care.
Pratap has played a key role in founding/investing in more than 20 medtech start-ups, with 3 exits (one as an entrepreneur, the second as a leadership team member, and the third as an angel investor), with several still active. He has helped raise more than $500 MM in both non-dilutive and dilutive funds. With several issued patents in the USA and worldwide, he has helped develop numerous incremental innovations and 4 disruptive innovations, from concept to human studies:
- Advanced heart failure: long-term implantable LVAD fully magnetically levitated, centrifugal pump.
- Orthopedic injury healing: resorbable magnesium alloy based implants.
- Biologic drugs: robotic pill oral drug delivery platform.
- Neuro-degenerative conditions: long-term implantable next-generation system for concurrent independent neural stimulation and blocking.
Pratap feels his greatest contribution and satisfaction has been through the professional and personal development of the people he has associated with throughout his career, not only in the USA, but also in Canada, Japan, South Korea, China, India, Europe, and Australia. These have been mutually beneficial relationships. Additional professional information about Dr. Khanwilkar can be found on his profile on the Pitt Bioengineering website or LinkedIn.
Pratap’s approach is to get to know each student , their needs, career aspirations individually, and work with them to achieve their career, professional and personal objectives, so that each student can be positioned for success post-graduation.
Steve Jobs has apt words of wisdom that mirror how enrolling and completing the MS-MPE program at Pitt BioE should transform the student:
Dr. Khanwilkar can be reached at MSMPE@Pitt.edu