IBB - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean
- Associate Professor
- Associate Professor, School of Public Policy
- Guest Researcher, Division of Reproductive Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Aaron D. Levine is Associate Dean for Research and Outreach in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and Professor in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech. He also holds an appointment as a Guest Researcher in the Division of Reproductive Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is a member of the leadership team for the NSF Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT), leading ethics and policy research for the center. He seved as Co-Director for CMaT's Engineering Workforce Development activities from 2017 to 2022. His research focuses on the intersection between public policy and bioethics. Much of his work has examined the development of stem cell science, particularly research using human embryonic stem cells, and the translation of novel cell therapies. He also writes extensively on the oversight of contentious areas of medicine, such as assisted reproductive technology. In 2012, he received a NSF CAREER award to examine the impact of ethical controversy on graduate science education and the development of scientific careers. He serves as Vice-Chair for Bioethics on the International Society for Cell & Genel Therapy's Committee on the Ethics of Cell and Gene Therapy and recently completed a three-year term as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. He is also a long-time member of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Aaron has a long-standing interest in science communication and is the author of Cloning: A Beginner's Guide (Oneworld Publications, 2007), an accessible introduction to the science of cloning and embryonic stem cells and the ethical and policy controversies this science inspires. He was an AAAS Leshner Leadership Institute Public Engagement Fellow for 2019-2020. You can follow Aaron on twitter at @aarondlevine.
He completed his Ph.D. in Public Affairs at Princeton University, where his dissertation research examined the impact of public policy on the development of human embryonic stem cell science. He also holds an M. Phil. from the University of Cambridge, where, as a Churchill Scholar, he studied computational biology at the Sanger Centre and developed algorithms to help analyze the human genome sequence, and a B.S. in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Scholar.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering
- Associate Professor, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Aaron Young is an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering and is interested in designing and improving powered orthotic and prosthetic control systems for persons with stroke, neurological injury or amputation. His previous experience includes a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan in the Human Neuromechanics Lab working with exoskeletons and powered orthoses to augment human performance. He has also worked on the control of upper and lower limb prostheses at the Center for Bionic Medicine (CBM) at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. His master's work at CBM focused on the use of pattern recognition systems using myoelectric (EMG) signals to control upper limb prostheses. His dissertation work at CBM focused on sensory fusion of mechanical and EMG signals to enable an intent recognition system for powered lower limb prostheses for use by persons with a transfemoral amputation.
Job Titles:
- Director, Emory Voice Center
- Director, Emory Voice Center / Chief, Division of Laryngology
- Member of the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program at Winship Cancer Institute
Adam M. Klein, MD, FACS, is Willard and Lillian Hackerman Professor in Voice in the Department of Otolaryngology at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Klein serves as Director of the Emory Voice Center and as Chief of the Division of Laryngology. Board certified with the American Board of Otolaryngology, Dr. Klein's clinical specialties include general otolaryngology, laryngeal disorders and the professional voice.
Dr. Klein is a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program at Winship Cancer Institute. He is a Fellow of The American College of Surgeons and American Laryngological Association. He holds professional memberships with American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, American Broncho-Esophagological Association, and Georgia Society for Otolaryngology.
Dr. Adegboyega "Yomi" Oyelere has received PhD from Brown University in 1998. Currently, he works as an associate professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Aditi Das did her BSc. (Hons.) Chemistry from St. Stephen's College Delhi, followed by M.S. (Chemistry) from I.I.T (Kanpur). She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Princeton University. She did post-doctoral work with Prof. Steve Sligar. She joined University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) as a tenure track assistant professor in 2012. In 2019, she was promoted to associate professor with tenure. In 2022, she joined School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Institute of Technology as an associate professor with tenure. Her research is in the area of enzymology of oxygenases that are involved lipid metabolism and cannabinoid metabolism.
Das is recipient of an American Heart Associate (AHA) career award and has been funded by National Institute of Health (NIH - NIGMS, NIDA and NCCIH), USDA, and National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS). Her research was recognized by several National awards: Young Investigator award From Eicosanoid Research Foundation, Mary Swartz Rose Young Investigator Award and E.L.R. Stokstad award from American Society for Nutrition (ASN) for outstanding research on bioactive compounds for human health. She is also the recipient of Zoetis Research Excellence Award from her college. She was a co-organizer of the International Conference on Cytochrome P450. Recently her laboratory contributed several papers on cannabinoid metabolism by p450s. In recognition of this work, she was awarded El Sohly award from the ACS-Cannabis division for excellence in Cannabis research and is invited to give plenary lecture at ISSX meeting. Das is also a standing study section member of BBM NIH study section.
Job Titles:
- Instructor
- Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Ahmet Coskun is a systems biotechnologist and bioengineer, working at the nexus of multiplex imaging and quantitative cell biology.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Cell Biology
The Emanuel lab investigates how the sense of touch is generated in the mammalian brain by combining modern neurophysiology with mouse genetic manipulations. Dr. Emanuel joined Emory University School of Medicine in January 2023 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell Biology. Before joining Emory, he completed his postdoc at Harvard Medical School during which he investigated the contributions of mechanoreceptor subtypes to the central representation of touch. Dr. Emanuel earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University by studying the biophysical properties of retinal ganglion cell photoreceptors.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor, School of Physics
We study the simple larval nervous system of our closest invertebrate relatives, the tunicates. Tunicates, like us, belong to the Chordate phylum, but have very simple embryos and compact genomes. The laboratory model tunicate Ciona has only 177 neurons and is the only chordate with a fully mapped "connectome". We take advantage of this simplicity to understand molecular mechanisms that may underlie human neurodevelopment. We use transcriptome profiling to assay global transcriptional dynamics in neural progenitors during Ciona development, and use CRISPR/Cas9 to knock out important transcription factors and their downstream targets to understand how these gene networks control neuronal specification, morphology, physiology, neurotransmitter identity, and connectivity.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Assistant Professor, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Alex Abramson is an assistant professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. His research, which focuses on drug delivery and bioelectronic therapeutics, has been featured in news outlets such as The New York Times, NPR, and Wired. Abramson has received several recognitions for scientific innovation, including being named a member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Science List and the MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 List. He is passionate about translating scientific endeavors from bench to bedside. Large pharmaceutical companies have exclusively licensed a portfolio of his patents to bring into clinical trials, and Abramson serves as a scientific advisor overseeing their commercialization. In addition to his scientific endeavors, Abramson plays an active role in his community by leading diversity and inclusion efforts on campus and volunteering as a STEM tutor to local students.
Abramson received a B.S. in chemical and biomolecular engineering from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from MIT as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow under the direction of Professors Robert Langer and Giovanni Traverso. He conducted postdoctoral work at Stanford University as an NIH fellow with Professors Zhenan Bao and the late Sanjiv S. Gambhir.
The Abramson Lab develops ingestible, implantable, and wearable robotic therapeutic devices that solve key healthcare problems and provide measurable therapeutic outcomes. Our translationally focused research spans a multitude of areas, including (1) drug delivery devices for optimal drug adherence, (2) soft materials for bioelectronic sensors and therapeutics, and (3) preclinical drug screening technologies.
Alex Adams's research focuses on designing, fabricating, and implementing new ubiquitous and wearable sensing systems. In particular, he is interested in how to develop these systems using equity-driven design principles for healthcare. Alex leverages sensing, signal processing, and fabrication techniques to design, deploy, and evaluate novel sensing technologies.
Originally a musician, Alex became fascinated by how he could capture and manipulate sounds through analog hardware and digital signal processing, which led him back to his hometown (Concord, NC). Alex completed his BS at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2014 and his Ph.D. at Cornell University in 2021 (advised by Professor Tanzeem Choudhury). Alex then became the resident Research Scientist for the Precision Behavioral Health Initiative at Cornell Tech (NYC) until the fall of 2022, when he joined the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Currently, his research focuses on the equity-driven design and the development of multi-modal sensing systems to simultaneously assess mental and physical health to enable a new class of mobile health technologies.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Department of Biomedical
Alexander Vlahos is an Assistant Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. Alexander received his B.S. in Biochemistry from McMaster University and his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto under the supervision of Professor Michael Sefton. His Ph.D. work focused on developing an injectable bioartificial pancreas that could be delivered underneath the skin. He then transitioned to mammalian synthetic biology, where he conducted his postdoctoral work as an HFSP long-term fellow at Stanford University with Professor Xiaojing Gao.
His research integrates principles from synthetic biology, protein engineering, and tissue engineering to develop synthetic protein circuits for mammalian cellular engineering. The Vlahos lab synergizes synthetic biology and tissue engineering to create programmable gene and cell therapies for biomedical applications in regenerative medicine, cancer, and autoimmune disease. His lab has three main research themes, including 1) generating protein sensors to sense changes in internal cell states or the external microenvironment, 2) programming engineered cells to model cell-to-cell communication and elucidate the dynamics and expression of key signals that govern fibrosis and immune rejection, and 3) applying synthetic protein circuits to modulate the immune system and improve cell transplantation.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Core Facilities Advisory Committee
- Professor
- Professor, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Job Titles:
- Professor and Rae S. and Frank H. Neely Chair, Woodruff School Mechanical Engineering
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Member of the Core Facilities Advisory Committee
- Member of the Faculty Steering Committee
- Executive Director of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering
- Executive Director, Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience
- Executive Director, Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
- Executive Director, Petit Institute, and Regents' Professor, School of Mechanical Engineering
Andrés J. García is the Executive Director of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience and Regents' Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. García's research program integrates innovative engineering, materials science, and cell biology concepts and technologies to create cell-instructive biomaterials for regenerative medicine and generate new knowledge in mechanobiology. This cross-disciplinary effort has resulted in new biomaterial platforms that elicit targeted cellular responses and tissue repair in various biomedical applications, innovative technologies to study and exploit cell adhesive interactions, and new mechanistic insights into the interplay of mechanics and cell biology. In addition, his research has generated intellectual property and licensing agreements with start-up and multi-national companies. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Inventors.
I am honored to serve as the Executive Director of the Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB) at such an exhilarating time for our bio-community. As of Fall 2023, we have more than 287 interdisciplinary faculty researchers (engineers, scientists, and clinicians) and 1,300 trainees making unprecedented discoveries and generating innovative technologies that will transform health care, drive economic impact, and improve the global human condition.
Also, with approximately 20,000 people attending more than 400 events annually hosted by IBB, I am reminded of three words that perfectly describe our geographic strength: location, location, location. This is obviously the place to be. With our state-of-the-art core facilities, outstanding collaborative culture, and generous seed funding to support projects in the critical early stages, our 13 multidisciplinary research centers, and a thriving entrepreneurial spirit, we are well equipped to "Transform Tomorrow" whether it is the next collaborative discovery, the next educational opportunity, or the next startup company.
Job Titles:
- Director Financial Administration II
Anjali Kumar, Ph.D., has 20 years of experience with increasing responsibility in the biopharmaceutical industry, and is currently responsible for developing an external early-stage innovation pipeline aligned with the strategies of Johnson & Johnson's businesses, with primary priority given to the pharmaceutical sector. She previously served as the Due Diligence Lead, Corporate Development for Shire Pharmaceuticals, and before that she was the vice president, nonclinical R&D and scientific affairs at Flexion Therapeutics, Inc. She has a strong scientific background and drug discovery and development experience gained in large pharmaceutical and small biotech company environments. She has experience advancing several small molecules and proteins into initial clinical development and continuing to support them through later stages of development and eventual regulatory approval. Kumar has worked in the area of inflammation in musculoskeletal, respiratory, and cardiovascular diseases. She was previously vice president of R&D at Clinquest, Inc. where she led the strategic drug development consulting team that worked on multiple programs in both the U.S. and in Europe. Prior to that, she was senior director, pharmacology at Critical Therapeutics, Inc. and principal scientist and project leader at Wyeth Research/Genetics Institute. She received her postdoctoral training at Pharmacia and Upjohn, Inc. She holds a Ph.D. in bioengineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Psychology
Job Titles:
- Department of Otolaryngology
Anthony Lee has over 18 years of experience in the medical device business. He is currently the president of Eyegenix LLC, a venture backed start-up developing a biosynthetic cornea for the treatment of corneal blindness. In 2011, Eyegenix and sister company Skai Ventures were awarded the statewide winner of the APEC 2011 Business Innovation Showcase. Prior to Eyegenix, Lee led the research and development team at Coalescent Surgical, Inc., a venture funded medical device startup focused on minimally invasive cardiovascular bypass and valve fixation. Coalescent Surgical was acquired by Medtronic, Inc. in 2004. Prior to his work at Coalescent, Lee led R&D efforts at two venture financed companies: Vivant Medical, which was acquired by Valley Lab/Tyco, and AneuRx, which was acquired by Medtronic Inc. Lee is a registered professional engineer in the state of California. He holds numerous U.S. and international patents with several pending. Lee received his BME and MSME from Georgia Tech in 1993 and 1995, respectively. He currently splits his time between San Francisco, CA and Honolulu, HI.
Job Titles:
- Chairman, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
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- Assistant Professor, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Material Science and Engineering
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- Associate Professor School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Co - Founder
- CEO and Co - Founder of Eos BioInnovation
Brock Reeve is CEO and Co-founder of Eos BioInnovation, an investment company focused on incubating and launching companies in the regenerative medicine field. Prior to Eos, Brock was the Executive Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, a research center comprised of the schools of Harvard University and its affiliated hospitals and research institutions. Brock's prior experience was in the commercial sector in both management consulting and operations for technology-based companies, with a focus on life sciences.
Brock was the former CEO of IVIVA Medical where he is now on the Board of Directors. He is a co-founder of Elevian, on the Board of Directors of Thrive Bioscience and also on the Board of Trustees for the Pioneer Charter School of Science in Everett, MA.
Brock received a BA and MPhil from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Bruce Lavin, M.D. has 25 years of clinical experience and more than 15 years of industry experience, leading medical affairs and clinical development programs and divisions for major pharmaceutical companies in the areas of immunology, virology and anti-infectives. Most recently, Lavin was head of external engagement and policy within the neurology unit of UCB, Inc. Lavin was the vice president and therapeutic head for Bristol-Myers Squibb where he led the U.S. clinical and launch preparations for anti-virals in HIV, HCV, rheumatology, and transplant. Prior to Bristol-Myers Squibb, he held senior medical roles for both Novartis and Sanofi-Aventis in the areas of infectious disease, immunology, transplantation, virology and the central nervous system. Additionally, Lavin has a vast military career, currently serving as a medical doctor for the U.S. Navy Reserve. From 2009-2010, he provided medical care and support in a combat area during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Lavin holds a bachelor's degree from the University of California Irvine and a master's of public health from the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his medical degree from the F. Herbert School of Medicine at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University
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- Junior Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
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- Member of the External Advisory Board
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- Adjunct Assistant Professor
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- Turnipseed Family Chair and Professor
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- Senior Executive
- Managing Director and Founder / Medtown Ventures
Chris Fair has over 25 years of senior executive management and entrepreneurial experience focused in medical device and biologic platforms. Fair's operational experience covers areas such as strategic market plans, product development, sales, marketing, finance, and the ability to take platform technologies from creation through commercialization in the most efficient pathway possible.
Fair began his medical device career at DePuy, where alongside a small team of personnel, helped to build the spine franchise from a $10M business to a $350M business within a 9 year timeframe. Fair then served as Vice President Sales and Marketing, St. Francis Medical Technologies where he was responsible for the U.S. launch of the XSTOP device. The launch of the XSTOP achieved $43M in U.S. revenue in the first 11 months and resulted in the largest medical device multiple with an acquisition price of $725M to Kyphon. After St. Francis, Fair served as the COO of MedShape Solutions, an innovative shape memory polymer and nitinol company, where he remains an active investor. Fair went on to start Amniox Medical, a spin out company based on amniotic tissue therapies for markets outside of ophthalmology. In the company's first year of operation, Amniox surpassed all revenue targets and achieved profitability. Most recently, Fair served as President and CEO of a private equity backed spine venture, Amendia/Spinal Elements, a $100M + spinal implant company based in Carlsbad, CA.
Fair serves on the boards of Spinal Elements, CellectCell, and 510Kardiac. Fair received his BS Business Administration from the University of Richmond.
Job Titles:
- Member of the External Advisory Board
- External Advisory Board Chair / Senior Vice President of Therapeutics
- SVP of Therapeutics Development at Cellino
Gemmiti is currently the SVP of Therapeutics Development at Cellino Bio and has dedicated his 25-year career to cell therapy and regenerative medicine, through both industry and academic roles. At Cellino, he leads a team dedicated to personalized treatments derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) for chronic degenerative disease.
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- Event and Meeting Manager II
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- Professor School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
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- Director of Events & Engagement
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- Senior Director Life Sciences, Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience
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- Professor, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
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- Senior Research Scientist
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- Chairman, Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Aditya Kumar is an Assistant Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his bachelor's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and his doctorate from Illinois.
Dr. Kumar's main area of research is mechanics and physics of soft materials. Specifically, his research group develops mathematical theories and their computational implementation to study fundamental problems in materials like elastomers, adhesives, and biological tissues. Recent work includes the development of a fracture theory for elastomers that has been able to explain experimental observations that had puzzled scientists for decades. This work has also provided a unifying perspective on fracture in all brittle solids, soft or hard, and has led to an ongoing search for a complete theory of nucleation and propagation of fracture for all solids. Currently, his group is also working on the nonlinear mechanics of material evolution (remodeling) in biological tissues and the multi-physics modeling of 3D printing in polymers.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Medicine, Medical Oncology and Pathology
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- Professor, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering
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- Adjunct Associate Professor
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- Cellular Analysis and Cytometry Lab Manager
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- External Advisory Board Vice - Chair / Founder and CEO of Glui Inc
- Founder and CEO of Glui Inc
Dasher is the founder and CEO of Glui Inc., a global advertising company that creates engagement experiences in all digital environments. An accomplished entrepreneur, investor, and lawyer, Dasher has more than 25 years of experience in venture capital, private equity, M&A, and investment management. Her diverse career includes serving as principal and general counsel at STW Fixed Income Management, where she helped grow assets under management to more than $12 billion and co-led the firm's sale to Schroders.
Dasher began her career as an attorney at O'Melveny & Myers and Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, managing significant transactions in venture capital, public and private offerings, and M&A. Her passion for innovation and community involvement is evident through her support of the Georgia Tech community and local scientific research. Dasher serves on the advisory boards for the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience and the Alexander-Tharpe Athletic Fund at Georgia Tech and is a member, past board member, and president-elect of the ARCS Foundation, which supports STEM students at Morehouse, Emory, UGA, and Georgia Tech. She graduated magna cum laude from Cornell Law School and is a member of the Order of the Coif. She also holds an undergraduate degree in European intellectual history, graduating with honors from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Core Facilities Advisory Committee
- Professor, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Vasser Woolley Foundation Chair in Bioanalytical Chemistry
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- Associate Professor, School of Biological Sciences
- Professor
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- Assistant Professor, School of Mechanical Engineering
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- Adjunct Associate Professor
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- Chief Scientific Officer Emeritus / Beckman Coulter, Inc. Emeritus Petit Institute Advisory Board Member
G. Russell (Russ) Bell retired from Beckman Coulter, Inc., in April 2009 having served as senior vice president and chief scientific officer since January 2007. Prior to that, Bell was executive vice president of global businesses, a $3 billion enterprise for Beckman Coulter, Inc.
Throughout his career, Bell spearheaded the development of many diagnostic products in cancer, men's and women's health, and cardiovascular disease. Most notably he led efforts resulting in approval of Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) as the first blood test for early detection of cancer in addition to its use in monitoring.
Bell was president, medical director and owner of Jacksonville Reference Laboratories, Inc., in Jacksonville, Fla., from 1973 to 1978. He joined E.I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co. in 1979 in the Clinical Systems Division. In 1987, he became responsible for all diagnostic systems research and development for the $1B division. He joined Hybritech, Inc., a subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company in August 1989 as vice president for diagnostics research and development. He was appointed president and CEO in September 1994.
He has chaired the National Advisory Council of the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis since 2010 and served as member of the External Advisory Board of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech from 1996 to 2017. He has served on the board of the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation and was President of the Beckman Coulter Foundation, institutions dedicated to philanthropy in medical and translational research and education. Bell is a former Chairman of the St. Peter's Health Foundation and now serves on the Board of Directors of St. Peter's Health, Helena, Montana. He now serves on the Board of Trustees, the Biomedical Sciences Advisory and Institutional Research boards at Carroll College and as a volunteer tutor in math and science at Smith Elementary School.
Born in Atlanta, Bell earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Biology in 1969 and a Master of Science degree in 1970 from Georgia Tech. He received his doctorate in biochemistry in 1973 from the University of Georgia.
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- Professor and Chair of the Department of Cell Biology
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- Professor School of Music
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- Professor, School of Materials Science and Engineering
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- Executive Director of the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines ( Interim )
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- Professor, Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
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- Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, College of Engineering
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- Associate Professor, School of Physics
- Professor
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- Assistant Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology
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- Professor of the Practice
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- Chief Engineer, Advanced Warfighting Technologies Division
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- Department of Orthopaedics Associate Professor
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- Professor and Distinguished Faculty Fellow, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering
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- Professor, School of Biological Sciences
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- Professor, School of Physics
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- Associate Professor of Sociology
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- Center Manager of the Center for the Study of Systems Biology
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- Principal
- Research Scientist
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- Professor, Emory / Georgia Tech Department of Biomedical Engineering
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- Professor, Microbiology, Biochemistry & Immunology
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- Interim Associate Director for Community - Engaged Research
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- Member of the Core Facilities Advisory Committee
- Associate Professor, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Professor, School Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
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- Professor, School of Materials Science and Engineering and School of Mechanical Engineering
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- Associate Professor
- Member of the Core Facilities Advisory Committee
- Associate Professor, School of Biological Sciences
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- Member of the Core Facilities Advisory Committee
- Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Dean of Engineering at Vanderbilt University
- Milton Endowed Chair, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering
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- Department of Medicine / Infectious
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- Academic Program Manager I, Bioengineering Program
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- Chief Engineer, Pediatric Technologies, GTRI
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- Professor, McCamish Foundation Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Engineering
Linda G. Griffith, Ph.D., is the School of Engineering Teaching Innovation Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering and MacVicar Fellow at MIT, where she directs the Center for Gynepathology Research and the DARPA/NIH-funded Human Physiome on a Chip Program. Griffith received a bachelor's degree from Georgia Tech and a Ph.D. degree from the University of California at Berkeley, both in chemical engineering. Griffith's research is in the field of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Her laboratory, in collaboration with J. Upton and C. Vacanti, was the first to combine a degradable scaffold with donor cells to create tissue-engineered cartilage in the shape of a human ear. The 3D printing process she co-invented for creation of complex scaffolds is used for manufacture of FDA-approved scaffolds for bone regeneration. She is also a pioneer in devising ways to control nano-scale stimulation of cells by molecular cues, and in creation of 3D tissue models for drug development. Her work has been featured on television documentary shows including Scientific American Frontiers. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the Popular Science Brilliant 10 Award, NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, the MIT Class of 1960 Teaching Innovation Award, Radcliffe Fellow, and several awards from professional societies. She has served as a member of the advisory councils for the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research and the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases at NIH. As chair of the undergraduate curriculum committee for biological engineering at MIT, she led development of the new Biological Engineering SB degree program, which was approved in 2005 as MIT's first new undergraduate major in 39 years.
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- Senior Research Scientist
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- Academic Program Manager I, Bioinformatics and Quantitative Biosciences Graduate Programs
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- Member of the Core Facilities Advisory Committee
- Professor
- Professor, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
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- Managing Director and Founder / RS Technology Ventures, LLC
Richard Shen, Ph.D., is an innovator, investor, and business executive. He has over 25 years of experience in the genomics and molecular diagnostics markets. He is active in the investment community as part of NuFund in San Diego and is managing director of RS Technology Ventures, LLC. He is currently on the Board of Directors of public and private companies in the liquid biopsy and diagnostics markets.
Shen held many senior executive positions in his career. Most recently at PacBio he was Sr. Vice President of R&D, responsible for software and bioinformatics, applications, and platform development. Prior to that he was President of Omniome, a start-up that developed a high-accuracy Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) platform. In the year 2000, Shen joined a startup that was Illumina. In his 16-year career at Illumina, he was responsible for scaling and running operations, development of the genotyping and NGS platforms and Oncology R&D.
Shen holds several key patents in the fields of nucleic acid analysis and sequencing. One of his patents enabled the development of a process to sequence the human genome for less than $1,000.
Shen is an alumnus of UCLA (B.S.) and LSU Medical Center (Ph.D.). He did postdoctoral fellowships at University of Michigan Medical Center to study gene therapy and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories to study variation in DNA repair genes. Shen is a certified director from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
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- Member of the Core Facilities Advisory Committee
- Chairman and Professor, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Professor, James a. Carlos Family Chair for Pediatric Technology
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- Professor, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
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- Associate Professor
- Member of the Core Facilities Advisory Committee
- Associate Professor, School of Biological Sciences
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- Professor of BME, ECE, and CSE
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- Principal
- Research Scientist
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- Program and Operations Manager, Outreach K - 20 Programs
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- Adjunct Assistant Professor
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- Senior Director - Business Operations
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- Associate Professor School of Biological Sciences
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- Chairman and Professor, Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
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- Marcus Professor of Cystic Fibrosis
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- Member of the Core Facilities Advisory Committee
- Member of the Faculty Steering Committee
- Associate Director, Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering & Bioscience / Director, NSF Center for Chemical Evolution
- Associate Director, Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience
- Associate Director, Petit Institute, and Professor, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Professor, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Nicholas Hud was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He received his B.S. degree in physics from Loyola Marymount University. His Ph.D. was conferred by the University of California, Davis for physical investigations of DNA condensation by protamine. From 1992-1995 he was a postdoctoral fellow in the biology and biotechnology research program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory with Rod Balhorn. From 1995-1998 he was an NIH postdoctoral fellow in the Molecular Biology Institute at UCLA where he worked with Juli Feigon and Frank A. L. Anet on the application of NMR spectroscopy to the study of DNA-cation interactions. Hud joined the faculty at Georgia Tech as an assistant professor in 1999 and was promoted to full professor in 2008. He has been visiting professor of chemistry at the National NMR Center in Slovenia, and at Imperial College London. Hud currently serves as PI of the NSF Center for Chemical Evolution, as chair of the biochemistry division of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, as co-director of the Georgia Tech-Emory University Center for Fundamental and Applied Molecular Evolution (FAME), and as associate director of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience.
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- Program and Operations Manager
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- Professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
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- Associate Professor, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
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- Vice President of Technology Policy and Academic Relations Emeritus / Medtronic, Inc. Emeritus Petit Institute Advisory Board Member
Paul Citron retired in 2003 from Medtronic, Inc., a pioneer in the medical device industry and the largest developer of implantable therapeutic devices. He was Vice President of Technology Policy and Academic Relations. Previously he was Medtronic's Vice President of Science and Technology for over 15 years, responsible for corporate-wide assessment and coordination of technology initiatives and for prioritization and funding of corporate research. These executive positions followed a progression of R&D assignments over his 32-year career at Medtronic where he developed and helped bring to the bedside technologies that advanced the utility, safety, and effectiveness of innovative implanted medical devices. He has authored numerous medical technology peer reviewed publications and has been an invited speaker at biomedical engineering conferences, workshops, symposia, and university classrooms. Citron holds nine U.S. medical device patents, including one that was designated "Patent of Distinction" by Medtronic for its positive impact on patient wellbeing. It permitted for the first-time reliable long-term cardiac stimulation without the need for an open-chest surgical procedure. Consequently, this innovation rapidly became the "treatment of choice" in the medical community. It sharply reduced the incidence of interruption of pacemaker stimulation because of electrode dislodgement and the need for urgent reoperation to restore effective stimulation. Market growth for pacemakers was accelerated because implantation could be performed on an out-patient basis and made it possible for frail patients to receive pacemaker therapy. Every pacemaker company adopted this innovation and it continues to be sold 40 years after it first entered the market.
Citron has a B.S.E.E (1969) from Drexel University and an M.S.E.E. (1972) from the University of Minnesota. In 2013 he received an honorary Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Drexel University. He was elected a Founding Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) in 1993 and in 2018 was chosen as president-elect of its College of Fellows. Citron was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2003 where he has served on its Peer Committee, Committee on Membership, and the Draper Prize Committee as its Chair in 2012. He served two terms as an NAE Councilor and was a member of the National Academies' Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy. He served on three National Academy of Medicine consensus studies: Safe Medical Devices for Children (2005); Rare Diseases and Orphan Products: Accelerating Research and Development (2011); and, Identifying and Prioritizing New Preventive Vaccines for Development: Phase I, II, and III. In 2015 he was appointed to the Academy of Medicine's Health and Medicine Division advisory committee. Citron has taught a graduate course on corporate entrepreneurship at Georgia Tech and the University of California San Diego as well as invited lectures to undergraduate bioengineering students at UCSD. He is an advisor to start-up firms in the medical device and biotechnology sector. He is also a member of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (La Jolla, CA) Leadership Institute, an external advisory body. He currently serves on the UC San Diego Health Board of Advisors as well as the UCSD Bioengineering Board of Trustees.
Job Titles:
- Professor, Materials Science and Engineering and School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
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- Executive
- Emeritus Petit Institute Advisory Board Member
Pete Petit is a successful entrepreneurial executive who has also managed several public companies as chairman and CEO. Therefore, his experience and perspectives are brought to the Petit Group's investments.
Petit joined the MiMedx Group, Inc. as chairman of the board of directors, chief executive officer and president in February 2009. From May 2008 until he joined the company, Petit was the president of The Petit Group, LLC, a private investment company. Prior to that, Petit was the chairman and CEO of Matria Healthcare, Inc.
Matria Healthcare was a former subsidiary of Healthdyne, Inc., which Petit founded in 1971. Petit served as chairman and CEO of Healthdyne and some of its publicly traded subsidiaries after Healthdyne became a publicly traded company in 1981. Petit received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and master of science degree in engineering mechanics from Georgia Tech, and an MBA degree in finance from Georgia State University. At Georgia Tech, Petit funded a professorial chair for "Engineering in Medicine," endowed the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, and assisted with the funding of the Biotechnology Building which bears his name. At Georgia State University, he assisted with the funding of the Science Center building which also bears his name. In 1994, he was inducted into the Technology Hall of Fame of Georgia. In 2007, he was inducted into the Georgia State Business Hall of Fame. Petit has previously served as a member of the board of directors of the Georgia Research Alliance, which is chartered by the state of Georgia to promote high technology and scientific development in the state.
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- Professor, Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
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- Professor of Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering
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- Member of the Core Facilities Advisory Committee
- Professor
- Professor, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering
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- Associate Chair for Faculty Development
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- Senior IT Support Professional
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- Associate Professor, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Professor
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- Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Emory University
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- Professor
- Professor, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
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- Associate Professor of Medicine
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- Chief Research Operations Officer
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- MBNA Bowman Chair & Professor
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- Vice President and Robert and Leona DeArmond Executive Director
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- Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Biological Sciences
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- Assistant to the Executive Director
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- Professor, Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering
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- Managing Partner / the Salutramed Group, Inc.
Russell M. Medford, M.D., Ph.D. has served, since April 1, 2009, as chairman and president of Salutria Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company. From 1995 to April 1, 2009, Medford served as president, chief executive officer and director of AtheroGenics, Inc., a publicly-held pharmaceutical company.
Medford serves on the Biotechnology Industry Organization Board of Directors and BIO Emerging Companies Section Governing Body, and he served as Chairman of the Georgia BioMedical Partnership from 2004 to 2007 and the Georgia Biotechnology Industry Organization Board of Directors. Medford was an associate professor of medicine and director of molecular cardiology at the Emory University School of Medicine, and currently holds the appointment of adjunct clinical professor of medicine. Medford received a B.A. from Cornell University, and a M.D. with Distinction and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
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- Professor and Patsy and Alan Dorris Chair in Pediatric Technology
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- Professor and KUKA Chair for Robotics
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- Professor, School of Materials Science and Engineering
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- BME Graduate Program Coordinator
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- Senior Research Scientist
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- Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
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- Assistant Professor, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering
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- Professor, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering
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- Dunn Family Associate Professor Physics & Biological Sciences
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- Program and Operations Manager ( Compliance )
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- Member of the Core Facilities Advisory Committee
- Director, Core Facilities
- Senior Assistant Director, Core Facilities
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- Associate Professor, Departments of Neurology and Biomedical Engineering ( Adjunct )
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- Professor, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
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- Associate Professor, School of Mechanical Engineering
- Professor, Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
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- Associate Professor, School of Materials Science and Engineering
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- Assistant Professor, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Vincent Ling recently joined Morphocell Technologies and will lead the company's business development activities to advance the development of its tissue engineering and cell therapy platform. For over 30 years, Dr. Ling led successful research and business innovation groups in diverse biotechnology fields, including cell devices, protein engineering, biosimilars, stem cell differentiation, checkpoint inhibitors and molecular evolution of antibody scaffolds. He has held leadership positions in large, midsized and start-up environments, creating practical biotherapeutics. His current interests lie in novel drug delivery technologies, which includes drug particles, energy guidance and biomaterial scaffolds. Dr. Ling recently served as Senior Director within Search and Evaluation, Business Development at Takeda, after directorship roles in external innovation and pharmaceutical sciences. Prior to Takeda, Dr. Ling was Head of Biological Sciences developing cell therapies for wet AMD at Neurotech. He has held positions including Vice President at Dragonfly Sciences, managing all scientific operations and marketing functions, Director of Molecular Genetics at Adnexus (Compound Therapeutics), and other scientific roles in Discovery Research at Genetics Institute and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Ling earned a BA in Molecular Biology at University of California, Berkeley, followed by MS and Ph.D at University of Illinois, and postdoctoral training at the Harvard Biological Laboratories.
Job Titles:
- Professor, Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
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- Professor of Medicine ( Emory ) and Biomedical Engineering ( GT / Emory )
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- Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Engineering
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- Adjunct Associate Professor
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- Department of Biomedical
- Professor, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering
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- Assistant Professor of Surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery
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- Associate Professor, Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
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- Assistant Professor Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech & Emory
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- Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
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- Associate Professor Division of Physical Therapy, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine