Keynote Speaker
Santiago Schnell, D.Phil.
Santiago Schnell earned his undergraduate degree in biology from Universidad Simón Bolívar in Venezuela and a doctorate in mathematical biology from the University of Oxford. He previously led the University of Michigan Medical School’s Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, making it one of the top NIH-funded physiology departments in the U.S., while also boosting its operating revenue and endowment. He served as the John A. Jacquez Professor of Physiology and was a professor of molecular and integrative physiology as well as computational medicine and bioinformatics. In September 2021, Schnell was appointed the William K. Warren Foundation Dean of the College of Science at the University of Notre Dame, where he also serves as a tenured professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, guiding the college’s mission to prepare future scientific leaders and solve global challenges.
Faculty
David Umulis
David M. Umulis is the Senior Vice Provost for Purdue University in Indianapolis and a professor of Biomedical Engineering, with a courtesy appointment in Agricultural and Biological Engineering. He earned his BSE in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan (2002) and his PhD in Chemical Engineering & Materials Science from the University of Minnesota (2007). His research focuses on early embryonic development, multi-dimensional gene expression modeling, microscopy, image analysis, and finite-element computer modeling. Umulis is also the Director of the Emergent Mechanisms in Biology of Robustness, Integration, and Organization (EMBRIO) Institute.
Jeremiah Zartman
Jeremiah Zartman is an Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. He earned his Ph.D. (2009) and M.A. (2006) in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Engineering Physics from the University of Colorado at Boulder (2004). His research focuses on building tissues and treating degenerative diseases by investigating animal development from an engineering perspective. The Zartman lab analyzes chemical and mechanical signaling at the tissue scale, using computational models and experiments in systems like Drosophila. His team also explores tissue growth, morphogenesis, and regeneration, utilizing tools such as computational models, microfluidics, and genetics.
David Medvigy
David Medvigy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, with a concurrent appointment in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University and his B.S. from Rutgers University. His research focuses on terrestrial ecosystems’ structure, composition, and functioning, particularly how they respond to climate variability and change. He specializes in ecosystem modeling, vegetation-climate interactions, terrestrial carbon cycles, and forest dynamics. Medvigy leads the Terrestrial Ecosystems and Climate Modeling Lab, using numerical models to predict ecosystem responses to environmental changes.
Research Scientists
Linlin Li
LinLin Li is a Research Scientist at the Umulis Laboratory. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of early embryonic development using multi-dimensional modeling and image analysis. She specializes in computational biology and finite-element modeling to study gene expression in response to dynamic extracellular signaling. Li’s work contributes to the lab’s mission of uncovering the emergent mechanisms underlying biological robustness and organization.
Nilay Kumar
Nilay Kumar is a Senior Research Scientist in the Pienaar and Buganza Tepole Laboratories. His research focuses on treating infectious diseases using a systems pharmacology approach. He develops multi-scale computational models to understand host immune responses, pathogen behavior, and drug dynamics within infected patients. By integrating these models with experimental data, Kumar aims to predict drug efficacy, optimize treatments, identify new drug targets, and guide future experiments, addressing challenges like drug resistance and complex host-pathogen interactions.
Weiwei Zhang
Weiwei Zhang is a Plant Cell Biologist in the Staiger Lab at Purdue University’s Department of Botany & Plant Pathology. Her research focuses on the actin cytoskeleton’s role in cellular morphogenesis and plant responses to environmental stimuli. The lab investigates cytoskeletal proteins involved in processes like pollen development, self-incompatibility, and abiotic stress responses.