Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Cornell University, 2020
  • M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Cornell University, 2018
  • B.S., Biomedical Engineering, University of Arizona, 2015
Additional Education & Training
  • Traffic Crash Reconstruction for Engineers Course from Northwestern University Center for Public Safety (2022)
Academic Appointments
  • Teaching Assistant, Mechanical Engineering, Cornell University, 2018
Professional Honors
  • National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow, 2017-2020
  • Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow, 2015-2020
  • Bouchet Honor Society Scholar, 2019-2020
  • Scientist Mentoring and Diversity Program (SMDP) Fellow, 2019-2020
Professional Affiliations
  • Orthopaedic Research Society - ORS
  • American Society for Bone and Mineral Research - ASBMR
  • Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers - SHPE
Languages
  • Spanish

Dr. Luna's areas of expertise include human biomechanics and orthopaedics. She has over eight years of combined hands-on experience in orthopaedics, tissue engineering, and soft tissue mechanics. 

Dr. Luna has conducted in-vivo animal experiments to study the role of mechanical loading in disease pathology. She also has experience in mechanical testing of orthopaedic tissues. Dr. Luna has a strong understanding of bone quality and strength. Additional areas of expertise include 3-dimensional image analysis/processing, histology, material characterization of bone, microbiome analysis, rodent surgeries/dissections, and project/protocol development. Dr. Luna has collaborated with a number of laboratories and hospitals across the country including the Hospital for Special Surgery, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Tufts University, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Prior to joining Exponent, Dr. Luna obtained her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Cornell University where she designed and executed in-vivo experiments to identify how the gut microbiome influenced bone material and mechanical properties, bone/joint disease, and joint implant infections. She also analyzed the initiation and propagation of microdamage in human cancellous vertebral bone after fatigue loading by using image processing techniques to understand the importance of microarchitecture in bone.