Josiah Hester

Josiah Hester
josiah@gatech.edu

Josiah Hester works broadly in computer engineering, with a special focus on wearable devices, edge computing, and cyber-physical systems. His Ph.D. work focused on energy harvesting and battery-free devices that failed intermittentently. He now focuses on sustainable approaches to computing, via designing health wearables, interactive devices, and large-scale sensing for conservation. 
   
His work in health is focused on increasing accessibility and lowering the burden of getting preventive and acute healthcare. In both situations, he designs low-burden, high-fidelity wearable devices that monitor aspects of physiology and behavior, and use machine learning techniques to suggest or deliver adaptive and in-situ interventions ranging from pharmacological to behavioral. 
   
His work is supported by multiple grants from the NSF, NIH, and DARPA. He was named a Sloan Fellow in Computer Science and won his NSF CAREER in 2022. He was named one of Popular Science's Brilliant Ten, won the American Indian Science and Engineering Society Most Promising Scientist/Engineer Award, and the 3M Non-tenured Faculty Award in 2021. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, BBC, Popular Science, Communications of the ACM, and the Guinness Book of World Records, among many others.

Interim Associate Director for Community-Engaged Research
Catherine M. and James E. Allchin Early Career Professor
Professor
Director, Ka Moamoa – Ubiquitous and Mobile Computing Lab
BBISS Lead: Computational Sustainability
Office
TSRB 246
IRI and Role
Sustainable Systems > Initiative Lead
Sustainable Systems > Staff
Bioengineering and Bioscience > Faculty
Matter and Systems > Affiliated Faculty
Bioengineering and Bioscience
Data Engineering and Science > Faculty
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Computing > School of Interactive Computing
Research Areas
Sustainable Systems
  • Ecosystem and Environmental Health
  • Global Sustainable Development
Matter and Systems
  • Human-Centric Technologies

Peter Hesketh

Peter Hesketh
peter.hesketh@me.gatech.edu

Peter Hesketh came to Georgia Tech in spring 2000 as a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. Prior, he was associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Hesketh's research interests involve sensors and micro/nano-electro-mechanical Systems (MEMS/NEMS). Many sensors are built by micro/nanofabrication techniques and this provides a host of advantages including lower power consumption, small size and light weight. The issue of manipulation of the sample in addition to introduce it to the chemical sensor array is often achieved with microfluidics technology. Combining photolithographic processes to define three-dimensional structures can accomplish the necessary fluid handling, mixing, and separation through chromatography. Hesketh is also interested in nanosensors, impedance based sensors, miniature magnetic actuators and the use of stereolithography for sensor packaging. He has published over sixty papers and edited fifteen books on microsensor systems.

Professor, Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Phone
404.894.8496
Office
Love 317
Additional Research

Microfabrication; micromachining; sensors and actuators; biosensors; "Dr. Hesketh's research interests are in Sensors and Micro/Nano-electro-mechanical Systems (MEMS/NEMS).Many sensors are built by micro/nanofabrication techniques and this provides a host of advantages including lower power consumption, small size and light weight.The issue of manipulation of the sample in addition to introduce it to the chemical sensor array is often achieved with microfluidics technology.Combining photolithographic processes to define three-dimensional structures can accomplish the necessary fluid handling, mixing, and separation through chromatography.For example, demonstration of miniature gas chromatographyand liquid chromatography with micromachined separation columns demonstrates how miniaturization of chemical analytical methods reduces the separation time so that it is short enough, to consider the measurementequivalentto ""read-time"" sensing. A second focus area is biosensing. Professor Hesketh has worked on a number of biomedical sensors projects, including microdialysis for subcutaneous sampling, glucose sensors, and DNA sensors. Magnetic beads are being investigated as a means to transport and concentrate a target at a biosensor interface in a microfluidic format, in collaboration with scientists at the CDC. His research interests also include nanosensors, nanowire assembly by dielectrophoresis; impedance based sensors, miniature magnetic actuators; use of stereolithography for sensor packaging. He has published over sixty papers and edited fifteen books on microsensor systems."

IRI and Role
Bioengineering and Bioscience > Faculty
Bioengineering and Bioscience
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

Katherine Hekman, M.D., Ph.D.

Katherine Hekman, M.D., Ph.D.
khekman@emory.edu

Dr. Hekman completed her BA in Biophysics and Spanish Literature at Johns Hopkins. She then chose to pursue medicine and completed her MD and PhD in Molecular Medicine at the University of Chicago, where she found Vascular Surgery. She completed her Vascular Surgery Integrated Residency at Northwestern University, including a post-doctoral research fellowship in the lab of Dr. Jason Wertheim, MD, PhD. There she discovered the role of autophagy in the longevity and health of endothelial cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells. She joined faculty in Vascular Surgery at Emory and the Atlanta VA Healthcare System in 2021, where her lab focuses on generating patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cell-derived endothelial cells to produce personalized regenerative therapies for vascular disease.

Assistant Professor
Phone
619-754-5405
Office
1365 Clifton Rd NE; Atlanta, GA 30322
IRI and Role
Bioengineering and Bioscience > Faculty
Bioengineering and Bioscience
University, College, and School/Department
Emory University > Department of Surgery

Christine Heitsch

Christine Heitsch
heitsch@math.gatech.edu

Christine Heitsch is Professor of Mathematics at Georgia Tech, with courtesy appointments in Biological Sciences and Computational Science & Engineering as well as an affiliation with the Petit Institute for Bioengineering & Bioscience.

She is also Director of the new Southeast Center for Mathematics and Biology (SCMB), an NSF-Simons MathBioSys Research Center, and finishing her tenure directing the GT Interdisciplinary Mathematics Preparation and Career Training (IMPACT) Postdoctoral Program.

Heitsch's research interests lie at the interface between discrete mathematics and molecular biology, specifically combinatorial problems "as motivated by" and "with applications to" fundamental biomedical questions like RNA folding.

Students interested in pursuing graduate studies in discrete mathematical biology can do so through a number of GT PhD programs including Bioinformatics or Quantitative Biosciences as well as Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization (ACO), Computational Science & Engineering (CSE), and (of course) Mathematics.
 

Professor
Phone
404-894-4758
Office
Skiles 211B
Additional Research
Heitsch's research interests lie at the interface between discrete mathematics and molecular biology, specifically combinatorial problems "as motivated by" and "with applications to" fundamental biomedical questions like RNA folding.
IRI and Role
Bioengineering and Bioscience > Faculty
Data Engineering and Science > Faculty
Data Engineering and Science
Bioengineering and Bioscience
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Sciences > School of Mathematics

Karmella Haynes

Karmella Haynes
karmella.ann.haynes@emory.edu

Many people are familiar with “genetics,” the inheritance of visible traits like eye and hair color. Traits are encoded by a molecular alphabet (A,T,C,G) in the well known double helix structure, DNA. Less well known, but quickly gaining attention, is the network of protein particles that interact with DNA to control the folding of chromosomes and the expression of inherited traits. This process is epi-genetics (epi, EH-pee = upon or above). Our research group uses gene and protein engineering to create new epigenetic machinery that regulates DNA at will. One day synthetic epigenetics may allow us to rationally design new biological systems with predictable, reliable behavior and replace “magic bullet medicine” with “smart medicine.”

We assemble interchangeable protein modules to build synthetic transcription factors that regulate gene activity in human cells. Unlike typical synthetic transcription factors that recognize specific DNA sequences, our Polycomb-based transcription factors (“PcTFs”) are engineered to read chromatin modifications. Thus, a single engineered TF could activate a group of silenced, therapeutic genes in cancer cells. Using strong gene activators could enhance cancer treatment and advance epigenetic medicine.

As synthetic biologists, our goal is to make the folded DNA-protein material, or chromatin (KRO-mah-tin = dark colored material in the nucleus of a fixed and stained cell), easier to design and engineer. Groups of genes often reside in the same compartments, and share the same DNA-protein packaging structures. Therefore, a small artificial change in one packaging protein can reprogram the expression of dozens, and even hundreds of genes. Is this outcome messy and useless, or is it a powerful mode of signal amplification that changes cells in useful ways? To answer this question, our group couples synthetic biology with bioinformatics by interrogating the expression of thousands of genes after we introduce artificial chromatin proteins into cells.

Assistant Professor
Phone
404.727.0531
Office
HSRB E154
IRI and Role
Bioengineering and Bioscience > Faculty
Bioengineering and Bioscience
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering

Laura Hansen, Ph.D.

Laura Hansen, Ph.D.
laura.hansen2@emory.edu

Laura Hansen received her BS in Bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh and Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she studied the mechanics of blood vessel walls and changes associated with different disease states. She then completed her post-doctoral fellowship studying the RAGE receptor in peripheral artery disease at Emory University in Cardiology. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine and Division of Cardiology and program faculty in Biomedical Engineering and Molecular and Systems Pharmacology. Hansen’s lab studies the interactions between satellite cells and the vasculature. Satellite cells are skeletal muscle progenitor cells that are known to play an important role in muscle repair after injury and adaptation to exercise. However, the Hansen lab focuses on a previously underexplored role of satellite cells in vascular growth. They have found that satellite cells, when activated, produced a number of chemoattractant growth factors that drive the migration of vascular smooth muscle and endothelial cells which in an important factor in the growth and development of blood vessels. This area is of particular interest in the context of peripheral artery disease, where patients suffer from ischemic tissue damage but treatment options are still limited. The lab has shown that ischemia stimulates satellite cells and are exploring ways to harness their angiogenic properties in vivo or through therapeutically delivered cells.

Assistant Professor
Associate Program Director of Academic Basic Research Scientist Pathway
Phone
404.712.2342
Office
Woodruff Memorial Research Building 319B
IRI and Role
Bioengineering and Bioscience > Faculty
Bioengineering and Bioscience

Liang Han

Liang Han
lhan41@mail.gatech.edu
Associate Professor
Phone
404-385-5219
Office
EBB 3014
Additional Research
We use a combination of molecular, cellular, immunohistochemical, electrophysiological, genetic and behavioral approaches to understand how the nervous system receives, transmits and interprets various stimuli to induce physiological and behavioral responses. We are particularly interested in the basic mechanisms underlying somatosensation, including pain, itch and mechanical sensations. Somatosensation is initiated by the activation of the primary sensory neurons in dorsal root ganglia and trigeminal ganglia. We have discovered the molecular identity of itch-sensing neurons in the peripheral and provided novel insights into the mechanisms of itch sensation (Han et.al. 2013 Nature Neuroscience). We are currently investigating how chronic itch associated with cutaneous or systemic disorders is initiated and transmitted. We are also interested in the sensory innervation in the respiratory system. Chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are leading causes of illness and significant public health burdens. We recently identified a subset of vagal sensory neurons mediating bronchoconstriction and airway hyperresponsiveness (Han et. al. 2017 Nature Neuroscience). We are investigating how the sensory innervations in the airway contribute to the pathogenesis of respiratory diseases.
IRI and Role
Bioengineering and Bioscience > Faculty
Bioengineering and Bioscience
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Sciences > School of Biological Sciences

Brian Hammer

Brian Hammer
brian.hammer@biology.gatech.edu

Brian Hammer's lab studies molecular mechanisms important for microbial interactions. Bacteria are genetically encoded with regulatory networks to integrate external information that tailors gene expression to particular niches. Bacteria use chemical signals to orchestrate behaviors that facilitate both cooperation and conflict with members of the communities they inhabit. The group uses genetics and genomics, biochemistry, bioinformatics, and ecological approaches with a focus on the waterborne pathogen Vibrio cholerae.

Associate Professor
Phone
404-385-7701
Office
Cherry Emerson 223
Additional Research
Microbiology, quorum sensing, regulatory small RNAs, signal transduction, host-pathogen interactions, microbial biofilms. Our lab studies molecular mechanisms important for microbial interactions. Bacteria are genetically encoded with regulatory networks to integrate external information that tailors gene expression to particular niches. Bacteria use chemical signals to orchestrate behaviors that facilitate both cooperation and conflict with members of the communities they inhabit. We use genetics and genomics, biochemistry, bioinformatics, and ecological approaches with a focus on the waterborne pathogenVibrio cholerae.
IRI and Role
Bioengineering and Bioscience > Faculty
Bioengineering and Bioscience
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Sciences > School of Biological Sciences

Frank Hammond III

Frank  Hammond III
frank.hammond@me.gatech.edu

Frank L. Hammond III joined George W. Woodruff George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering in April 2015. Prior to this appointment, he was a postdoctoral research affiliate and instructor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and a Ford postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in 2010 from Carnegie Mellon University.

Assistant Professor, School of Mechanical Engineering
Director, The Adaptation Robotic Manipulation Laboratory
Phone
404.385.4208
Office
UA Whitaker Room 4102
Additional Research

Hammond's research focuses on the design and control of adaptive robotic manipulation (ARM) systems. This class of devices exemplified by kinematic structures, actuation topologies, and sensing and control strategies that make them particularly well-suited to operating in unstructured, dynamically varying environments - specifically those involving cooperative interactions with humans. The ARM device design process uses an amalgamation of bioinspiration, computational modeling and optimization, and advanced rapid prototyping techniques to generate manipulation solutions which are functionally robust and versatile, but which may take completely non-biomorphic (xenomorphic) forms. This design process removes human intuition from the design loop and, instead, leverages computational methods to map salient characteristics of biological manipulation and perception onto a vast robotics design space. Areas of interest for ARM research include kinematically redundant industrial manipulation, wearable robotic devices for human augmentation, haptic-enabled teleoperative robotic microsurgery, and autonomous soft robotic platforms.

IRI and Role
Bioengineering and Bioscience > Faculty
Robotics > Core Faculty
Robotics
Bioengineering and Bioscience
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

Bilal Haider

Bilal Haider
bilal.haider@bme.gatech.edu

Bilal Haider is an assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale University. He joined the faculty at Georgia Tech after completing postdoctoral training at University College London.

Haider’s research measures, manipulates and deciphers neural circuit activity underlying normal and impaired visual perception, providing new insights into how the brain processes information and orchestrates behavioral actions.

Haider has received several prestigious awards, including from the Whitehall Foundation, Simons Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. His work has been published in leading journals, including NatureNature NeuroscienceNature Communications and Neuron.

Assistant Professor
Phone
404-385-4935
Office
UAW 3104
Additional Research
Bilal Haider’s research goal is to measure, manipulate, and decipher neural circuit activity underlying visual perception and visual attention. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, M. Phil. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale University, and postdoctoral training at University College London. His lab uses advanced electrical, optical, and behavioral technologies to reveal insights into the inner workings of the brain in real-time and with unprecedented resolution. By discovering mechanisms  of information processing in neural circuits, his research provides critical steps towards understanding impairments in many neurological disorders such as schizophrenia, epilepsy, and autism spectrum disorder. 
IRI and Role
Bioengineering and Bioscience > Faculty
Bioengineering and Bioscience
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering