Page 6 - IBP In Focus Newsletter 2020

t FACULTY, STAFF & ALUMNI HIGHLIGHTS
New Faculty
This year we are pleased to welcome three new faculty to IBP.
Julia Liu
Dr. Julia Liu is a new tenure
track faculty. Julia earned
her undergraduate degree
in Physics at Princeton Uni-
versity. She then moved to
Boston to obtain her PhD in
Biophysics in the lab of Dr. Galit Lahav, in the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. Recently she completed her postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health in the labs of Dr. Toren Finkel and Dr. Elizabeth Murphy. Julia’s research focuses on how mitochondrial calcium is regulated and how disrupting this regulation generates stress and alters signaling at the cellular and organismal levels.
Eric Batchelor
Dr. Eric Batchelor is a new
tenure track faculty and grew
up in New Jersey in a suburb
of Philadelphia. He pursued
undergraduate studies at
Villanova University, and he
obtained his Ph.D. in Phys-
ics from the University of
Pennsylvania. He performed
postdoctoral studies with Dr.
Galit Lahav in the Depart-
ment of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School, and in 2011 he became an Investigator at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. His research combines experimental and computational approaches to understand cellular stress response signaling, with a par- ticular focus on cancer-associated signaling pathways.
Ryan Knigge
Dr. Ryan Knigge is a new aca-
demic track faculty joining
the Anatomy teaching faculty
in IBP. Dr. Knigge is origi-
nally from northern Illinois
and attended the University
of Iowa as an undergraduate.
He received his MA (2015)
and PhD (2017) from the
Department of Anthropology
at the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Knigge then completed his postdoctoral training as a fellow in the Departments of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, and Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Missouri. His research focuses on modeling human cra- niofacial growth and development and investigating patterns of craniofacial evolution and function in primates. Welcome aboard, Ryan, Julia, and Eric!
Alumni Profile
Evelyne Houang, Ph.D.
IBP, 2016.
Drug Discovery Scientist. Schrodinger Inc. NYC.
She helps develop and applies
physics-based and machine
learning models in thera-
peutic discovery projects. What excites her the most about this job is the breadth of scientific problems we are faced with, following the conception of a therapy from atomistic modeling in silico through to human trials, and the ability to apply state of the art technol- ogy to more quickly advance therapeutic research. Seeing patients first dosed with drugs discovered by our team is extremely rewarding.
OUTSTANDING SERVICE
Jean Otto, IBP Department Administrator, was recognized by President Gabel at the April 23, 2020 University Senate meeting for Outstanding Service to University Senate Governance. Otto was described as an energetic and tireless advocate for civil service staff. She has served on or as the chair of numerous committees, credited with working to change how the Civil Service Employment Rules are viewed by the University and is
a consummate University citizen.
6 IN FOCUS t FALL 2020