BioE Affiliate, Collaborator Named Director of ISR

The Fischell Department of Bioengineering (BioE) extends its congratulations to affiliate professor Reza Ghodssi, who will become the new director of the Institute for Systems Research (ISR) effective October 1, 2009. Ghodssi holds a joint appointment with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and ISR, and is actively involved with the Graduate Program in Bioengineering and in collaborations with BioE faculty members.

"Dr. Ghodssi has been instrumental in promoting bioengineering at the University of Maryland," said BioE Professor and Chair William Bentley, "both as a mentor of bioengineering graduate students on his device-related research and as a regular participant at many bioengineering functions, such as the annual Fischell Festival. He's an editorial board member of the journal Biomedical Microdevices and a member of the formative committee for the Robert E. Fischell Institute of Biomedical Devices. I am delighted he has accepted the position and look forward to working with him in this new capacity."

Some of Ghodssi's notable collaborations with Bentley and other members of the BioE faculty include membership in the Biochip Collaborative, which uses molecular bioengineering to "translate" the communication between biological and microfabricated systems; devising means to detect and disrupt bacterial communication known as quorum sensing, which could prevent coordinated behavior leading to infection or illness; the development of lab-on-a-chip technology for the testing of new drugs' affects on living cells; and a nano-bio fuel cell research project that uses the tobacco mosaic virus as a template to create advanced micro-batteries.

Established by a National Science Foundation grant in 1985, ISR works closely with industry to deliver one of the top cross-disciplinary research and education programs in the nation. ISR's faculty is drawn from five University of Maryland colleges who are engaged in systems engineering research in a wide variety of fields.

For More Information:

Visit the ISR web site »
Visit Professor Ghodssi's web site »

Published September 22, 2009