The Graduate Studies Committee (GSC) consists of professors in biomedical engineering or related fields who are active participants in the biomedical engineering graduate program at The University of Texas at Austin. The GSC makes curriculum recommendations and is responsible for graduate program policies through the program's Graduate Advisor. Responsibilities of the GSC include graduate student instruction and advising and the supervision of theses, reports, and dissertations.

• Technical Area 1, Biomedical Imaging and Instrumentation
• Technical Area 2, Cellular and Biomolecular Engineering
• Technical Area 3, Computational Biomedical Engineering
  

Technical Area 1, Biomedical Imaging and Instrumentation

James Bankson, (MD Anderson) Regular GSC Member; Associate Professor, Dept. of Imaging Physics, Divsion of Diagnostic Imaging
Research interests: Magnetic resonance imaging; fast imaging; quantitative imaging; parallel imaging; system engineering; receiver coil and phased array detector design; signal processing. jbankson@mdanderson.org (713-792-4273)

Adela Ben-Yakar, Regular GSC Member; Assistant Professor, UT Austin Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Research Interests: Femtosecond Laser Micro-Surgery (FLMS) and Two-photon Imaging using optical MEMS devices and Photonic Bandgap Fibers for cancer detection and treatment; Femtosecond laser micromachining of integrated devices for microfludics. ben-yakar@mail.utexas.edu (512-475-9280)

Andrew Dunn, BME Faculty GSC Member; Associate Professor, UT Austin BME Dept.
Research Interests: Optical microscopy, functional brain imaging, molecular imaging, neuroscience. adunn@mail.utexas.edu (512-232-2121)

Stanislav Emelianov, BME Faculty GSC Member; Associate Professor, UT Austin BME Dept.
Research Interests: Ultrasound and MNR elasticity imaging, ultrasound microscopy, molecular imaging. emelian@mail.utexas.edu (512-471-1733)

Peter Gascoyne, (MD Anderson) Regular GSC Member; Professor, Department of Imaging Physics
Research Interests: Laboratory-on-chip methods for cell diagnostics and molecular analysis, dialetic particle and droplet manipulation in microfuluidic platforms. pgascoyn@mdanderson.org

Wilson S. Geisler, Regular GSC Member; Professor, UT Austin Dept. of Psychology
Research Interests:  Current projects are concerned with perceptual grouping, visual search, natural scene statistics, and the neurophysiology of primary visual cortex. geisler@psy.utexas.edu (512-471-5380)

Ann Gillenwater M.D. (MD Anderson) Associate GSC Member; Assistant Professor (NTCA), Head & Neck Surgery
Research Interests: Optical detection and treatment of premalignant and early malignant lesions of upper aerodigestive tract, treatment of advanced skin cancers, treatment of thyroid malignancies. agillenw@mdanderson.org (713-792-8841)

Mark F. Hamilton, Regular GSC Member; Professor, UT Austin Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Research Interests: Physical acoustics, ultrasonics. hamilton@mail.utexas.edu (512-471-3055)

John D. Hazle, (MD Anderson) Regular GSC Member; Professor and Department Chair,  Department of Imaging Physics
Research Interests: Magnetic resonance imaging, real-time MR imaging, closed-loop systems for managing interventional imaging guided therapies, small animal imaging. jhazle@mdanderson.org (713-792-0612)

Daniel Johnston, Regular GSC Member; Professor, UT Austin Dept. of Neuroscience
Research Interests: Research in the Johnston laboratory is primarily directed towards understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms of learning and memory. We have focused our attention on neurons and synapses from the limbic system, mostly the hippocampus, subiculum, and entorhinal cortex. These areas are known to play important roles in learning and memory. Our research uses quantitative electrophysiological, molecular, optical imaging, and computer modeling techniques. djohnston@mail.clm.utexas.edu (512-232-6564)

Thomas E. Milner, BME Faculty GSC Member; Associate Professor, UT Austin BME Dept.
Research Interests: Optical-based therapeutics and diagnostic imaging, biomedical fiber sensors, infrared imaging radiometry. milner@ece.utexas.edu (512-471-1332)

Massoud Motamedi (UTMB Galveston) Regular GSC Member; Director, Biomedical Engineering Center
mmotamed@utmb.edu (409-772-8363)

Martin Poenie, Regular GSC Member; Associate Professor, UT Austin School of Biological Sciences
Research Interests: Cellular imaging; Cellular regulation and development. poenie@mail.utexas.edu (512-471-5598 or 512-471-3503)

David Ress, Regular GSC Member; Research Associate Professor, UT Austin Section of Neurobiology, College of Natural Sciences
Research Interests: Imaging research, MRI, hemodynamics, and vision science. ress@mail.utexas.edu (512-232-5270)

H. Grady Rylander, BME Faculty GSC Member; Professor, UT Austin BME Dept.
Research Interests: Vision research, biomedical sensors, laser applications, neuroprosthesis design. rylander@mail.utexas.edu (512-471-1995)

Konstantin Sokolov, (MD Anderson) Associate GSC Member; Associate Professor, Dept. of Imaging Physics
Research Interests: optical imaging and spectroscopy of cancer; molecular imaging, multimodal contrast agents; nanoparticles and nanotechnology in molecular imaging. kostia@mail.utexas.edu (512-471-7440)

James Tunnell, BME Faculty GSC Member; Associate Professor, UT Austin BME Dept.
Research Interests: Biomedical optical spectroscopy and imaging; laser-tissue interactions. jtunnell@mail.utexas.edu (512-232-2110)

Xiaojing John Zhang, BME Faculty GSC Member; Associate Professor, UT Austin BME Dept.
Research Interests: Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and nanodevices and fabrication for bio-manipulation, imaging and sensing. zhangxj@mail.utexas.edu (512-475-6872)

Technical Area 2, Cellular and Biomolecular Engineering

Catherine Ambrose (UT Health Science Center-Houston) Regular GSC Member; Associate Professor, NTR
Research Interests: Material property assessment for orthopaedic materials including bone, cartilage, ligaments, and tendons; biodegradable materials for orthopaedic applications; diagnosis and treatment of metabolic bone diseases including osteoporosis and osteogenesis imperfecta; in vitro and in vivo models for orthopaedic applications. Catherine.G.Ambrose@uth.tmc.edu (713-500-7007)

Aaron Baker, BME Faculty GSC Member; Assistant Professor, UT Austin BME Dept.
Research Interests: Cardiovascular biology, vascular mechanotransduction, and vascular drug delivery. abbaker@austin.utexas.edu (512-232-7114)

Jay Conyers, (UT-Health Science Center at Houston) Regular GSC member; Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Atherosclerotic PlaqueImaging Agents, Smart Drug Delivery Platforms,  Ionizing RadiationProtection/Mitigation Agents Multifunctional Vectors. Jodie.L.Conyers@uth.tmc.edu (713- 500-3643)

Kevin Dalby, Regular GSC member; Associate Professor, UT Austin College of Pharmacy
Research Interests: Signal transduction, protein-protein interactions, drug design, cancer, protein kinase biochemistry, and cell biology. dalby@mail.utexas.edu (512-471-9267)

Andrew Ellington, Regular GSC Member; Associate Professor, UT Austin Chemistry and Biochemistry
Research Interests: Evolutionary engineering of molecules, metabolism and organisms. andy.ellington@mail.utexas.edu) (512-232-3424 or 512-471-6445)

Yong-Jian Geng, (UT Health Science Center-Houston) Regular GSC member; Associate Professor, MD, Ph.D.
Research interests: Cardiovascular gene expression; apoptosis; lipoprotein metabolism; transgenic mice; gene and cell therapy; tissue engineering. yong-jian.geng@uth.tmc.edu (832-355-9165)

George Georgiou, BME Faculty GSC Member; Professor, UT Austin BME and CHE Depts.
Research interests: Antibody engineering, enzyme engineering, protein folding in vivo. gg@che.utexas.edu (512-471-6975 or 512-232-4103)

Jenny Jiang, BME Faculty GSC Member; Assistant Professor, UT Austin BME Dept.
Research Interests: Systems immunology, immune repertoire, high-throughput sequencing, single cell analysis, and microfluidics.

George Kramer, (UTMB - Galveston) Regular GSC Member; Professor, Dept. of Anesthesiology
Reserch Interests: Microcirculatory transport of fluid and solutes, resuscitation of circulatory shock, mechanisms of membrane depolarization and cellular edema in shock, closed loop technologies to treat medical emergencies. gkramer@utmb.edu (409-772-3969)

Anshu Mathur, (MD Anderson) Regular GSC Member; Director of Research, Tissue Regeneration and Molecular Cell Engineering Labs (TRAMCEL); Assistant Professor, Depts. or Biomedical Engineering and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Research interests: Biologically derived materials, Engineered 3-D nanomaterials for tissue and patient specific reconstructive applications, Cell-Engineering at the molecular scale, Guided tissue regeneration, In vivo models for tissue regeneration, Targeted Biological Nanotherapeutics, Nano-Therapeutic delivery via a microvascular tissue flap. amathur@mdanderson.org (713-563-7568)

Nicholas Peppas, BME Faculty GSC Member; BME Department Chair, Fletcher Stuckey Pratt Chair in Engineering, Professor, UT Austin BME and CHE Depts. and College of  Pharmacy
Research Interests: Biomaterials, controlled drug delivery, molecular modeling of protein structures in contact with biomaterials and tissues, modeling of biomedical devices, bionanotechnology and molecular recognition processes. peppas@che.utexas.edu (512-471-6644)

Gregory Reece, (MD Anderson) Regular GSC member; Professor; Dept. of Plastic Surgery
Research Interests: Angiogenesis in wound healing, tissue engineering and vascular biology. greece@mdanderson.org (713- 794-1247)

Krishnendu Roy, BME Faculty GSC Member; Associate Professor, UT Austin BME Dept.
Research Interests: Polymer based DNA delivery, DNA vaccines, transcutaneous and transmucosal delivery of nucleic acids, effects of spatio-temporal gene delivery on stem cell differentiation and tissue regeneration. kroy@mail.utexas.edu (512-232-3477)

Michael Sacks, BME Faculty GSC Member; Professor, UT Austin BME Dept.;
Research Interests: Cardiovascular biomechanics; computational simulation of the behavior of the cardiovascular system; advanced constitutive models; biomechanical interactions of cell, tissue, and organ in native and engineered heart valves and myocardium.
msacks@ices.utexas.edu (512-232-7773)

Christine E. Schmidt, BME Faculty GSC Member; Professor, UT Austin BME Dept.;
Research Interests: Development of bioartificial tissues and enhancement of native tissue function using fundamental engineering principles and molecular level knowledge of cellular interactions. schmidt@che.utexas.edu (512-471-1690)

Li Shi, Regular GSC Member; Associate Professor, UT Austin Dept. of Mechanical Engineering;
Research interests: We investigate transport and nano sciences to advance energy, information, biomedical, and security technologies. lishi@mail.utexas.edu (512-471-3109)

Jason Shear, Regular GSC Member; Associate Professor, UT Austin Chemistry & Biochemstry Dept. Research interests: Biomaterials, Cellular Engineering, Chemical Microanalysis, Microscopy. jshear@mail.utexas.edu (512-232-1454)

Michael Smolensky, (University of Texas Health Science Center - Houston) Associate GSC Member; Professor, Environmental Physiology, Dept. of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine;
Research interests: Cirdadian rhythms in disease processes and their chemotherapy. michael.h.smolensky@uth.tmc.edu (713-500-9237)

Hugh Smyth, Regular GSC Member; Assistant Professor, UT College of Pharmacy;
Research interests: Conrolled release pulmonary drug delivery, dry powder device design, nano-bio interactions.
hsmyth@mail.utexas.edu (512-471-3383)

Max Snodderly, Regular GSC Member; Professor, School of Human Ecology;
Research interests: Vision, the effects of aging on vision, and the potential for nutrition to slow or prevent age-related eye disease. max.snodderly@mail.utexas.edu (512-232-3307)

Jeanne Stachowiak, BME Faculty GSC Member; Assistant Professor, UT Austin BME Dept.
Research Interests: Biological membranes, biophysics, construction of minimal cell-like systems, biomaterials, drug delivery. jcstach@austin.utexas.edu

Laura J. Suggs, BME Faculty GSC Member; Associate Professor, UT Austin BME Dept.
Research Interests: Cardiovascular tissue engineering, adult progenitor cells and vasculogenesis, biologically active materials. laura.suggs@engr.utexas.edu (512-232-1671)

S. Ray Taylor, (University of Texas Health Science Center – Houston) Regular GSC member; Professor
Research Interests: biomaterials, coatings and surface treatments, composites, corrosion, toxicity, material-environment interactions. s.ray.taylor@uth.tmc.edu (713-500-4489).

Technical Area 3, Computational Biomedical Engineering

Lawrence D. Abraham, Regular GSC Member; Associate Professor, UT Austin Dept. of Kinesiology and Health
Research Interests: Neural control of movement, human biomechanics. l.abraham@mail.utexas.edu(512-471-3476 or 512-232-2684)

Chandrajit L. Bajaj, Regular GSC Member; UT Austin Professor, Dept. of Computer Science
Research Interests: Computer models of physical domains with associated physics. bajaj@cs.utexas.edu (512-471-8870)

Ronald E. Barr, Regular GSC Member; Professor, UT Austin Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Research Interests: Biosignal analysis, computer graphics, biomechanics. rbarr@mail.utexas.edu (512-471-3008 or 512-471-5615)

Alan Bovik, Regular GSC Member; Professor, UT Austin Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research Interests: Biomedical image processing, computer vision. bovik@mail.utexas.edu (512-471-5370)

John Byrne (UT Health Science Center-Houston) Regular GSC Member; Neurobiology & Anatomy
Research Interests: Analysis and synthesis of neural circuits and biochemical and genetic networks mediating learning and memory. (713-500-5602) John.H.Byrne@uth.tmc.edu

Claudio N. Cavasotto, (UT Health Science Center-Houston) Regular GSC Member; Associate Professor
Research Interests: Computational Chemistry, Molecular Modeling, and Drug Discovery & Design. Claudio.N.Cavasotto@uth.tmc.edu (713-500-3934)

Kenneth R. Diller, BME Faculty GSC Member; Professor, Cockrell Family Chair for Departmental Leadership, Robert M. and Prudie Leibrock Endowed Professor in Engineering, UT Austin BME Dept.
Research Interests: Low-temperature biology, thermal modeling, tissue banking, burn injury, computer vision. kdiller@mail.utexas.edu (512-471-7167)

Jonathan Dingwell, Regular GSC Member; Assistant Professor, UT Austin Dept. of Kinesiology and Health Education
Research Interests: biomechanics, neuromuscular control, and nonlinear dynamics. jdingwell@mail.utexas.edu (512-232-1782)

Mary Edgerton, (MD Anderson) Regular GSC member; Associate Professor, Dept. of Pathology/Lab Medicine
Research Interests: Breast pathology, pagetoid spread of ductal carcinoma in situ, data mining of gene expression profiles for oncogenic pathways, pathology informatics, informatics for research tissue collection. (713-745-1212)

Joydeep Ghosh, Regular GSC Member; Professor, UT Austin Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research Interests: Large-scale data mining and intelligent data analaysis for high-throughput systems; bioinformatics; health-care system modeling. ghosh@ece.utexas.edu (512-471-8980)

Lisa Griffin, Regular GSC Member; Assistant Professor, UT Austin Dept. of Kinesiology and Health Education
Research Interests: Development of Functional Electrical Stimulation systems to enable hand muscle movement of those affected by paralysis from stroke and spinal cord injury. l.griffin@mail.utexas.edu (512-471-2786)

Robin Gutell, Regular GSC member; Associate Professor, Dept. of Integrative Biology
Research Interests: The analysis of RNA sequences from an RNA structure and a molecular phylogenetic perspective can reveal the secondary and tertiary structure of RNA molecules, most notably for the 16S and 23S ribosomal RNAs, and phylogenetic relationships for organisms that span the entire tree of life. robin.gutell@mail.utexas.edu (512-232-4814)

Yin Liu (UT Health Science Center-Houston) Regular GSC Member; Assistant Professor, Neurobiology and Anatomy
Research Interests: Bioinformatics; Large-scale computational analysis of protein interaction networks and signal transduction pathways. Yin.liu@uth.tmc.edu (713-500-5632)

Edward Marcotte, Regular GSC Member; Asst. Professor, UT Austin Chemistry and Biochemistry
Research Interests: Bioinformatics; functional genomics, proteomics; mass-spectrometric detection of protein expression; protein microarrays; protein-network-guided drug discovery; high-throughput protein interaction screening; high-throughput discovery of gene function. marcotte@icmb.utexas.edu (512-471-5435 or 512-232-3919)

Mia K. Markey, BME Faculty GSC Member; Associate Professor, UT Austin
Research Interests: Machine learning and statistical techniques for detection, classification and prediction in biology and medicine; biomedical image analysis. mia.markey@mail.utexas.edu (512-471-1711)

Dianna Milewicz M.D., Ph.D. (UT Health Science Center-Houston) Associate GSC Member; Associate Professor, Dept. of Internal Medicine
Research Interests: Bioinformatics; genomics of cardiovascular and connective tissue diseases. Dianna.M.Milewicz@uth.tmc.edu (713-500-6725)

Tess J. Moon, Regular GSC Member; Professor, UT Austin Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Research Interests: Cellular and tissue biomechanics and biophysics. tmoon@mail.utexas.edu (512-471-0094 or 512-471-6515)

John A. Pearce, Regular GSC Member; Professor, UT Austin Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research Interests: Thermal damage in tissue, electrosurgery, bioelectric phenomena. jpearce@mail.utexas.edu (512-471-4984 or 512-471-6902)

Pengyu Ren, BME Faculty GSC Member; Associate Professor, UT Austin BME Dept.
Research Interests: Molecular modeling of biological systems; computational biology. pren@mail.utexas.edu (512-232-1832)

Michael Sacks, BME Faculty GSC Member; Professor, UT Austin BME Dept.;
Research Interests: Cardiovascular biomechanics; computational simulation of the behavior of the cardiovascular system; advanced constitutive models; biomechanical interactions of cell, tissue, and organ in native and engineered heart valves and myocardium.
msacks@ices.utexas.edu (512-232-7773)

Harel Shouval, (UT Health Science Center-Houston) Regular GSC Member; Assistant Professor, Neurobiology & Anatomy
Research Interests: Theoretical/Computational stduies on the cellular basis of learning, memory and development. harel.shouval@uth.tmc.edu (713-500-5708)

Jack W. Smith, M.D., Ph.D. (UT Health Science Center-Houston) Regular GSC Member; Adjoint Professor UT Austin BME Dept.
Research interests: Artificial intelligence; modeling problem-solving in healthcare; implementation of decision support and tutoring systems; modeling complex human problem-solving; application of cognitive science to understanding; human-computer interaction;. jack.w.smith@uth.tmc.edu (713-500-3925)

Delbert Tesar, Regular GSC Member; Professor, UT Austin Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Research Interests: Development of advanced component and system technology for intelligent machines and robotics including their performance, condition-based maintenance, and fault tolerance for applications in space, manufacturing, military operations and microsurgery. tesar@mail.utexas.edu (512-471-3039)

Jonathan W. Valvano, Regular GSC Member; Professor, UT Austin Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research Interests: Bioinstrumentation, measurement of perfusion, tissue thermal properties, real-time temperature measurements, thermal modeling in tissue, embedded applications of microcomputers. valvano@mail.utexas.edu (512-471-5141)

Bugao Xu, Regular GSC Member; Associate Professor, UT Austin Dept. of Human Ecology
Research Interests: Applications of computer vision technology to measure size and shape of the human body. bxu@mail.utexas.edu (512-471-7226 or 512-471-7224)