Faces of Research - Profile Article

Lu Gan joined the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology as an Assistant Professor in January 2024. She leads the Lu's Navigation and Autonomous Robotics (Lunar) Lab at Georgia Tech, and is on the core faculty of the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines. Her research interests include robot perception, robot learning, and autonomous navigation. Her group explores the use of computer vision, machine learning, estimation, probabilistic inference, kinematics and dynamics to develop autonomous systems in ground, air, and space applications.

She holds a B.S. in Automation from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, an M.S. in Control Engineering from Beihang University, and received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Robotics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Before joining Georgia Tech, she had a two-year appointment as a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories of the California Institute of Technology and the Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies at Caltech.

Victor Fung is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering. Prior to this position, he was a Wigner Fellow and a member of the Nanomaterials Theory Insitute in the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. A physical chemist by training, Fung now works at the intersection of scientific artificial intelligence, computing, and materials science/chemistry.

Steven French is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Veracyte.. He brings more than 20 years of information and operational leadership experience in the life sciences and technology industries to his role at Veracyte. 

Prior to joining Veracyte in July 2022, Mr. French most recently served as President of a consultancy advising leading biotech companies on information technology strategy, cybersecurity, acquisitions and infrastructure integration, and business operations. He previously served as Chief Information Officer at Celularity, a clinical-stage biotechnology company. Prior to that, Mr. French was Vice President of Technology Development at Human Longevity, Inc., a San Diego-based venture focused on building a comprehensive database of human genotypes and phenotypes, where he developed and implemented the infrastructure for key data management strategies. Earlier, Mr. French was Co-Founder and Vice President of Strategy and Technology at Epic Sciences, a diagnostics company focused on advancing the treatment and management of cancer, where he established key strategies for information technology, software development, and quality systems. 

Mr. French holds a B.B.A. and an M.B.A from the University of San Diego.

Facundo was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He received his MSc in Chemistry from the College of Exact and Natural Sciences, Buenos Aires University in 1995 and his PhD in Analytical Chemistry from the same University, in 1999.  In August 2000, he joined the research group of Prof. Richard N. Zare in the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University.  His work focused on several aspects of Hadamard transform time-of-flight mass spectrometry with an emphasis on coupling this technique to capillary-format separation methods.  In 2002, he joined the group of Prof. Vicki Wysocki in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Arizona, to develop novel tandem mass spectrometers for gas-phase peptide ion studies. In 2004 he joined the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he currently holds the position of Vasser-Woolley Endowed Professor in Bioanalytical Chemistry and Associate Chair for Research and Graduate Training. He is the author of over 185 peer-reviewed publications and numerous invited presentations at national and international conferences. He has received several awards, including the NSF CAREER award, the CETL/BP Teaching award, the Ron A. Hites best paper award from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, and the Beynon award from Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, among others. He serves on the editorial board of The Analyst and as an Associate editor for the Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry. His current research interests include the field of metabolomics and the development of new ionization, imaging, machine learning and ion mobility spectrometry tools for probing composition and structure in complex molecular mixtures. In his (limited) free time, Facundo enjoys a number of activities that include camping with his family, rock climbing, paddling, archery, photography and ham radio. 

Irfan Essa is a Professor in the School of Interactive Computing and Senior Associate Dean in the College of Computing (CoC), at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Professor Essa works in the areas of Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotics, Computer Graphics, and Social Computing, with potential impact on Content Creation, Analysis and Production (e.g., Computational Photography & Video, Image-based Modeling and Rendering, etc.) Human Computer Interaction, Artificial Intelligence, Computational Behavioral/Social Sciences, and Computational Journalism research.He has published over 150 scholarly articles in leading journals and conference venues on these topics and several of his papers have also won best paper awards. He has been awarded the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and was elected an IEEE Fellow. He has held extended research consulting positions with Disney Research and Google Research and also was an Adjunct Faculty Member at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute. He joined Georgia Tech in 1996 after his earning his Master's (1990), Ph.D. (1994), and holding a research faculty position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab (1988-1996).

Alex Endert is an Associate Professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. He directs the Visual Analytics Lab, where he works with his students to design and study how interactive visual tools help people make sense of data and AI. His lab often tests these advances in domains, including intelligence analysis, cyber security, decision-making, manufacturing safety, and others. His lab receives generous support from sponsors, including NSF, DOD, DHS, DARPA, DOE, and industry. In 2018, he received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation for his work on visual analytics by demonstration. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech in 2012. In 2013, his work on Semantic Interaction was awarded the IEEE VGTC VPG Pioneers Group Doctoral Dissertation Award, and the Virginia Tech Computer Science Best Dissertation Award.

Dyer’s research interests lie at the intersection of machine learning, optimization, and neuroscience. Her lab develops computational methods for discovering principles that govern the organization and structure of the brain, as well as methods for integrating multi-modal datasets to reveal the link between neural structure and function.

Aaron Drysdale, a Master of Computer Science graduate from Georgia Tech, is the Chief Technologist at the Cloud Hub. He manages the proposal process for research grants, organizes industry training sessions, and provides direct technical support to research teams utilizing cloud resources. Aaron's role also involves collaborating with Microsoft’s technical teams to resolve complex issues, ensuring seamless and efficient research progress. His expertise and proactive approach are vital to the success of the Cloud Hub's mission to advance innovative research.