Prof. Jason Azoulay, Associate Professor in the School of Polymer Science and Engineering at The University of Southern Mississippi, will come to Georgia Tech in Spring, 2023, as Associate Professor and Vasser-Woolley Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Investigator in Sensors and Instrumentation in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He will also hold a joint appointment in the School of Materials Science and Engineering.
Prof. Azoulay is an organic, organometallic, and polymer chemist and internationally recognized leader in the development of light- and electrically-active materials. The Azoulay laboratory is highly interdisciplinary with efforts spanning new catalytic methods for polymer synthesis, recycling, and upcycling; electronic, photonic, magnetic, and quantum materials; and the advancement of new infrared devices and chemical sensors. The Azoulay lab will add exciting strengths to Georgia Tech’s leadership in soft-matter and hybrid optoelectronics and synergize with numerous efforts across campus targeting the development and application of advanced polymeric materials. More information on the Azoulay group can be found at https://azoulaygroup.org.
Prof. Aditi Das, currently Associate Professor in the Department of Biosciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine in the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, will join the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry on August 1, 2022.
Prof. Das leads an exciting research program in the chemistry of lipid metabolism, an area of great fundamental interest and importance to our understanding of biochemistry, immunology, and cellular regulation. The Das Laboratory focuses on endocannabinoids, a key class of such structures. These naturally-produced molecules derived from fatty acids mediate neurological processes and inflammation, and so are important in problems in neuroscience, addiction, aging, and immune signaling. Current and recent projects include studies of metabolite regulation of cannabinoid receptor function, endocannabinoid interactions with pain receptors, lipid regulation of platelet activity, and molecular imaging of membrane proteins in nanodiscs. See https://sites.google.com/site/aditidaspro/home?authuser=0 to learn more about the high-impact research and training opportunities in the Das group.
Prof. Lynn Kamerlin, currently Professor in the Biochemistry Program of the Department of Chemistry at Uppsala University, Sweden, will come to our department in October, 2022, as Professor and Vasser-Woolley Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar Chair in Molecular Design.
Prof. Kamerlin is an international leader in the use of computational methods to understand how enzymes function and how to design them for desired properties. Particular areas of emphasis in the Kamerlin lab include ligand-gated conformational changes in enzyme catalysis, protein-DNA recognition, protein dynamics as a key component of evolutionary selection and in the behavior of disordered peptides, and new methods for computational enzymology. Her group adds exciting strength to Georgia Tech’s multifaceted leadership in the study of molecular evolution. Learn more about her wide-ranging research program at https://kamerlinlab.com/
Prof. Andrew McShan has just started their independent academic career at Georgia Tech in July, 2022, focusing on the exciting and important area of how lipid antigens are recognized by the immune system. Using sophisticted NMR techniques to analyze the structure and dynamics of protein-lipid complexes, Dr. McShan is a recognized expert in the chemistry and biology of CD1, the chief chaperone of lipid immune presentation in mammalian biology.
Dr. McShan came to Atlanta from a postdoctoral fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The McShan Laboratory will initiate a new era of NMR structural biology at Tech, and will add synergistically to the dynamic immunology research environment in Atlanta. For more information about Prof. McShan’s exciting research program, go to http://mcshanlab.com/.
Prof. Deborah Santos has begun her first semester as an Academic Professional at Georgia Tech, focusing on our first-year undergraduate program. Dr. Santos received her Ph.D. in Chemical Education from Georgia State University in 2022, after earning an M.S. degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Georgia. She holds a State of Georgia Teaching Certification and has been a chemistry educator at high school and university levels. Her doctoral research focused on how students’ self perceptions influence their success in learning chemistry (thesis title: “Motivation and Mindset in Chemistry”) and she has done laboratory research on photovoltaic materials. Learn more about her findings at https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/rp/d1rp00092f.