IGB Faculty Hiring Initiative
The Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) in conjunction with academic units has launched an extensive faculty hiring initiative that will support the IGB Research Themes, as well as new campus priorities in the life sciences and biotechnology. It is anticipated that up to 18 new faculty lines will be funded through the IGB, with the possibility of increasing that number through sharing of salaries with academic units.
Dr. Lisa Stubbs
Lisa Stubbs joined the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology as a Professor in April 2008. Prior to coming to the University of Illinois, she worked for many years in the national labs. Most recently Stubbs led the Genome Biology Group at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, where she was also a Senior Staff Scientist. She also worked for several years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Her research interests are in the area of comparative genomics, with special focus on identifying species-species differences in gene content, regulation and function. The hiring of Professor Stubbs was also support by the campus’ Faculty Excellence Program.
Dr. Yong-Su Jin
Yong-Su Jin joined the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition in August 2008 as an Assistant Professor. Jin received his Ph.D in Food Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2002, and was a Postdoctoral Research Associate from 2002-2006 in the lab of Professor Gregory Stephanopoulos at MIT. Prior to joining the University of Illinois, Jin has been an Assistant Professor at Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea. His research interests are in the areas of microbial genomics and metabolic engineering.
Dr. Alfred Roca is the fifteenth faculty hire under the IGB Faculty Hiring Initiative
Alfred Roca joined the Department of Animal Sciences as an Assistant Professor in August 2007. Roca received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard University in 1996. He has worked in the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick Maryland since 1997, first as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and then as a Scientist II. His research interests include molecular evolution and phylogenetics, population and conservation genetics, comparative genomics, and the evolution of endogenous retroviruses and virus-host genome interactions.
Dr. Karen Sears is the fourteenth faculty hire under the IGB Faculty Hiring Initiative
Karen Sears joined the Department of Animal Biology in October 2007 as an Assistant Professor. Sears received her Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Chicago in 2003, and a B.S. in Anthropology and Zoology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1998. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Illinois, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Her primary research interests are in developmental mechanisms that underlie morphological diversity in mammals.
Dr. Andrew Leakey is the thirteenth faculty hire under the IGB Faculty Hiring Initiative
Andrew Leakey joined the Department of Plant Biology in June 2007 as an assistant professor. Leakey received his B.S. and Ph.D. in plant sciences from the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. In 2002, he then came to University of Illinois as a Postdocotal Fellow in the Department of Plant Biology, and was also awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Illinois, he was a Research Fellow in the Institute for Genomic Biology. Leakey's research focuses in the emerging field of genomic ecology, with a particular interest in determining how plants respond to global climatic change.
Dr. Marie-Claude C. Hofmann is the twelfth faculty hire under the IGB Faculty Hiring Initiative
Marie-Claude Hofmann is the twelfth faculty member to be hired as part of the IGB's Faculty Hiring Initiative. She joined the Department of Veterinary Biosciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine as an Associate Professor in October 2006. She will also be a member of the Regenerative Biology and Tissue Engineering Theme at the IGB. Prior to joining the University of Illinois, she was an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Dayton. Before joining the University of Dayton in 1995, she was a Senior Research Associate at the LaJolla Cancer Research Foundation. Her research interests are in the areas of stem cell biology and reproductive toxicology.
Dr. Brendan Harley is the eleventh faculty hire under the IGB Faculty Hiring Initiative
Brendan Harley is the eleventh faculty member to be hired as part of the IGB's Faculty Hiring Initiative. He joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering as an Assistant Professor in August 2008. Dr. Harley received his B.S. from Harvard University and his M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Mechanical Engineering. In June 2006, he also received his Sc.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Harley's research interests include the study of the mechanism of organ regeneration and wound healing by quantifying individual cell behavior within well-characterized collagen scaffolds.
Dr. Hyun Joon Kong is tenth faculty hire under the IGB Faculty Hiring Initiative
Hyun Joon Kong is the tenth faculty member to be hired as part of the IGB's Faculty Hiring Initiative. He joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in January 2007 as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Kong received his B.S. and M.S. in Industrial Chemistry Engineering from Hanyang University in Seoul Korea, and his Ph.D. in Macromolecular Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2001. He was also a Research Associate in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at Harvard University. Dr. Kong's research interests involve the use of biomaterials in biomedical applications including protein, gene, and cell-based therapies as well as tissue engineering strategies.
Dr. Ripan Malhi is ninth faculty hire under the IGB Faculty Hiring Initiative
Ripan Malhi is the ninth faculty member to be hired as part of the IGB's Faculty Hiring Initiative. He joined the Department of Anthropology as an Assistant Professor in August 2006. Dr. Malhi received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California at Davis. From 2002 to 2005 he served as Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Trace Genetics Inc., a biotechnology company with a focus on genetic ancestry, forensic DNA, and biomedical DNA testing. Dr. Malhi currently conducts research in the areas of molecular anthropology, ancient DNA analysis, phylogenetics, evolutionary genomics, and forensic science.
Dr. Rachel Whitaker is eighth faculty hire under the IGB Faculty Hiring Initiative
Rachel Whitaker is the eighth faculty member to be hired as part of the IGB's Faculty Hiring Initiative. She joined the Department of Microbiology in June 2006 as an Assistant Professor and is also a member of the Biocomplexity Research Theme in the IGB. Dr. Whitaker received a B.A. degree in 1993 from Wesleyan University, where she had a double major in Biology and Interdisciplinary Studies of Science in Society. In 2004, she received a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to joining the University of Illinois, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the lab of Dr. Jillian Banfield in the Department of Ecosystems Sciences at Berkeley. Dr. Whitaker's research interests center around the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that structure microbial communities.
Professor Bruce Schatz is seventh faculty member funded as part of the IGB Faculty Hiring Initiative
Effective August 16, 2005, Professor Bruce Schatz has become a member and Acting Head of the Department of Medical Information Science in the College of Medicine. He was formerly a faculty member of the Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences. Bruce is a member of the Genomics of Neural and Behavioral Plasticity Research Theme at the IGB, and is also the Principle Investigator on the BeeSpace project which is funded by the National Science Foundation as part of their Frontiers in Integrative Biology Research (FIBR) program. His research interests focus on biomedical informatics, and he intends to work collaboratively with units across campus on issues related to informatics research and education.
Dr. Nathan D. Price is sixth hire under the IGB Faculty Hiring Initiative
Nathan Price is the sixth faculty member to be hired as part of the IGB's Faculty Hiring initiative. He joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in August 2007. Price received his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University in 2000, and his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of California at San Diego in 2005. Prior to joining the University of Illinois, he was a postdoctoral research associate in the lab of Professor Leroy Hood at the University of Washington for two years. Price's research to date focuses on the computational analysis of genome-scale metabolic networks.
Dr. Ray R. Ming is fifth hire under the IGB Faculty Hiring Initiative
Ray Ming is the fifth faculty member to be hired as part of the IGB's Faculty Hiring Initiative. He joined the Department of Plant Biology as an Associate Professor in August 2005. Dr. Ming received his Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and was a postdoctoral research associate for several years at Texas A&M University. Prior to joining the University of Illinois, he worked as a Plant Molecular Geneticist at the Hawaii Agriculture Center. His research interests are in the area of the evolution of sex chromosomes in plants, and the structure and organization of the papaya genome.
Dr. Saurabh Sinha is fourth hire under the IGB Faculty Hiring Initiative
Saurabh Sinha is the fourth faculty member hired as part of the IGB's Faculty Hiring Initiative. He joined the Department of Computer Science as an Assistant Professor in August 2005. Dr. Sinha received his B.Tech. in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, and his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Washington at Seattle in 2002. Prior to joining the University of Illinois, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Rockefeller University in the laboratory of Professor Eric Siggia. Dr. Sinha's research interests focus on developing algorithms to solve problems in molecular biology.
Dr. Ping Ma is third hire under the IGB Faculty Hiring Initiative
Ping Ma is the third faculty member to be hired as part of the IGB's Faculty Hiring Initiative. He joined the Department of Statistics as an Assistant Professor in August 2005. Dr. Ma received his B.S. in Economical Mathematics from Nankai University in China, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Statistics from Purdue University. Dr. Ma was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Bauer Center for Genomics Research at Harvard University before joining the University of Illinois. Dr. Ma's research interests include bioinformatics, data mining, image processing and the development of semi-parametric statistical methodology for bioinformatics.
Dr. Steven Blanke is second hire under the IGB Faculty Hiring Initiative
Steven Blanke is the second faculty member to be hired as part of the IGB's Faculty Hiring Initiative. He joined the Department of Microbiology as an Associate Professor in May 2005. He is also a member of the Host Microbe Systems Research Theme in the IGB. Professor Blanke received his B.S. degree from Virginia Tech University and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from this campus in 1989. He subsequently was a postdoctoral associate at Harvard University. Prior to joining the University of Illinois, Professor Blanke was a faculty member in the Department of Biology & Biochemistry at the University of Houston. Professor Blanke's research explores the fundamental molecular and cellular mechanisms used by pathogenic bacteria to establish infection and persist within a host.
Dr. Charles Whitfield is first hire under the IGB Faculty Hiring Initiative
Charles W. Whitfield is the first faculty hire under the IGB's Faculty Hiring Inititative. He is a member of the School of Integrative Biology, joining the Department of Entomology as an assistant professor in insect genomics in August 2004. He is also and affiliate member of the Genomics of Neural and Behavioral Plasticity Research Theme at the IGB. Dr. Whitfield grew up in the Sacramento, California area. He received his B.S. degree in Genetics from the University of California at Davis, and his Ph.D. in Developmental Biology from Stanford University. Prior to joining the Entomology faculty, Dr. Whitfield was a postdoctoral research associate in the lab of Professor Gene Robinson in the Department of Entomology. Dr. Whitfield’s lab is studying the molecular mechanisms that underlie social behavior, and is attempting to identify the genes and gene regulatory elements that have been gained, lost, or modified in the evolution of socially organized behavior.
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