UVA Engineering Welcomes New Faculty for 2024

David’s research group conducts experimental and theoretical studies of energy transport/conversion mechanisms and material properties across multiple length scales and temperature ranges. The primary motivation is the thermal management of hypersonic vehicles, electronic devices, and other engineering systems.

Kory Burns is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering starting Summer 2024. Kory obtained a B.S. in Chemistry from Valdosta State University, an M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering (Nuclear Engineering Program).

Rohan Chandra is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Virginia. His research interests include multi-robot navigation, human-robot interaction, and autonomous driving. The overarching goal of his robotics lab is to design algorithms and systems that enable robots to navigate among humans, like humans.

Chen Chen is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Virginia. Before that, she was a Research Assistant Professor at Biocomplexity Institute at UVA and a software engineer at Google.

Chen Cui's current research interests are on spacecraft electric propulsion, space environment, and computational plasma physics. Chen Cui's work focuses on the high-fidelity, fully kinetic modeling of plasma dynamics in spacecraft electric propulsion thrusters, solar wind, and other applications related to low-temperature plasmas.

Jason Forman's research includes the development and biofidelity evaluation of anthropomorphic test devices, the execution of  impact biomechanics in simulated automobile environments, the development of injury risk functions with dummies and computational models, analysis for injury risk evaluation, and investigating the effects on injury risk.

Assistant Professor of Engineering at the University of Virginia’s First Year Engineering Center.

Mathews Jacob is is an expert in machine learning algorithms for biomedical imaging. He develops advance magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods for brain, lung, and heart applications.

Kelsey Kubelick leverages light, sound, nanoconstruct design and cellular engineering strategies to develop advanced theranostic imaging platforms. With a special interest in ultrasound and photoacoustics, her lab creates imaging tools that play a critical role in informing, guiding and enhancing therapies across a range of biomedical applications.

Karina researches how people think about "good work" in the digital age. Trained as a sociologist, they use qualitative methods to get at how people critique technology and labor, and how they try to fix it. They are writing a book for MIT Press about what happens when high-status tech workers in Silicon Valley become disillusioned with their jobs.

Dr. Tang's research program centers on the structure-mechanics relationships of hierarchical biological materials and their clinical and biomedical applications. Many biological tissues, such as our own skeleton, perform a diverse range of functions with remarkable mechanical properties. These exceptional properties arise from the functional 

My career has focused on progressive management and engineering expertise that is concentrated in executive leadership of transportation projects, programs, and portfolios. 

I completed my Ph.D. at University of Texas at Austin under the supervision of Sarfraz Khurshid. During my Ph.D., I also closely collaborated with Kenneth McMillan and Darko Marinov. Prior to my Ph.D., I earned an MPhil (a research master's degree) from University of Melbourne, where I was supervised by Harald Søndergaard and Peter J. Stuckey.