Our interests lie in the adhesion and signaling molecules of the immune system as well as those involved in platelet adhesion and aggregation. We are primarily focused on early cell surface interaction kinetics and their primary signaling responses, as these are critical in determining how a cell will ultimately respond upon contact with another cell. The majority of our work ranges from single molecule interaction studies using atomic force microscopy, molecular dynamics simulations, or biomembrane force probe assays to single cell studies using micropipette adhesions assays, fluorescence imaging techniques, or real-time confocal microscopy. These assays focus on the mechanics and kinetics of receptor-ligand binding and their downstream signaling effects within cells. T cell receptors, selectins, integrins, and their respective ligands are some of the cell surface molecules currently under investigation in our lab. Understanding the initial interaction between molecules such as these and their subsequent early signaling processes is crucial to elucidating the response mechanisms of these physiological systems. Ultimately, our research strives to help better understand the mechanisms within these systems for possible medical applications in autoimmunity, allergy, transplant rejection, and thrombotic disorders. 

Donggang Yao is a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. and Master’s degrees both from University of Massachusetts Amherst, and his B.S. degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. He teaches and directs research in the broad area of polymer engineering. His current research focuses on polymer micromolding, fiber spinning, single-polymer composites, constitutive modeling, and process modeling and simulation. He has published over 60 journal papers and 80 conference papers on polymer processing. He was a recipient of NSF Career Award in 2003 for his research on polymer micromolding. He chaired the ASME Composites and Textile Engineering Technical Committee from 2009 to 2011. He currently serves as an associate editor for ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering and an editorial board member for Polymer Engineering and Science.

In May 2000, Dr. Yang earned his doctorate degree in environmental and resource engineering from the College of environmental science and forestry, State University of New York. He also held M.S. degree and B.Sc. degree in pulping and paper. He first joined IPST, the former of RBI at Georgia Tech, in 2000 as a post doctor fellow. Soon he was hired as research scientist I. In 2006, he was promoted to be research scientist II. In 2013, he was appointed to be the manager of pulping and bleaching lab. Beginning from 2016, Dr. Yang has been teaching Pulp & Bleaching Lab (ChBE4873). In 2019, he was assigned additional duty in managing chemical analysis lab. With strong educational background in wood chemistry, coupled with the acquired skills and experience in chemical analysis., Dr. Yang’s main area of interest was utilizations of natural resources, especially biomass, in a sustainable way. He also interested in the development of novel online detection and monitoring in chemical process, and providing technical services to the industries and research communities.

C. F. Jeff Wu is the Coca-Cola Chair in Engineering Statistics and Professor in the H. Milton School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech.

He was elected a Member of the National Academy of Engineering (2004), and a Member (Academician) of Academia Sinica (2000). A Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (1984), the American Statistical Association (1985), the American Society for Quality (2002), and the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (2009). He received the COPSS (Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies) Presidents' Award in 1987, which was given to the best researcher under the age of 40 per year and was commissioned by five statistical societies. His other major awards include the 2011 COPSS Fisher Lecture, the 2012 Deming Lecture (plenary lectures during the annual Joint Statistical Meetings), the Shewhart Medal (2008) from ASQ, and the Pan Wenyuan Technology Award (2008). In 2016 he received the (inaugural) Akaike Memorial Lecture Award. In 2017 he received the George Box Medal from ENBIS. In 2020 he won The Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award and the Sigma Xi Monie A. Ferst Award both at Georgia Institute of Technology. He has won numerous other awards, including the Wilcoxon Prize, the Brumbaugh Award (twice), the Jack Youden Prize (twice), and the Honoree of the 2008 Quality and Productivity Research Conference. He was the 1998 P. C. Mahalanobis Memorial Lecturer at the Indian Statistical Institutes and an Einstein Visiting Professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He is an Honorary Professor at several institutions, including the CAS and National Tsinghua University. He received an honorary doctor (honoris causa) of mathematics at the University of Waterloo in 2008.

He was formerly the H. C. Carver Professor of Statistics and Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan, 1993-2003 and the GM/NSERC Chair in Quality and Productivity at the University of Waterloo in 1988-1993. In his 1997 inaugural lecture for the Carver Chair, he coined the term data science and advocated that statistics be renamed data science and statistician to data scientist. Before Waterloo, he taught in the Statistics Department at the University of Wisconsin from 1977-1988. He got his BS in Mathematics from National Taiwan University in 1971 and Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of California, Berkeley (1973-1976).

His work is widely cited in professional journals as well as in magazines, including a feature article about his work in Canadian Business and a special issue of Newsweek on quality. He has served as editor or associate editor for several major statistical journals like Annals of Statistics, Journal of American Statistical Association, Technometrics, and Statistica Sinica. Professor Wu has published more than 185 research articles in peer review journals. He has supervised 50 Ph.D.'s, out of which more than 25 are teaching in major research departments or institutions in statistics, engineering, or business in US/Canada/Asia/Europe. Among them, there are 21 Fellows of ASA, IMS, ASQ, IAQ and IIE, three editors of Technometrics, and one editor of JQT. He co-authors with Mike Hamada the book "Experiments: Planning, Analysis, and Optimization" (Wiley, 2nd Ed, 2009, 716 pages) and with R. Mukerjee the book "A Modern Theory of Factorial Designs" (Springer, 2006).

Valerie Thomas is the Anderson-Interface Chair of Natural Systems and Professor in the H. Milton School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, with a joint appointment in the School of Public Policy. 

Dr. Thomas's research interests are energy and materials efficiency, sustainability, industrial ecology, technology assessment, international security, and science and technology policy. Current research projects include low carbon transportation fuels, carbon capture, building construction, and electricity system development. Dr. Thomas is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the American Physical Society. She has been an American Physical Society Congressional Science Fellow, a Member of the U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board, and a Member of the USDA/DOE Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee. 

She has worked at Princeton University in the Princeton Environmental Institute and in the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, and at Carnegie Mellon University in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy.

Dr. Thomas received a B. A. in physics from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Cornell University.

Mohan Srinivasarao is a Professor with the School of Materials Science and Engineering. Srinivasarao received his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1990 from Carnegie Mellon University, a M.Sc in Applied Chemistry in 1981 from PSG College of Technology (University of Madras, India), and a B.Sc in Applied Science in 1979 from Madurai University, India.

Srinivasarao specializes in physical chemistry of polymers, physics of nematic liquid crystals, optics of liquid crystals, rheology/rheo-optics of polymeric fluids and liquid crystals, polymer/liquid crystal dispersions, various forms of light microscopy including confocal microscopy and photon tunneling microscopy, color science, and nano-optics in the biological world (color of butterfly wings, beetles, moths, and bird feathers).

Srinivasarao is a member os several professional organizations including the American Chemical Society, Materials Research Society, Optical Society of America, Society of Rheology, American Physical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement

Scott Sinquefield completed his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in 1998 at Oregon State University. He spent three years working with the Multi-Fuel Combustion Group at the Combustion Research Facility at Sandia National Labs (Livermore); where he performed the experimental portion of his thesis research. He joined the Chemical Recovery group at IPST in 1998 and was lead.engineer in the construction and operation of the Pressurize Entrained Flow Reactor facility. He now leads the research program on black liquor gasification. He has extensive experience in the design and construction of pilot research reactors and control systems. He also has expertise in boiler fire-side fouling and thermodynamic modeling of aqueous electrolyte systems.

Prior to joining MSE in July 2003 Professor Singh was a faculty member in Corrosion and Materials Engineering Group at The Institute of Paper Science and Technology (IPST) since 1996.  While in IPST Singh worked on fundamental as well as applied research projects related to the corrosion problems in the pulp and paper industry. From 1990 to 1996, he was a Senior Research Associate at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, working on various materials and corrosion related research projects, including damage accumulation in metal matrix composites (MMCs), Environmental sensitive fracture of Al-alloys MMCs, and High temperature oxidation of Nb/Nb5Si3 composites. He received the Alcan International's Fellowship in 1988-90 to work on "Effects of Low Melting Point Impurities on Slow Crack Growth in Al Alloys,"  He has published over 50 papers in reputed scientific journals and conference proceedings. He is active member of NACE, TMS, TAPPI and has co-organized a number of international symposiums.

Reliable performance of the materials is very important for any industrial process and especially for the chemical process industry for the manufacture of a high quality product. Material selection is generally based on the required material properties, low initial capital investment, and minimum maintenance. Changes in the process parameters to improve products can often lead to higher corrosion susceptibilities of the plant materials. Moreover, with increase in capital cost, there is pressure to extend the life of existing plant equipment beyond its original design life. Corrosion and Materials Engineers are also playing a key role in selecting, maintaining, and modifying materials for changing needs for every industry. Corrosion Science and Engineering research includes understanding the basic mechanisms involved in material degradation in given environments and using that knowledge to develop a mitigation strategy against environment-induced failures