Graduate Studies Committee

All BME Ph.D. students must select a supervisor for their dissertation research. Students may work with any member of the BME Graduate Studies Committee (GSC), which is comprised of BME department faculty as well as faculty in 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, advising, and supervising theses, reports, and dissertations.

Prospective GSC members can apply by completing this form.

Track 1: Biomedical Imaging and Instrumentation

BME Faculty

Adela Ben-Yakar
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 microfluidics. ben-yakar@mail.utexas.edu

Adam Bush
Research Interests: Novel MRI methods to explore human pathophysiology and make imaging safer, particularly for children. Novel blood flow and oximetry methods in cardiovascular disease, anemic disorders and cancers. adambush@utexas.edu

Edward Castillo
Research Interests: Theoretical development, implementation, and clinical deployment of numerical methods for medical image analysis. edward.castillo@utexas.edu

Andrew Dunn
Research Interests: Optical microscopy, functional brain imaging, molecular imaging, neuroscience. adunn@utexas.edu

Nanshu Lu
Research Interests: Mechanics of thin films on compliant substrates; mechanics of flexible electronics with extreme deformability and compliance; mechanics at bio-electronics interface; development of novel bio-integrated soft electronics for cardiac, neural and epidermal applications. nanshulu@utexas.edu

José del R. Millán
Research Interests: Brain-machine interfaces, neuroprosthetics, neurorehabilitation, neuroengineering, neuroscience. jose.millan@austin.utexas.edu

Sapun Parekh
Research Interests: Chemical and nonlinear microscopy; molecular basis of pathology; microscopy instrumentation; molecular physics of biomaterials; mechano-chemical coupling in cancer. sparekh@utexas.edu

Tyrone Porter
Research Interests: Image-guided ultrasound-mediated tumor ablation, Image-guided drug delivery, neurostimulation with focused ultrasound, photoacoustic imaging, controlled drug release, strategies to activate or enhance anticancer immunity,  in vitro models of the blood-brain barrier. tyrone.porter@utexas.edu 

H. Grady Rylander
Research Interests: Vision research, biomedical sensors, laser applications, neuroprosthesis design. rylander@mail.utexas.edu

Chris Rylander
Research Interests: Manufacturing and design, biomechanical engineering and thermal/fluid systems. cgr@austin.utexas.edu

Samantha Santacruz
Research Interests: Neural engineering, brain-machine interfaces, neurotherapeutic devices, neuromodulation. srsantacruz@utexas.edu

James Tunnell
Research Interests: Biomedical optical spectroscopy and imaging; laser-tissue interactions. jtunnell@mail.utexas.edu

Thomas Yankeelov
Research interests: cancer imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, tumor modeling, predictive oncology, patient-specific modeling, computational oncology. thomas.yankeelov@utexas.edu

Evan Wang
Research Interests: Neuroengineering, bioelectronics, biomaterials, wearable electronics, nanotechnology. evanwang@utexas.edu

Tim H.C. Yeh
Research Interests: Nanobiosensor development, cancer biomarker detection; 3D molecular tracking and super-resolution imaging. tim.yeh@austin.utexas.edu

Non-BME Faculty at UT Austin

Ray Chen
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research Interests:  Nano-photonic passive and active devices for bio- and EM-wave sensing and interconnect applications, thin film guided-wave optical interconnection and packaging for 2D and 3D laser beam routing and steering, true time delay (TTD) wide band phased array antenna (PAA), and 3D printed micro-electronics and photonics. chen@ece.utexas.edu

Ku-Lung (Ken) Hsu
Chemistry
Research Interests: Investigation of proteins, cell metabolism, and RNA using covalent chemistry, chemical biology and mass spectrometry. ken.hsu@austin.utexas.edu

Yi Lu
Chemistry
Research Interests: DNAzymes and DNA aptamers as highly sensitive and selective sensors for point-of-care diagnostics, biomedical imaging and gene editing. Functional DNA nanomaterials as theranostic agents for early detection of diseases such as cancers and targeted drug delivery. Engineering novel biocatalysts for synthetic biology and their biomedical applications. yi.lu@utexas.edu

Jonathan W. Valvano
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

Yuebing Zheng
Mechanical Engineering
Research Interests: Digital nanomanufacturing, space-life detection, and global health and medicine. zheng@austin.utexas.edu

Non-BME, Non-UT Austin Faculty

Chad Quarles
Department of Cancer Systems Imaging, Director, Translational Neuroimaging Innovation Program, MD Anderson
Research interests: neuroimaging, brain cancer imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, cancer neuroscience, neurohealth, image-guided surgery and radiotherapy, image-based biomarker discovery, medical image analysis, preclinical imaging.
ccquarles@mdanderson.org

Track 2, Cellular and Biomolecular Engineering

BME Faculty

Aaron Baker
Research Interests: Cardiovascular biology, vascular mechanotransduction, and vascular drug delivery. abbaker@austin.utexas.edu

Amy Brock
Research Interests: Cancer systems biology, heterogeneity and cell state plasticity, gene regulatory networks, chemotherapy drug resistance, normal differentiation and differentiation therapy. amy.brock@utexas.edu

Elizabeth Cosgriff-Hernandez
Research Interests: Tissue repair and regeneration. Polymer science, biomaterials, injectable bone grafts, chronic wound dressings, tissue-engineered ligaments, biovascular grafts. cosgriff.hernandez@utexas.edu

George Georgiou
Research Interests: Antibody engineering, enzyme engineering, protein folding in vivo. gg@che.utexas.edu

Jennifer Maynard
Research Interests: Biotechnology, protein therapeutics, vaccine development, applied immunology and microbiology. maynard@che.utexas.edu

Nicholas Peppas
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

Tyrone Porter
Research Interests: Image-guided ultrasound-mediated tumor ablation, Image-guided drug delivery, neurostimulation with focused ultrasound, photoacoustic imaging, controlled drug release, strategies to activate or enhance anticancer immunity,  in vitro models of the blood-brain barrier. tmp6@utexas.edu

Michael Sacks
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

Stephanie Seidlits
Research Interests: Clinical therapies for central nervous system injury and disorder, including spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, and glioma formation. stephanie.seidlits@utexas.edu

Jeanne Stachowiak
Research Interests: Biological membranes, biophysics, construction of minimal cell-like systems, biomaterials, drug delivery. jcstach@austin.utexas.edu

Laura J. Suggs
Research Interests: Cardiovascular tissue engineering, adult progenitor cells and vasculogenesis, biologically active materials. laura.suggs@engr.utexas.edu

Evan Wang
Research Interests: Neuroengineering, bioelectronics, biomaterials, wearable electronics, nanotechnology. evanwang@utexas.edu

Qian Yin
Research Interests: Immunoengineering, Biomaterials, Nanomedicine, Drug Discovery & Delivery, Cell & Tissue Engineering, Biomaterials. qian.yin@austin.utexas.edu

Janet Zoldan
Research Interests: Tissue engineering, stem cell bioengineering, human-induced pluripotent stem cells. zjanet@austin.utexas.edu

Non-BME Faculty at UT Austin

Deji Akinwande
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research interests: Atomic nanomaterials that can afford uniquely high-performance biosensors, bioelectronics, and wearable biomedical technology. Examples of the atomic nanomaterials include graphene and transitional metal dichalcogenides. deji@ece.utexas.edu

Zhengrong Cui
Pharmacy
Research Interests: Improving the efficacy of anticancer drugs and overcoming tumor chemoresistance, vaccine delivery and adjuvant discovery, and targeting of drugs to chronic inflammation sites. zhengrong.cui@austin.utexas.edu

Kevin Dalby
Pharmacy
Research Interests: Signal transduction, protein-protein interactions, drug design, cancer, protein kinase biochemistry, and cell biology. dalby@mail.utexas.edu

Andrew Ellington
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Research Interests: Evolutionary engineering of molecules, metabolism and organisms. andy.ellington@mail.utexas.edu

Lief Fenno
Psychiatry and Neuroscience
Research Interests: Engineering and optimization of viral payload delivery systems, design of novel molecular control approaches for neuroscience, neuropeptide discovery and characterization. lief.fenno@austin.utexas.edu

Ilya Finkelstein
Molecular Biosciences
Research Interests: Tools that merge micro-/nano-engineering, single molecule biophysics, and genomics to understand the mechanisms of genome maintenance and CRISPR gene editing.
ifinkelstein@cm.utexas.edu

Debadyuti Ghosh
Pharmacy
Research Interests: Biologically inspired, rational design of biomolecules (i.e., antibodies and peptides) and nanoscale materials for cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. dghosh@austin.utexas.edu

Vernita Gordon
Physics
Research Interests: How physical factors, such as spatial structure and mechanics, impact pathogenicity and disease course of bacterial biofilm infections. gordon@chaos.utexas.edu

Ku-Lung (Ken) Hsu
Chemistry
Research Interests: Investigation of proteins, cell metabolism, and RNA using covalent chemistry, chemical biology and mass spectrometry. ken.hsu@austin.utexas.edu

Yi Lu
Chemistry
Research Interests: DNAzymes and DNA aptamers as highly sensitive and selective sensors for point-of-care diagnostics, biomedical imaging and gene editing. Functional DNA nanomaterials as theranostic agents for early detection of diseases such as cancers and targeted drug delivery. Engineering novel biocatalysts for synthetic biology and their biomedical applications. yi.lu@utexas.edu

Alexander Marras
Mechanical Engineering
Research Interests: Biomolecular self-assembly; structural DNA nanotechnology; design rules for polymeric nanoparticles; nucleic acid delivery; multi-scale smart materials; soft matter characterization; small angle scattering. amarras@utexas.edu

Marissa Nichole Rylander
Research Interests: Multidisciplinary elements of bioheat transfer, nanomedicine, biomedical optics, tissue regeneration, and cancer engineering. mnr@austin.utexas.edu

Li Shi
Mechanical Engineering
Research interests: We investigate transport and nano sciences to advance energy, information, biomedical, and security technologies. lishi@mail.utexas.edu

Hugh Smyth
Pharmacy
Research interests: Controlled release pulmonary drug delivery, dry powder device design, nano-bio interactions. hsmyth@mail.utexas.edu

Maryam Tilton
Mechanical Engineering
Research Interests: Tissue engineering, 3D biomanufacturing, cellular aging, mechanobiology, musculoskeletal regeneration, biomaterials, senescence-driven skeletal dysfunction. Maryam.tilton@austin.utexas.edu

Non-BME, Non-UT Austin Faculty

Gregory Reece
Plastic Surgery, MD Anderson
Research Interests: Angiogenesis in wound healing, tissue engineering and vascular biology. greece@mdanderson.org

 Track 3, Computational Biomedical Engineering

BME Faculty

Kenneth R. Diller
Research Interests: Low-temperature biology, thermal modeling, tissue banking, burn injury, computer vision. kdiller@mail.utexas.edu

Mia K. Markey
Research Interests: Machine learning and statistical techniques for detection, classification and prediction in biology and medicine, biomedical image analysis. mia.markey@mail.utexas.edu

Pengyu Ren
Research Interests: Molecular modeling of biological systems, computational biology. pren@mail.utexas.edu

Michael Sacks
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

Thomas Yankeelov
Research interests: cancer imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, tumor modeling, predictive oncology, patient-specific modeling, computational oncology. thomas.yankeelov@utexas.edu

Non-BME Faculty at UT Austin

Chandrajit L. Bajaj
Computer Science
Research Interests: Computer models of physical domains with associated physics. bajaj@cs.utexas.edu

Alan Bovik
 Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research Interests: Biomedical image processing, computer vision. bovik@mail.utexas.edu

Joydeep Ghosh
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research Interests: Large-scale data mining and intelligent data analysis for high-throughput systems; bioinformatics; health care system modeling. ghosh@ece.utexas.edu

Edward Marcotte
 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

Sriram Vishwanath
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research Interests: Data mining and machine learning for health care, health care predictive modeling, casual inference, graphical modeling. sriram@utexas.edu

Track 4, Molecular, Cellular and Tissue Biomechanics

BME Faculty

Aaron Baker
Research Interests: Cardiovascular biology, vascular mechanotransduction, and vascular drug delivery. abbaker@austin.utexas.edu

Kenneth R. Diller
Research Interests: Low-temperature biology, thermal modeling, tissue banking, burn injury, computer vision. kdiller@mail.utexas.edu

Sapun Parekh
Research Interests: Chemical and nonlinear microscopy; molecular basis of pathology; microscopy instrumentation; molecular physics of biomaterials; mechano-chemical coupling in cancer. sparekh@utexas.edu

Manuel Rausch
Research Interests: Deep vein thrombosis, mechanics of thin biological membranes (skin, heart valves, fetal membranes), damage and failure in soft tissues. manuel.rausch@utexas.edu

Michael Sacks
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

Jeanne Stachowiak
Research Interests: Biological membranes, biophysics, construction of minimal cell-like systems, biomaterials, drug delivery. jcstach@austin.utexas.edu

Non-BME Faculty at UT Austin

Nicholas Fey 
Mechanical Engineering
Research Interests: Neuromuscular biomechanics, rehabilitation robotics, prostheses and orthoses, ambulation. nfey@utexas.edu

Alexander Marras
Mechanical Engineering
Research Interests: Biomolecular self-assembly; structural DNA nanotechnology; design rules for polymeric nanoparticles; nucleic acid delivery; multi-scale smart materials; soft matter characterization; small angle scattering. amarras@utexas.edu

Maryam Tilton
Mechanical Engineering
Research Interests: Tissue engineering, 3D biomanufacturing, cellular aging, mechanobiology, musculoskeletal regeneration, biomaterials, senescence-driven skeletal dysfunction. Maryam.tilton@austin.utexas.edu