The Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience has added four new faculty members to its growing roster of world-class researchers. Joining the Georgia Institute of Technology’s interdisciplinary bio-research community are Karl Jacob, Joseph LaChance, Mara Schenker, and Nick Willett.

Jacob, who came to Georgia Tech in 1995, is a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering with a joint appointment in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. Jacob plans to continue his research in the analysis and design of materials with a multidisciplinary thrust that emphasizes bio-related applications.

LaChance, an assistant professor in the School of Biology who opened his lab in January 2015, will soon move into new digs in the Engineered Biosystems Building, where his team will use computational approaches to study the genomes of diverse human populations, with a particular interest in secondary contact between divergent populations, the genetic architecture of complex traits, and the interplay between human adaptation and hereditary disease.

Schenker, an orthopedic surgeon who earned her M.D. at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, will join the Emory faculty in August as an assistant professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. Schenker’s groundbreaking research has shown that cigarette smoking increases complications following a fracture.

Willett, now assistant professor of orthopaedics at Emory University School of Medicine, earned his Ph.D. in the Emory/Georgia Tech Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, and spent his postdoctoral years at Georgia Tech before joining the Emory faculty. Willett’s research aims to develop a systems integration approach to musculoskeletal disease and regenerative engineering.

These four researchers now give the Petit Institute 169 faculty members in a wide range of disciplines.

CONTACT

Jerry Grillo
Communications Officer II
Parker H. Petit Institute for
Bioengineering and Bioscience