First VBI Fellows Accepted From Virginia Tech's College Of Engineering

The Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech has awarded fellowships to four faculty in the College of Engineering--professor Peter Athanas, associate professor Amy Bell and assistant professor Mark Jones of electrical and computer engineering; and associate professor Joe Wang of aerospace and ocean engineering.

The fellows will develop novel research projects in close collaboration with VBI researchers Allan Dickerman, Iuliana Lazar, Pedro Mendes, Reinhard Laubenbacher, Karen Duca and David Samuels. Athanas, who will collaborate with Dickerman, will work to advance the current knowledge of computing machinery and networks. Bell has a research interest in signal and image processing, as well as engineering education, and will collaborate with Duca. Jones will collaborate with Mendes, Laubenbacher and Samuels. His research interests include the use of function databases on GEPASI, VBI's software for modeling biochemical systems, and a flu virus simulation. Wang, who will collaborate with Lazar, proposes developing algorithms for microfluidics and parallel computer implementation systems.

VBI, a shared resource for the Commonwealth of Virginia, supports collaborative research and fosters a multi-disciplinary approach to bioinformatics. More information about VBI and its fellows program is available at: www.vbi.vt.edu.