Below is a list of Researchers with full bios on the COE Research site.
We are always adding and updating the profiles so check back frequently for new information. You can also view a full list of all PI’s or Co-PI’s listed on projects profiled on the COE Research website.
Biomedical Engineering
Babak Bazrgari, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Biomechanical outcomes of treatment for low back pain, Biomechanics of human musculoskeletal system, Finite element modeling of the musculoskeletal system, Mechanical behaviors of the human trunk, Occupational biomechanics, Spine Biomechanics
Tom Hedman, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Biomechanics, Spinal biomechanics
David A. Puleo, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Tissue Regeneration, Tissue-Implant Interactions
Hainsworth Shin, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Cellular Mechanotransduction
Center for Applied Energy Research
Chemical and Materials Engineering
Kimberly Anderson, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Biocompatible Surfaces, Cancer Cell Metastasis, Cell-Based Biosensors, Microfluidic Devices for Biological Applications
Rodney Andrews, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Activated carbon materials, Agriculture, Biotechnology, carbon fiber formation, Carbon materials, Energy, Environment, Nanotube synthesis, Nanotube-polymer and nanotube-carbon composite materials, Pitch chemistry and characterization
Thomas John Balk, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Deformation Mechanisms and Mechanical Behavior of Nanoporous Metals, in situ Transmission Electron Microscopy, Structure, Thin Film Plasticity
Matthew J. Beck, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Application of Novel Quantum Mechanical Methods to Diffusion, Computational Materials Science of Nanomaterials and Materials for Energy, Electron Transport and Catalysis.
Brad Berron, Ph.D.
Research Areas: biomolecular interactions with interfaces, coatings for drug delivery, electrode modification, enzyme mediated polymerization, interfacial transport phenomena, Materials for biological detection
Dibakar Bhattacharyya, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Membrane Separation, Nanotechnology, Tunable Membranes and Biocatalysis, Water Treatment
Yang-Tse Cheng, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Biomedical Devices, Conservation, Energy, Nanostructured Materials, Sustainable Manufacturing
Thomas Dziubla, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Active Polymeric Biomaterials, Drug Delivery, Functionalized Polymer Nanocarriers, Postsurgical Adhesions., Pro/antioxidant Biomaterials, Wound Healing
Richard E. Eitel, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Ceramics, Clinical and Translational Science, Lab-on-a-Chip, Materials Science and Engineering, Microfluidics, Smart Materials and Devices
Derek L. Englert, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Biomass conversion to biofuels and higher value products, Microfluidic technology for studying biological processes, Tissue culture/engineering
Eric A. Grulke, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Advanced Carbon Materials and Nanotechnology, Diffusion in Polymers, Polymerization
J. Zach Hilt, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Biomaterials, Bionanotechnology, Magnetic Nanoparticles, Nanocomposites, Nanomedicine, Nanotechnology, Polymer Science
Bruce J. Hinds, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Molecular Electronics, Nanoscale Device Fabrication, Nanotechnology, Spintronics, Thin Film Processes
Douglass S. Kalika, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Blends and Synthetic Membranes, Polymer Nanocomposites, Polymer Processing, Rheology
Barbara L. Knutson, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Biotechnology, Materials Processing, Self-Assembly in Compressed Fluids, Separations, Solution Thermodynamics, Supercritical Fluid Technology for Biosynthesis
Daniel W. Pack, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Engineering of advanced drug delivery systems with an emphasis on human gene therapy for the prevention control and treatment of disease
Christina M. Payne, P.E., Ph.D.
Research Areas: Biophysics, Biopolymers, Biotechnology, Computational science, Energy, Enzymes, Molecular modeling
Stephen E. Rankin, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Biotechnology, Interfacial Science, Multiscale Modeling, Nanotechnology, Reaction Engineering, Renewable Energy, Separations
Asit K. Ray, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Chemical and Transprort Processes Associated with Microparticles, Light-scattering, Optical Microsensors based on Spherical Microparticles, Physical, Synthesis of Tailored Micro- and Nano-particles
Jeffrey Seay, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Biofuels, Computer Aided Process Engineering, Energy, Green Engineering, Process Design, Process Safety, Sustainability
David L. Silverstein, Ph.D.
Research Areas: colloids and interfacial phenomena, distance learning, Fluids modeling in porous media, interactive multimedia educational software, model-based process control, surface kinetics, surfactant induced water movement
Jimmy L. Smart, PhD, PE.
Research Areas: Use of Membranes for Water Purification
Tate T. H. Tsang, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Parallel Computation of Three-Dimensional Transport of Reactive Species in Air Pollution Modeling
Civil Engineering
George Blandford, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Finite Element Analysis, Numerical Methods, Structural Analysis
Gail Brion, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Control of Waterbourne Disease, Disinfection, Environmental Virology, Fate of Pathogens in Water Environments, Public Health, Water Reuse, Water Treatment
L. Sebastian Bryson, Ph.D., P.E.
Research Areas: Field instrumentation, ground modification, insitu and laboratory testing of soils, insitu response of geotechnical systems, monitoring of constructed facilities, performance prediction of supported excavations, soil improvement
Mei Chen, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Congestion Pricing, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Traffic Simulation and Forecasting., Transportation Network Modeling, Transportation System Analysis
James F. Fox, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Water resources
Hans Gesund, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Limit Design of Reinforced Concrete Slabs and Frames, Practical Design Applications, Reinforced Concrete, Structural Engineering
Issam Elias Harik, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Bridges, Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites, Hazard Mitigation, Impact Forces on Bridges, Mitigation, Plates and Shells, Reinforced and Prestressed Concrete Structures, Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit, Structural Analysis and Design
Michael E. Kalinski, Ph.D., P.E. (KY, TX, CA)
Research Areas: Earthquake Engineering, Engineering Geophysics, Geotechnical Site Characterization, Landfill Geotechnology, Vibration Monitoring and Mitigation
Kamyar Cyrus Mahboub, P.E., Ph.D.
Research Areas: Construction Management, Materials Engineering, Pavement Design, Transportation Engineering
William F. Maloney, Ph.D.
Research Areas: High Performance Work Organizations, Labor-Management, Learning Organizations in Engineering and Constuction, Management of Construction Organizations, Work Organization
Lindell Ormsbee, Ph.D., P.E., P.H., D.WRE, F.ASCE
Research Areas: Genetic Algorithms/Artificial Neural Networks, GIS/Simulation Model Interface/Environmental Informatics, Mathematical Modeling of Hydraulic and Hydrologic Systems, Operations Research/Systems Analysis, TMDL Modeling and Methodologies, Water Distribution Network Modeling, Water Supply Planning, Watershed Management
Jerry G. Rose, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Civil Engineering Construction Materials, Coal Waste Utilization, Railroad Engineering, Transportation Facilities Design
Reginald R. (Reg) Souleyrette, Ph.D., P.E.
Research Areas: highway safety, information systems, planning models, railroads, transportation management
Nick Stamatiadis, Ph.D.
Research Areas: driver eduction and licensing, evaluation of crash rates, highway geometric design and capacity, human factors, measures of congestion mitigation, public transportation, Traffic safety, traffic simulation
Timothy R.B. Taylor, Ph.D., P.E.
Research Areas: Management of Complex Projects, Public Policy for Large Systems, System Dynamics
Computer Science
Kenneth L Calvert, Ph.D.
Research Areas: active networks, formal methods, network security, Next-generation computer network protocols and architectures
Fuhua (Frank) Cheng, Ph.D.
Research Areas: collaborative CAD, Computer Graphics, Computer-aided geometric design
Zongming Fei, Ph.D.
Research Areas: multimedia networking, Networking protocols and architectures, Smart Grid communications
Raphael A. Finkel, Ph.D.
Research Areas: distributed algorithms, Operating Systems, programming languages
Judy Goldsmith, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Computational complexity, computational learning theory, computational social choice, planning under uncertainty, preference handling in artificial intelligence, stochastic models, X Comparative decision-making studies
James N Griffioen, Ph.D.
Research Areas: distributed systems, Network protocols
Nathan Jacobs, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Computer vision, Geo-spatial sensing, Gis, Image-Processing, medical imaging, multimedia, Sensor Network Visualization, Time-lapse video, video surveillance
Jerzy W Jaromczyk, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Algorithms, Biomedical and Bioinformatics Algorithms and Applications, Research in Computing for the Humanities (Digital Libraries), Robust Implementations
Jinze Liu, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Bioinformatics, Data Mining
Dakshnamoorthy Manivannan, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Fault-tolerance in distributed mobile computing systems, mobile ad hoc networks, sensor networks, vehicular ad hoc networks
Victor W Marek, Ph.D.
Research Areas: constraint satisfaction, design of databases and knowledge bases, Logical foundations of AI
W. Brent Seales, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Computer vision, Digital Libraries, multimedia, surgical technology, visualization
Mukesh Singhal, Ph.D.
Research Areas: cloud computing, Computer Security, Distributed computing systems, wireless networks
Miroslaw (Mirek) Truszczynski, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Artificial intelligence, constraint satisfaction, declarative programming, knowledge representation and reasoning
Ruigang Yang, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Computer Graphics, Computer vision, Image-Processing, multimedia
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Robert Adams, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Applied Electromagnetics, Computational Electromagnetics, Theoretical Electromagnetics
Jimmie J. Cathey, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Control of Electric Machines, Electric Drive Applied to Vehicles, Electric Machine Design and Analysis, Solid-State Power Conditioning
Zhi David Chen , Ph.D.
Research Areas: CMOS Transistor Reliability, Microelectronic Fabrication, Microsensors, Novel Semiconductor Devices and Materials
Sen-ching Samson Cheung, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Data Mining, Image and Video Processing, Information Retrieval
Aaron M. Cramer, Ph.D.
Research Areas: control systems, electric machines, optimization of power electronics, power systems
Henry Gordon Dietz, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Compilers, Digital Imaging, Hardware Architectures and Networking, Operating Systems, Parallel Processing
Kevin Donohue, Ph.D.
Research Areas: biomedical signals, detection and estimation theory, distributed sensors systems, music, pattern recognition, psychophysics, Signal Processing, speech, ultrasound
Stephen D. Gedney, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Computational Electromagnetics, Electromagnetic Scattering, Microwave Circuit Device Modeling, Parallel Computational Methods, Parasitic Extraction of Mixed Signal Systems
Laurence G. Hassebrook, Ph.D.
Research Areas: 3-Dimensional Data Acquistion, pattern recognition, Signal and Image Processing, Stochastic Systems
Jeffrey Todd Hastings, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Biological Sensors, Biotechnology, Chemical Sensors, Nano-fabrication, Nanotechnology, Photonics
J. Robert Heath, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Computer engineering, digital signal processing, machine vision and intelligence, software engineering
Lawrence E. Holloway, Ph.D.
Research Areas: discrete event control systems, embedded systems, Energy, fault detection, fault diagnosis, fault monitoring, manufacturing automation, Manufacturing Systems, power, power systems, production control
Daniel Lau, Ph.D.
Research Areas: 3D photogrammetry, digital communications, Image/signal processing
Yuan Liao, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Energy, energy management system, intelligent techniques, Power quality monitoring and analysis, Power system economics and optimization, Protective relaying, Security, Signal Processing
Cai-Cheng Lu, Ph.D.
Research Areas: antenna analysis and design, Electromagnetic wave propagation and scattering, fast numerical algorithms for computational electromagnetics, inverse scattering, microwave imaging
Janet K. Lumpp, Ph.D.
Research Areas: lasers, Materials, microelectronics
James E. Lumpp, Jr., Ph.D.
Research Areas: Autonomous Vehicles, Avionics Systems, Embedded Computer Systems, Parallel and Distributed Architectures and Operating Systems, Small Satellites, Software Engineering Tools, Spacecraft Design and Dependable Spacecraft Electronics, Verification of Safety Critical Systems
Meikang Qiu, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Computer and Network Security, Data Mining and Fusion, embedded systems, Hardware/Software Codesign, Heterogeneous Sensor Network, Low Power Chip Design, Mobile Interface Browsing, Parallel Architecture
Vijay Singh, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Electroluminescence, Electronic Devices, Electronic Materials, Energy, Flat-Panel Displays, Photovoltaics, Solar, Thin Film Solar Cells, Thin-film Technology
William T. Smith, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Antennas, Electromagnetic Compatibility, Radio Communications
Bruce Lanier Walcott, Ph.D.
Research Areas: all-digital control design, deterministic control of uncertain systems, deterministic estimation of uncertain systems, modeling of flexible systems by uncertain methods, nonlinear systems, output feedback stabilization of nonlinear systems, symbolic control
Extended Campus Programs - Paducah
Y. Charles Lu, Ph.D.
Research Areas: composites, elastomers, finite element modeling, Materials, micromechanics, nanomechanics, polymers, Solid Mechanics, vibration
Jeffrey Seay, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Biofuels, Computer Aided Process Engineering, Energy, Green Engineering, Process Design, Process Safety, Sustainability
David L. Silverstein, Ph.D.
Research Areas: colloids and interfacial phenomena, distance learning, Fluids modeling in porous media, interactive multimedia educational software, model-based process control, surface kinetics, surfactant induced water movement
Jimmy L. Smart, PhD, PE.
Research Areas: Use of Membranes for Water Purification
Mechanical Engineering
Nelson Kudzo Akafuah, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Combustion, Droplet transport and behavior in spray applications, Electrostatic effect on paint spray transport and deposition, Energy, Energy conversion and conservation, Energy efficiency of industrial processes, Nondestructive evaluation of surface and subsurface defects in coated surfaces, Renewable Energy, Renewable energy conversion from biomass sources
Rodney Andrews, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Activated carbon materials, Agriculture, Biotechnology, carbon fiber formation, Carbon materials, Energy, Environment, Nanotube synthesis, Nanotube-polymer and nanotube-carbon composite materials, Pitch chemistry and characterization
Fazleena Badurdeen, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Application of Metaheuristics, Manufacturing Systems, Mass Customization, Optimization
Sean C. Bailey, Ph.D.
Research Areas: coherent structures, homogeneous turbulence, microelectromechanical systems, scaling wall-bounded flows, turbulent drag reduction, turbulent flows, unsteady vortex flows, wake turbulence, wall flows
Louis M. Brock, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Elastic Wave Propagation, Mechanics, Thermoelasticity
Alexander Chapman, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Computational implementation of physically significant eigenfunction solutions to the 3D Helmholtz equation
Oscar Dillon, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Continuum Mechanics, Coupled Thermoelasticity, Materials Science
Mark Hanson, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Edge effects on concentrated contacts, Fracture Mechanics, Fragmentation, Tribology
David W. Herrin, Ph.D.
Research Areas: acoustic materials, Acoustics, mufflers and silencers, structural dynamics
Jesse B. Hoagg, Ph.D.
Research Areas: adaptive control, Aerospace, flow control, robust control, structural control, System Identification, vibration control
Ibrahim Jawahir, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Computer Integrated Manufacturing, Manufacturing Process
Haluk E. Karaca, Ph.D.
Research Areas: active materials for actuators, Composition-processing-microstructure-mechanical property relationships, Energy Harvesting, high strength shape memory alloys, high temperature shape memory alloys, iron ore sintering, magnetic refrigeration, magnetic shape memory alloys, nanotube fabrication, phase transformations, severe plastic deformation, shape memory composites, shape memory polymers, thermodynamical modeling
Thomas W. Lester, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Combustion, Waste Incineration
Tianxiang Li, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Combustion and Energy Utilization, Material Synthesis, Nanotechnology, Pollutant Generation and Control
Y. Charles Lu, Ph.D.
Research Areas: composites, elastomers, finite element modeling, Materials, micromechanics, nanomechanics, polymers, Solid Mechanics, vibration
Alexandre Martin, Ph.D.
Research Areas: ablation, Aerospace, Aerothermodynamics, compressible aerodynamics, Computational Fluid Dynamics, gas surface interactions, Heat Transfer, Hypersonic, material response, Numerical Methods, Re-entry
James M. McDonough, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Applied Mathematics, Combustion, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Convective Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics
Johné M. Parker, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Image-Processing, Imaging Sensor/System Modeling, Vision System Hardware/Software Design
Keith Rouch, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Dynamics, Finite Elements, Vibrations
Kozo Saito, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Automobile Surface Coating and Inspection, Combustion, Fire Research, Lean Manufacturing, Nano-Technology, Scale Modeling
T. Michael Seigler
Research Areas: Aerospace, inflatable satellite structures, intelligent material systems, modeling and control of nonlinear mechanical systems, morphing aircraft, piezoelectric actuated devices, shape-memory alloy actuated robotics
Dusan P. Sekulic, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Heat Exchanger Theory and Design, Thermodynamics, Transport phenomena for materials processing
Andrew Seybert, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Noise and Vibration Control, Noise and Vibration Modeling and Prediction
Suzanne Weaver Smith, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Aerospace, Flexible and Nonlinear Structures, Structural Analysis, System Identification, Vibration Testing and Composites
L. Scott Stephens, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Bearing and Sealing Systems, Controls, Machine Design, Magnetic Suspensions
Gerry Swan, Ph.D.
Research Areas: computer managed instruction/research, interactive media with instruction
Kaveh A. Tagavi, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Boiling and Two Phase Flow, Heat Transfer
Christine Trinkle, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Biologically-Inspired Design, MEMS, Micro-scale Design and Fabrication, Microfluidic Systems, Precision Machine Design
Hornsen (H.S.) Tzou, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Design with Smart Materials, Distributed Control of Shell/Plate Structures, Multi-field Hybrid Photo-magneto-piezoelectric-thermoelastic/Control System Integration, Precision Micro-/Nano-Actuation, Smart Structures and Structronic Systems
Jonathan F. Wenk, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Cardiovascular Mechanics, Finite Element Methods, Fluid-Structure Interaction Modeling, Multi-scale Modeling, Nonlinear Solid Mechanics, Numerical Optimization
Michael Winter, Dr.-Ing.
Research Areas: Airborne Observation of Re-entry, Development of Flight Experiments for Re-entry, Electric Spacecraft Propulsion, Optical Plasma Diagnostics in Equilibrium and Non-equilibrium, Spectral Simulation of Plasma Radiation
Tim Wu, Ph. D.
Research Areas: Acoustics and Vibration, Boundary Element Methods
Mining Engineering
Rick Honaker, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Advanced Physical Processing, Applied Surface Chemistry, Automation and Control, Coal Preparation, Fine Particle Processing, Introductory Mining Engineering, Mineral Processing
G. T. Lineberry, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Mine Plant Engineering, Underground Mining Operations
Braden Lusk Ph.D., P.E.
Research Areas: blast mitigation, blasting, explosives, mine operations and management, public relations
Joseph Sottile, Ph.D.
Research Areas: detection of electrical component incipient failure, electrical energy management, electrical engineering applications to mining, electrical system protection, Energy, safety
Richard J. Sweigard, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Geotechnology, Groundwater, Soil Reconstruction, Surface Mining
Daniel Tao, Ph.D.
Research Areas: acid mine drainage control, coal cleaning, Coal Preparation, column flotation, dewatering, filtration, fine particle separation, metal surface treatment, mineral activation, mineral depression, phosphate beneficiation, solid waste disposal solid, Surface and colloid chemistry, triboelectrostatic separation, waste utilization, waste water treatment
Kot F. Unrug
Research Areas: Mine Design, Strata Control, Underground Construction
Andrzej M. Wala, Ph.D.
Research Areas: Elements of Mining, Mine Electricity, Mine Ventilation