Assistant Professors

Assistant Professors

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W
Dr. Jessica Allen Assistant Professor
352-294-0435

Dr. Allen’s research focuses on identifying biomechanical targets that can guide interventional decisions in rehabilitation and device design for individuals with ambulatory impairments. This work leverages musculoskeletal modeling and machine learning techniques to identify deficits in lower-extremity biomechanics and to predict how different interventions or devices will improve ambulatory function. Dr. Allen and collaborators have recently identified several potential biomechanical targets for reducing fall risk and improving mobility in older adults and stroke survivors that her group is following up in NSF and NIH funded projects.…

Dr. Kerry Costello Assistant Professor
352-392-0800

Dr. Costello’s research focuses on understanding the role of movement biomechanics and physical activity in musculoskeletal health, with an emphasis on knee osteoarthritis. This work utilizes motion capture, wearable sensors and machine learning to examine how time-varying, multidimensional joint loads experienced during human movement contribute to disease progression.

Dr. Costello joins us from a NIH F32 & T32 funded postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Physical Therapy & Athletic Training at Boston University and the Section of Rheumatology at the Boston University School of Medicine.…

Dr. Amor A. Menezes Assistant Professor
(352) 294-0470

Amor A. Menezes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, an affiliate of the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, an affiliate of the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, and a member of the Institute for Cell & Tissue Science and Engineering at the University of Florida. His group applies dynamical systems theory and control engineering methods in the fields of systems biology and synthetic biology.…

Dr. Patrick Musgrave Assistant Professor
352-392-6230

Dr. Patrick Musgrave received his PhD from Virginia Tech in 2018 and BSc & BSE from the University of Pittsburgh in 2012. Dr. Musgrave’s research focuses on adaptive and morphing systems operating in fluidic environments, in particular systems subject to dynamic fluid-structure interactions. These systems are inherently multi-physical and sit at the intersection of structures, hydro/aerodynamics, mechatronics, smart materials, and controls.…

Dr. Jing Pan Assistant Professor
(352) 294-6869

Jing Pan received his PhD from Purdue University in 2017. His research focuses on developing nanoscale machineries for biotechnology applications. He conducted his postdoctoral research at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he demonstrated translational impact of his work in novel biosensors and molecular diagnostics.

Education
Postdoc, 2019 Stanford University
Ph.D, 2017 Purdue University
B.S, 2011 Xi’an Jiaotong University

Teaching Interests
Heat and Mass Transfer; Classical and Statistical Thermodynamics; Modern Optics and Imaging System Engineering; Biodesign

Research Interests
Macromolecular Machines; Directed Evolution; Self-assembly and self-organization; Bio-nanotechnology; Synthetic Biology; Medical Technology.

Dr. Alicia Petersen Assistant Professor
(352) 392-3496

Alicia Petersen is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) at the University of Florida. Through data analysis, instrumentation and modeling, Dr. Petersen researches the kinetic physics, magnetism and dynamics at play during the transit and interaction of space weather phenomena in the inner solar system, their impacts on spacecraft, and strategies for mitigating the impacts of space weather.…

Dr. Christopher “Chrispy” Petersen Assistant Professor
(352) 273-2004

Dr. Christopher “Chrispy” Petersen is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) Department at the University of Florida. His research interests lie in anything related to space guidance, navigation, control, and autonomy, with particular focus of making techniques real-time implementable and usable for operators. While all of space interests him, his research mostly is concerned with Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, and Docking (RPOD) and any satellite in the eXtra Geostationary (XGEO) regime (above geostationary orbit, to the Moon, and beyond).…

Dr. Jingjing Shi Assistant Professor
(352) 294-1193

Dr. Jingjing Shi’s research focuses on understanding energy transport and conversion to solve thermal challenges in different systems, with an emphasis on wide and ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor devices for future power and radio-frequency applications. Her work utilizes multiscale modeling and experimental methods to understand effects of different mechanisms like atomistic structures and defects on energy transport in materials and at interfaces.…

Dr. Jane Jaejeong Shin Assistant Professor
352-392-3140

Jane Shin is an assistant professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Florida. She received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University and the B.S. degree in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering from Seoul National University.
During her PhD, she closely collaborated with the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Panama City (NSWC PCD) on developing novel information-driven sensor path planning algorithms for underwater multi-target classification using side-scan sonar sensors.…

Dr. Youngsup Song Assistant Professor

Youngsup Song is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida. He obtained his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, where he investigated multiphase heat transfer. Following his graduate work, he trained as a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory before joining the University of Florida.…

Dr. Xin Tang Assistant Professor
(352) 294-1194

Professor Xin Tang received his Post-doctoral training from Harvard University and Ph.D. from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include cell and molecular mechanics in cancer development and metastasis, cardiovascular system, and neurons; unconventional mechano-electrophysiology; quantitative in vivo/vitro functional bio-imaging; bio-nanotechnology; and development of new biophysical tools to probe biological function/structure. His research is supported by NIH, NSF, AFOSR/DoD, UF Health Cancer Center, UF Opportunity Funds, and etc.…

Dr. Yu Wang Assistant Professor
352-846-3599

Yu Wang is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida (UF) and the Group Lead of Autonomous and Connected Vehicles of the UF Transportation Institute. He was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and M.S.…