Dave Warren is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Utah. His primary research focus is restoration of function to individuals with paralysis, limb loss, vision loss, or hearing loss; a topic he has pursued since he entered the University of Utah as a graduate student in 1994. Currently Dr. Warren is part of a team working with human patients to study how day-to-day use of prosthetic limbs can be improved with interface with nerves and muscles. Although his primary appointment is research, he also teaches undergraduate courses and guest lectures for a number of graduate courses. He takes great pride in the fact that he and his wife Lee have been continuously associated with university studies since 1974.

Between completing his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering (1979) and enrolling in the University of Utah’s Ph.D. program in bioengineering (1994), Dave worked as a control systems engineering for The Boeing Company in the Seattle area. One of his favorite Boeing projects was the installation and testing of a wind turbine on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii. On a monthly basis, he traveled to Oahu to spend a week gathering data (and to enjoy the island). While a Boeing engineer, he was intrigued by how the human brain could observe a number of measurements from an engineered system and determine which measurements were valid and which were not, whereas attempts to translate that ability into an automated system failed. How the brain does this became his impetus to return to college, but after over two decades of studies, he still has not arrived at an answer to that question.

Upon moving to Utah to begin his studies, Dave transferred to Mount Tabor from a Lutheran church in Seattle. It was an easy choice as he took an apartment directly across 700 East from Tabor. He has played many roles at Tabor over the past 26 years, including serving as treasurer, council president, a member of the Endowment and Memorials Committee, an usher, and a counter, and leading Kid’s Church. He is one of the founding members of the Tabor small group brewing ministry and tries to make at least of couple of brewing batches on his own every year.