Best and brightest

Sharmodeep Bhattacharyya

Big data hire

Assistant Professor, Statistics (March 2015)

Dr. Bhattacharyya's research interests lie in statistical inference of networks, high-dimensional statistical inference, clustering, semiparametric inference and hypothesis testing. He is also interested in the application of statistical methods in the fields of astronomy, genomics and neuroscience. He is currently completing a post-doctoral research scholar in the Department of Statistics, University of California, Berkeley, where he collaborates with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Life Sciences Division.

Michelle Dolgos

Assistant Professor, Chemistry

Dr. Dolgos’ research focuses on the synthesis and characterization of new, improved materials for both clean energy applications and for electronic materials, with a focus on using environmentally benign materials with low toxicity. She earned her PhD from The Ohio State University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the College's Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry.

Judy Giordan

Professor of Practice, Chemistry


Dr. Giordan has spent over 30 years translating research into commercial opportunities. She has also served in executive and leadership positions in R&D and operations for top worldwide brands, including International Flavors and Fragrances, the Pepsi-Cola Company, and the Henkel Corp. Giordan is the recipient of the 2010 Francis Garvin-John Olin medal of the American Chemical Society and will receive the 2014 Henry F. Whalen, Jr. Award for Excellence in Business Development and Management in the Chemical Enterprise.

Matt Graham

Assistant Professor, Physics

Dr. Graham’s research involves combining new forms of microscopy with the latest laser technologies to study the physical properties of new nanomaterials (that’s one- to 100-billionth of a meter). His research helps develop next generation solar cells and optoelectronic devices, which may lead to cheaper and more environmentally friendly solar energy. Graham recently received funding from Radiation Effects Research Foundation—a cooperative Japan-US research organization that studies the medical effects of radiation/disease on humans. He earned his PhD from University of California, Berkeley and subsequently was named a Kavli Fellow at Cornell University’s Kavli Institute for Nanoscale Science.

David Hendrix

Bioinformatics hire

Assistant Professor, Biochemistry & Biophysics 


Dr. Hendrix’s lab focuses on understanding the structure, function and mechanisms of action of non-coding RNAs. Since the discovery of numerous non-coding RNAs in the past decade, their function is still largely unknown. Hendrix uses structure prediction, genome-wide sequence analysis and deep sequencing data to explore the roles these molecules play in gene regulation. His team also develops algorithms to understand different areas of computational biology. Hendrix earned bachelor’s degrees in applied mathematics and in physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He earned his PhD in physics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Duo Jiang

Bioinformatics hire

Assistant Professor, Statistics


Dr. Jiang’s research interests lie in statistical methods and tools for application in genetics and other biology-related fields. She has developed methods for independent data in the context of genetics association studies. Jiang actively consults and frequently collaborates with researchers in the life sciences. She received her PhD from the University of Chicago.

Dipankar Koley

Assistant Professor, Chemistry

Dr. Koley’s team will work to develop new electrochemical techniques, such as Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy to understand the microbial metabolic exchange in biofilm at high spatial and temporal resolution. He received his PhD in chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests lie at the intersection of electrochemistry, biology and bioengineering.

David Koslicki

Bioinformatics hire

Assistant Professor, Mathematics

Dr. Koslicki’s research interests lie in bioinformatics, or studying symbolic dynamics in mathematics and then applying that genomic mathematics to study biological problems. He pursues answers to questions such as: How do genes work? How do genes and genomes mutate and evolve? What is the relationship between epigenetics, gene expression, and phenotype? And, why is there redundancy in the genetic code? Koslicki received his PhD from The Pennsylvania State University.

Davide Lazzati

Associate Professor, Physics


Dr. Lazzati and his team conduct research on theoretical astrophysics. His current research focuses on understanding the physics of cosmic dust and gamma-ray bursts—the brightest and most mysterious explosions in the present day universe. Other interests include theoretical high-energy astrophysics, quantum chemistry, soft condensed matter and numerical methods. He was among the first to realize the importance of time dependent effects in the interaction of the burst radiation with interstellar material. Prior to joining OSU, he was on the physics faculty at North Carolina State University. Lazzati earned his PhD in astronomy from Università Statale di Milano in Italy.

Patrick De Leenheer

Bioinformatics hire

Professor, joint appointment in Mathematics and Integrative Biology

Dr. De Leenheer’s research interests include mathematical biology, differential equations and control theory. He brings extensive experience in developing instructional and scholarly bridges between mathematicians and biologists. Prior to joining OSU, he was on the mathematics faculty at the University of Florida for nearly 10 years. De Leenheer earned a master of science electro-mechanical engineering and a PhD in applied sciences from Ghent University in Belgium.

Elise Lockwood

Assistant Professor, Mathematics

Dr. Lockwood’s field of research is mathematical education. Her primary research interest involves undergraduate mathematics education, particularly studying how students think about and learn combinatorial topics, or the study of finite discrete structures. Her model of student's combinatorial thinking emphasizes the role sets play in outcomes of effective counting. Lockwood earned her PhD in mathematics education from Portland State University.

Sandra Loesgen

Assistant Professor, Chemistry

Dr. Loesgen and her research team explores target-based drug discovery with a focus on new anticancer, antimicrobial, and antiviral compounds from microbial sources. Her lab’s unique multidisciplinary approach to biomedical research brings together students and researchers from diverse backgrounds, including pharmaceutical sciences, chemistry, biochemistry, molecular biology and microbiology. She earned her PhD in chemistry from Georg-August University of Gottingen in Germany followed by postdoctoral fellowships at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego and at the National Institute of Health. Loesgen is the 2013 Terrence Bradshaw Scholar.

Debashis Mondal

Big data hire

Assistant Professor, Statistics


Dr. Mondal’s research interests include spatial statistics, matrix-free methods, Markov chain Monte Carlo and time series analysis. He focuses on research applications in agriculture, astronomy, atmospheric sciences, geographical epidemiology and environmental sciences. Prior to joining OSU, Mondal was on the statistics faculty at the University of Chicago. He received a National Science Foundation Career Award for his work on spatial statistics. Mondal received his PhD in Statistics from the University of Washington.

Weihong Qiu

Assistant Professor, Physics

Dr. Qiu’s research team specializes in single molecule biophysics. They study biophysical mechanisms of cellular processes by developing and applying powerful molecular and biophysical methods in order to better understand their function in living cells. He earned his PhD at The Ohio State University followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School.

Juan Restrepo

Professor, Mathematics

Dr. Restrepo specializes in applied mathematics research and training and has taught extensively in the following areas: numerical analysis, scientific computing, statistical mechanics and geophysical fluid dynamics. His research interests lie mainly in uncertainty quantification, ocean dynamics, climate, oil/pollution transport and acoustics. He was visiting faculty for 17 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory working on bio-related homeland security work, bone dynamics, voting theory as well as climate dynamics research. Restrepo joins the College after 17 years on the University of Arizona’s mathematics faculty with appointments in the Department of Physics and the Department of Atmospheric Sciences. He has an extensive record of advocating for and advising young scientists from under-represented groups.

Restrepo received his PhD in physics from The Pennsylvania State University. He also holds degrees in engineering acoustics, electrical engineering and music.

Heidi Schellman

Professor and Department Head, Physics (January 2015)

Dr. Schellman has been a professor in the department of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern University for 24 years and has served as chair since 2010. Her primary area of interest is experimental high-energy physics. Specifically, her research has focused on measurements of proton structure and electroweak parameters. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and her research is funded by the US Department of Energy.

At Northwestern, Schellman served as Associate Dean for Research in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences from 2004-2007 where she successfully reconfigured funding packages to increase guaranteed support for graduate students from four to five years. As chair, she worked to create smaller classes and introduced drop-in tutoring to improve support for undergraduate students in introductory physics courses.

Schellman received a B.S. in mathematics from Stanford University and her PhD in physics from the University of California at Berkeley.

Read more about Dr. Schellman.

Thomas Sharpton

Bioinformatics hire

Assistant Professor, joint appointment in Microbiology and Statistics Dr. Sharpton is developing the quantitative biology curricula and is teaching courses in bioinformatics and microbial genomics. His research team focuses on characterizing the ecological, evolutionary, and functional properties of the microbiome—the vast collection of microorganisms that live on our bodies. The team seeks to better understand how the physiologies of our body and our microbiome interact. Their work is interdisciplinary, relying heavily on microbiology, bioinformatics and systems biology, and borrowing from molecular biology, computer science, and statistics. Sharpton received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.

Su Sponaugle

Professor, Integrative Biology

Housed in the Hatfield Marine Research Center on the Oregon Coast, Dr. Sponaugle’s Reef Fish Ecology Lab explores the dynamics of population replenishment and connectivity in marine organisms. Her research team is particularly interested in the transition between the pelagic larval stage and the reef-based juvenile stage in tropical coral reef fish and invertebrates. Recently, they completed a 7-year monthly time series of fish recruitment in the upper Florida Keys. The baseline data will help quantify overall population replenishment, design and evaluate marine reserves, and interpret future environmental changes.

Previously, Sponaugle served as Chair of the Division of Marine Biology and Fisheries at the University of Miami.

James Strother

Assistant Professor, Integrative Biology (March 2015)

Dr. Strother joins us from Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus, a leading biomedical research center where scientists from diverse disciplines use emerging technologies to pursue biology's most challenging problems. He has research experience in marine systems, including publications on fish locomotion and respiration. Strother uses a combination of experimental and theoretical methods to address questions in biomechanics, comparative physiology, and neurobiology. He is currently conducting research on the respiratory physiology of vertebrates using zebrafish as a model system.