Meet the father-daughter inventors helping sick children

WVXU's Cincinnati Edition spoke to two researchers at the University of Cincinnati who are collaborating on a project to help children with breathing difficulties. 

Ephraim Gutmark, a distinguished research professor in UC's College of Engineering and Applied Science, is working with his daughter, UC College of Medicine Associate Professor Iris Gutmark-Little, MD, on a device to help clear airways for patients.

She is a pediatric endocrinologist at Cincinnati Children's.

Gutmark told Cincinnati Edition host Lucy May that he worked on his first inventions when he began trying to solve problems in industry.

For example, Gutmark worked with GE Aviation on reducing noise in commercial jet engines by modifying exhaust nozzles. Today, his design is featured on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and soon in the U.S. Navy's F/A-18 fighter planes.

Gutmark called working with his daughter “the highest point in my career.“

“When people hear we're working together, they wonder what pediatric endocrinology has to do with aerospace engineering,“ Gutmark said. “But when we published a paper with both of our names on it, it was a great moment.“

Little said her father always has been an innovator, both in the lab as well as at home when she was growing up.

“I would say it probably touches every aspect of his life. You can start to get a sense how brilliant my dad is,“ she said. “He was always looking at creative solutions to every problem.“

Gutmark said working on medical devices is especially rewarding to him because they can start helping people much sooner than inventions in aerospace engineering, which adopts changes at a comparatively conservative pace.

Listen to the Cincinnati Edition interview.

Featured image at top: UC father-daughter team Ephraim Gutmark and Iris Gutmark-Little are collaborating on a research project to help children with breathing difficulties. Photo/Michael Miller