TAMEST 2024 Annual Conference Speakers

The TAMEST 2024 Annual Conference examined the challenges and opportunities of AI/ML in aerospace, defense, high-performance computing, self-driving technology, precision medicine and health care delivery.

Douglas Brooks

Douglas A. Brooks, Ph.D.

Assistant Director – R&D

Artificial Intelligence Department

Southwest Research Institute

Dr. Brooks received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from NC State University in 2005 and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2008 and 2012 respectively. He is currently the Assistant Director of the Artificial Intelligence Department at Southwest Research Institute where he manages a team of experts in the field of traditional and machine learning techniques such as deep learning. With over a decade of experience, his areas of expertise focus on utilizing computer vision techniques for pattern recognition and decision making with regards to the autonomy of intelligent systems such as vehicle automation and robotics, medical AI, human performance, and intelligent surveillance. Douglas was a member of Leadership San Antonio Class of 2020/21, which focuses on development, improvement, and giving back to San Antonio. He is a devout Christian, husband to his beautiful wife Shara Brooks, and father to his wonderful son Jaxon Brooks and daughter Sanaya Brooks. Beyond his familial influences, Douglas contributes much of his career accolades to his mentors Dr. Ayanna M. Howard (Dean of The Ohio State University College of Engineering) and Dr. Gary S. May (Chancellor at University of California, Davis).
Michael Brown

Michael S. Brown, M.D. (Nobel Laureate, NAM, NAS)

Professor

Department of Molecular Genetics

UT Southwestern Medical Center

Michael S. Brown received an M.D. degree in 1966 from the University of Pennsylvania. He was an intern and resident at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and a post doctoral fellow with Earl Stadtman at the National Institutes of Health. He is currently Paul J. Thomas Professor of Molecular Genetics and Director of the Jonsson Center for Molecular Genetics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. Dr. Brown and his colleague, Dr. Joseph L. Goldstein, discovered the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor, which controls cholesterol in blood and in cells. They showed that mutations in this receptor cause Familial Hypercholesterolemia, a disorder that leads to premature heart attacks. Their work laid the groundwork for drugs called statins that block cholesterol synthesis, increase LDL receptors, lower blood cholesterol, and prevent heart attacks. Statins are taken daily by more than 20 million people worldwide. Brown and Goldstein shared many awards for this work, including the U.S. National Medal of Science and the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology. Dr. Brown served for 16 years on the Board of Directors of Pfizer, and he is currently a Director of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
Caroline Chung

Caroline Chung, M.D.

Vice President and Chief Data Officer

Associate Professor

Radiation Oncology and Diagnostic Imaging

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Dr. Chung is Vice President and Chief Data Officer and Director of Data Science Development and Implementation of the Institute of Data Science in Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. She is a clinician-scientist, associate professor in Radiation Oncology and Diagnostic Imaging with a clinical practice focused on CNS malignancies and a computational imaging lab focused on quantitative imaging and modeling to detect and characterize tumors and toxicities of treatment to enable personalized cancer treatment. Motivated by challenges observed in her own clinical and research pursuits, Dr. Chung has developed and leads institutional efforts to enable quantitative measurements for clinically impactful utilization and interpretation of data through a collaborative team science approach, including the Tumor Measurement Initiative (TMI) at MD Anderson. Internationally, Dr. Chung leads several multidisciplinary efforts to improve the generation and utilization of high quality, quantitative data to drive research and impact clinical practice, including her role as Vice Chair of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Quantitative Imaging Biomarker Alliance (QIBA), Co-Chair of the Quantitative Imaging for Assessment of Response in Oncology Committee of the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU) and National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)-appointed committee addressing Foundational Research Gaps and Future Directions for Digital Twins. Beyond her clinical, research and administrative roles, Dr. Chung enjoys serving as an active educator and mentor with a passion to support the growth of diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM, including her role as Chair of Women in Cancer (http://www.womenincancer.org/) , a non-for-profit organization that is committed to advancing cancer care by encouraging the growth, leadership and connectivity of current and future oncologists, trainees and medical researchers.
Larry Faulkner

Larry R. Faulkner, Ph.D.

President Emeritus

The University of Texas at Austin

Larry R. Faulkner is President Emeritus of The University of Texas at Austin and is a retired president of Houston Endowment, a private philanthropy established by Jesse H. and Mary Gibbs Jones. He also served as Chancellor ad interim of The University of Texas System. Over four decades, Dr. Faulkner was on the chemistry faculties of Harvard University, the University of Illinois, and the University of Texas. At Illinois, he was also department head, dean, and provost. From 1998 into 2006, he served the University of Texas at Austin as its 27th president, after which he led Houston Endowment through 2012. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and chaired both the National Mathematics Advisory Panel (2006-2008) and the National Academies Committee on Federal Regulation of Research (2015-2016). He served on the boards of Exxon Mobil Corporation, Temple-Inland, Guaranty Bank, Sandia National Laboratories, Southern Methodist University, Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Internet2, Houston Grand Opera, Discovery Green Conservancy, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation, the O’Donnell Foundation, the Philosophical Society of Texas, and Reasoning Mind. He is currently on the board of Somaiya Vidyavihar University in Mumbai. Through the Kay Bailey Hutchison Award, jointly presented to Kenneth M. Jastrow and Dr. Faulkner, TAMEST recognized the successful effort by Jastrow and Faulkner to capitalize the Society’s endowment.
Surya Ganguli

Surya Ganguli, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Department of Applied Physics

Stanford University

Surya Ganguli triple majored in physics, mathematics, and EECS at MIT, completed a PhD in string theory at Berkeley, and a postdoc in theoretical neuroscience at UCSF. He is now an associate professor of Applied physics at Stanford where he leads the Neural Dynamics and Computation Lab and has been a visiting researcher at both Google and Meta AI. His research spans the fields of neuroscience, machine learning and physics, focusing on understanding and improving how both biological and artificial neural networks learn striking emergent computations. He has been awarded a Swartz-Fellowship in computational neuroscience, a Burroughs-Wellcome Career Award, a Terman Award, two NeurIPS Outstanding Paper Awards, a Sloan fellowship, a James S. McDonnell Foundation scholar award in human cognition, a McKnight Scholar award in Neuroscience, a Simons Investigator Award in the mathematical modeling of living systems, an NSF career award, and a Schmidt Science Polymath Award.
David Glazer

David Glazer

Workbench Chief Technology Officer

Verily

David Glazer is the CTO for Verily Workbench, a secure research environment for governing and analyzing multimodal biomedical data. He is a PI for the Data and Research Center, and a member of the Steering Committee, of the NIH All of Us Research Program. He served on the NIH Advisory Committee to the Director, where he co-chaired the AI Working Group. He is co-chair of the Cloud Workstream, and a member of the Steering Committee, of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH). He previously worked at Google, where he founded the Google Genomics team. Prior to joining Google in 2006, he successfully started two companies: Eloquent in 1995 (IPO 2000), which used rich media to power business communications, and Verity in 1988 (IPO 1995), which did full-text search. David grew up in Massachusetts, where he earned a BS in physics from MIT.

Sherri R. Greenberg

Sherri R. Greenberg

Professor of Practice

Assistant Dean

Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs

The University of Texas at Austin

Sherri R. Greenberg is a professor of practice and fellow of the Max Sherman Chair in State and Local Government at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, and she is a professor of practice at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work. Additionally, she is the LBJ School Assistant Dean for State and Local Government Engagement. She is a primary researcher for, and Chairperson of, Good Systems, Ethical AI at UT Austin. Greenberg serves on the Austin Smart City Alliance Board of Directors, and the Austin Forum on Technology & Society Advisory Board. Previously, she was a member of the Central Health Board of Managers, and a member of the City of Austin Housing Investment Review Committee.

Greenberg has served as a senior advisor to Austin Mayor Steve Adler. She was a Texas state representative from 1991 to 2001, and she chaired the House Pensions and Investments Committee and the Select Committee on Teacher Health Insurance. She also served on the House Appropriations, Economic Development, Elections, and Science and Technology Committees. Previously, Greenberg was the City of Austin capital finance manager, and a public finance officer at Standard & Poor’s.

Her teaching and research interests include: technology policy, state and local government, housing, homelessness, transportation, healthcare, public finance, and campaigns and elections. Recently, she has had funding from the National Science Foundation, the City of Austin, UT Good Systems, the IBM Center for the Business of Government, the Cisco Foundation, Microsoft, MITRE, and the State of Texas.

Colonel Tucker “Cinco” Hamilton

Colonel Tucker “Cinco” Hamilton

Chief, AI Test & Operations

United States Air Force

Colonel Tucker “Cinco” Hamilton is an Experimental Fighter Test Pilot and currently the Director of the Department of the Air Force – MIT Artificial Intelligence Accelerator. He has served his nation as an operational F-15C pilot, Air Liaison Officer, initial cadre of the MC-12 Intelligence gathering aircraft, F-35 program manager, F-35 test pilot/ commander, and Director of the only dedicated Artificial Intelligence unit in the Department of the Air Force. He has more than 2,000 flying hours in the F-35A/B/C, F-15C/D/E, MC-12W, F-18, F-16, A-10, T-38A/C, T-34, T-6, and 20 additional aircraft. In addition to his military service, he is the founder and CEO of a 501(c)3 non-profit that runs a national high-school robotics competition called the Aerospace Robotics Competition. He currently lives near Cambridge, MA with his wife and four children.
Kay Bailey Hutchison

The Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchison

TAMEST Honorary Chair

Former United States Senator

Former United States Ambassador to NATO

In 2021, Kay Bailey Hutchison stepped down from her term as U.S. Ambassador to NATO in Brussels, Belgium. During her three and a half years as U.S. Ambassador, she focused on the importance of U.S. leadership in the alliance and strengthening the transatlantic bond that provides the security umbrella for Europe and North America. From 1993-2013, she represented Texas in the U.S. Senate. She was the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. She served two terms as Chair of the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Significant legislation included reauthorization and reform of NASA, with Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), and the Hutchison-Mikulski legislation establishing a new retirement vehicle, the Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal IRA. As Texas state treasurer, from 1991-1993, she proposed limits on State debt that the State Legislature adopted, and lead the successful defeat of a State Income Tax. Ambassador Hutchison is the author of three books, including the bestseller American Heroines (William Morrow, 2004). Currently, she serves on the NASA Advisory Council, is the Founding Honorary Chair of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Energy Center at The University of Texas in Austin, and is the Founding Chair of TAMEST. In 2013, The Dallas City Council named the City’s Convention Center in her honor. She earned a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law.
Petros Koumoutsakos

Petros Koumoutsakos, Ph.D. (NAE)

Herbert S. Winokur Jr. Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences

John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Harvard University

Petros Koumoutsakos is Herbert S. Winokur Jr. Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Area Chair for Applied Mathematics at Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). He studied Naval Architecture (Diploma-NTU of Athens, M.Eng.-U. of Michigan), Aeronautics and Applied Mathematics (PhD-Caltech) and has served as the Chair of Computational Science at ETH Zurich (1997-2020). Petros is elected Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Physical Society (APS), the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). He is recipient of the Advanced Investigator Award by the European Research Council and the ACM Gordon Bell prize in Supercomputing. He is elected International Member to the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE). His research interests are on the fundamentals and applications of computing and artificial intelligence to understand, predict and optimize fluid flows in engineering, nanotechnology, and medicine.
Matthew A. Lease, Ph.D.

Matthew A. Lease, Ph.D.

Professor

School of Information

The University of Texas at Austin

Matthew Lease is a Professor of Information and Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin, a Distinguished Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and a Senior Member of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). Lease is also a faculty founder and leader of UT Austin’s Good Systems, a $20M, 8-year university Grand Challenge to develop responsible AI technologies to address societal needs. Lease’s research combines artificial intelligence (AI) and human-computer interaction (HCI) to develop both automated AI solutions as well as interactive systems that augment human capabilities. His recent work focuses on developing fair and explainable natural language processing (NLP) techniques to help curb the spread of fake news, hate speech, and societal polarization.

Robin Murphy

Robin Murphy, Ph.D.

Professor

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Texas A&M University

Dr. Robin R. Murphy, Ph.D. (’92) and M.S. (‘89) in computer science and B.M.E. (‘80) from the Georgia Institute of Technology, is the Raytheon Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University and a director of the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue. Her research focuses on artificial intelligence, robotics, and human-robot interaction for emergency management. She is an AAAS, ACM, and IEEE Fellow, a TED speaker, and author of over 200 papers and four books including the award-winning Disaster Robotics which captures her research deploying ground, aerial, and marine robots to over 30 disasters in five countries including the 9/11 World Trade Center, Fukushima, Hurricane Harvey, and the Surfside collapse. Her contributions to robotics have been recognized with the ACM Eugene L. Lawler Award for Humanitarian Contributions and a US Air Force Exemplary Civilian Service Award medal. Dr. Murphy has served on numerous professional and government boards, including the advisory committees for the Engineering and the CISE directorates at the National Science Foundation and Defense Science Board.
Mark Papermaster

Mark Papermaster

Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President

Technology & Engineering

AMD

Mark Papermaster is Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President responsible for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) technical direction and product development. He led the re-design of engineering processes at AMD and the development of the award-winning “Zen” high-performance x86 CPU family, high-performance GPUs and the company’s modular design approach, Infinity Architecture. He also oversees Information Technology (IT) that delivers AMD’s compute infrastructure and services.

His 40+ years of engineering experience includes significant leadership roles managing the development of a wide range of products, from microprocessors to mobile devices and high-performance servers. Before joining AMD in October 2011 as Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President, Papermaster was the leader of Cisco’s Silicon Engineering Group, Apple Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering for iPod and iPhone and held multiple IBM roles in technology and server development.

Papermaster received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and master’s degree from the University of Vermont, both in Electrical Engineering. He is a member of the Global Semiconductor Alliance Board of Directors, IEEE Industry Advisory Board, University of Texas Cockrell School of Engineering Advisory Board, University of Texas at Austin President’s Austin Innovation Board and Purdue University Semiconductor Degrees Leadership Board.

David Paydarfar

David Paydarfar, M.D.

Professor and Chair, Department of Neurology at Dell Medical School

Director, Mulva Clinic for the Neurosciences, The University of Texas at Austin

David Paydarfar, M.D., is a professor and the inaugural chair of the Department of Neurology at Dell Medical School. He is also director of the Mulva Clinic for the Neurosciences.

He previously served as professor and executive vice chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and as an associate faculty member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. Paydarfar received a Bachelor of Science in physics (summa cum laude) from Duke University and a doctor of medicine degree from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He completed his residency training in neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He practices general neurology and is a fellow of the American Neurological Association and an investigator of the Clayton Foundation for Research.

Paydarfar’s clinical research program seeks to develop novel biosensors, signal-processing algorithms and user interfaces that will enable clinicians and researchers to track and predict the health of individual patients as well as entire populations. This approach will extend beyond current reactive alarm systems, enabling doctors to forecast — and avert — adverse disease trajectories and to test the impact of such a strategy on health outcomes. This engineering and informatics platform should provide unprecedented opportunities to conduct fieldwork on human physiology and pathophysiology.

Paydarfar’s basic research program seeks to understand mechanisms underlying disease states associated with abnormal behavior of neural oscillators such as apnea, circadian dysrhythmias and epilepsy, as well as the coordination of pacemakers with other physiological and behavioral functions. His research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Clayton Foundation for Research.

William Solomon

William T. Solomon

Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

O’Donnell Foundation

William Solomon is a native Dallasite, born in 1942. He received his B.S. degree in Civil Engineering at SMU in 1965, and in 1967 he received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar.

Solomon spent his entire business career with Austin Industries, the antecedent of which was Austin Bridge Company, founded by his grandfather in 1918. As president and/or chairman from 1970 until his retirement in 2008 and CEO for 31 years, Solomon grew the company from a regional, primarily bridge and road contractor to one of the nation’s leading commercial, industrial and infrastructure construction companies.

In April 2016, Solomon was elected Chairman, president and CEO of the O’Donnell Foundation. He previously chaired the Hoblitzelle Foundation, the Southwestern Medical Foundation, the Dallas Citizens Council, the Greater Dallas Chamber and a number of other Dallas-based civic organizations and has served on numerous community and corporate boards.

He has received numerous awards recognizing his contributions to the community, including the prestigious Linz Award, UT Southwestern’s Sprague Community Service Award, the J. Erik Jonsson Ethics Award and the Dedman Lifetime Achievement Award for Philanthropy. He is a member of the Texas Business Hall of Fame. His alma mater, SMU, recognized him as a Distinguished Alumnus in 1988 and in 2007 awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.

Solomon and his wife Gay married in 1964. They have two children, Bill Jr. and Meredith, and seven grandchildren.

Peter Stone

Peter Stone, Ph.D.

Truchard Foundation Chair in Computer Science

University Distinguished Teaching Professor

Department of Computer Science

The University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Peter Stone holds the Truchard Foundation Chair in Computer Science at the University of
Texas at Austin. He is Associate Chair of the Computer Science Department, as well as Director
of Texas Robotics. In 2013 he was awarded the University of Texas System Regents’
Outstanding Teaching Award and in 2014 he was inducted into the UT Austin Academy of
Distinguished Teachers, earning him the title of University Distinguished Teaching Professor.
Professor Stone’s research interests in Artificial Intelligence include machine learning
(especially reinforcement learning), multiagent systems, and robotics. Professor Stone received
his Ph.D in Computer Science in 1998 from Carnegie Mellon University. From 1999 to 2002 he
was a Senior Technical Staff Member in the Artificial Intelligence Principles Research
Department at AT&T Labs – Research. He is an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, Guggenheim
Fellow, AAAI Fellow, IEEE Fellow, AAAS Fellow, ACM Fellow, Fulbright Scholar, and 2004
ONR Young Investigator. In 2007 he received the prestigious IJCAI Computers and Thought
Award, given biannually to the top AI researcher under the age of 35, and in 2016 he was
awarded the ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award. Professor Stone co-founded
Cogitai, Inc., a startup company focused on continual learning, in 2015, and currently serves as
Executive Director of Sony AI America.
Jere W. Thompson Jr.

Jere W. Thompson Jr.

Chair, Southwestern Medical Foundation

Board Member, O’Donnell Foundation

Mr. Thompson is a board member of the O’Donnell Foundation and is Chairman of both the Southwestern Medical Foundation and the Hoblitzelle Foundation. He is a past chairman of the North Texas Tollway Authority, the Texas Turnpike Authority, and the Dallas Citizens Council.

Mr. Thompson was Co-Founder and CEO of Ambit Energy, an international retail energy provider. Started in 2005, Ambit ultimately served 1.2 million electricity and natural gas customers in 17 states, Japan and Canada before being acquired in 2019. In 2010, Ambit was named the #1 Fastest Growing Private Company in America by Inc. Magazine. Prior to Ambit, Mr. Thompson founded and was CEO of CapRock Fiber Network which owned and operated extensive fiber, voice and data networks across Texas and four neighboring states. CapRock was acquired in 2000.

Mr. Thompson received an Economics degree from Stanford University and an MBA from The University of Texas in Austin. He and his wife, Carolyn, have been married 37 years and have five children and nine grandchildren.

Chris Urmson

Chris Urmson, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Aurora

Chris Urmson is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Aurora. He is also a member of the Board of directors of Aurora. Prior to founding Aurora, Chris helped build Google’s self-driving program from 2009 to 2016 and served as Chief Technology Officer of the group. Chris has over 15 years of experience leading automated vehicle programs. He was the Director of Technology for Carnegie Mellon’s DARPA Grand and Urban Challenge Teams, which placed second and third in 2005, and first in 2007. Chris earned his Ph.D. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University and his BEng in Computer Engineering from the University of Manitoba. Chris currently serves on Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science Dean’s Advisory Board as well as on the Board of Directors for Edge Case Research, a company working to assure the safety of autonomous systems for real world deployment. Additionally, he has served on the Shell New Energies External Advisory Board and has served on the Veoneer Technical Advisory Board. Chris has authored over 60 patents and over 50 publications.

S. Craig Watkins

S. Craig Watkins, Ph.D.

Ernest A. Sharpe Centennial Professor

Executive Director, IC² Institute

Moody College of Communication

The University of Texas at Austin

S. Craig Watkins is the Ernest A. Sharpe Centennial Professor and Executive Director of the IC² Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. IC² is a “think and do tank” that explores the intersections between technology and innovation. Craig is also one of the principal investigators for the Good Systems Grand Challenge, an initiative designed to catalyzed interdisciplinary research and development related to ethical artificial intelligence. Craig’s work with Good Systems focuses on the design and deployment of equity-centered artificial intelligence. He leads a team that is adopting a data-oriented approach to understanding the social determinants of health. This work was also central to his engagement with MIT as a Visiting Professor working with teams to design models that illuminate the systemic factors that contribute to inequality. Under his leadership the IC² Institute is developing a series of initiatives and partnerships to “innovate well-being.” The project involves, for example, working with healthcare professionals, researchers, and Foundations to develop predictive models and practices that leverage data and novel techniques to address health disparities. Craig is also a participant in Texas Health Catalyst, a Dell Medical School program designed to translate cutting-edge research and early-stage ideas into products that improve health. His invention, GoodRIthms, processes social and behavioral data to augment the delivery of mental health care. He is Co-Pi for a new NIH grant to better understand how AI and machine learning can identify the risks implicated in the rising rates of suicide among African American youth.

Vanessa Wyche

Vanessa E. Wyche (NAE)

Director

Johnson Space Center

NASA

Vanessa E. Wyche is the director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, home to America’s astronaut corps, Mission Control Center, International Space Station, Orion and Gateway programs and its more than 11,000 civil service and contractor employees. She is responsible for a broad range of human spaceflight activities, including development and operation of human spacecraft, NASA astronaut selection and training, and mission control. Wyche oversees commercialization of low-Earth orbit – ensuring commercially provided destinations to continue research there following transition from the International Space Station in 2030. Additionally, she leads Johnson’s role in exploring the Moon and Mars with NASA’s Artemis spacecraft, including surface system capabilities for human and commercial robotic missions, and partners with academia, industry, and international community to establish a sustainable lunar economy. Under Wyche’s leadership, Johnson was recognized by Forbes and Statista as the No. 1 best employer among Texas’ major employers.

Wyche previously served as deputy director at Johnson for three years beginning in 2018. Other key leadership positions include: assistant and acting deputy director of Johnson; director of the Exploration Integration and Science Directorate, flight manager of several missions of the retired Space Shuttle Program, executive officer in the Office of the NASA Administrator, and led additional center-level technical and program organizations. Before joining NASA in 1989, Wyche worked for the Food and Drug Administration in Washington D.C.

A native of South Carolina, Wyche earned a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and Master of Science in Bioengineering from Clemson University. She was inducted into the Thomas Green Clemson Academy of Engineers and Scientists at Clemson University in 2019 and received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Coastal Carolina University in 2022.

Wyche is a passionate promoter of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), and serves as a member of American Institute of Physics Foundation board of directors, Clemson University’s College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences advisory board, the University of Houston’s C. T. Bauer College of Business advisory panel, and is a past chair of the Space Center Houston board of directors. She is the recipient of the Presidential Rank Award, two NASA Outstanding Leadership Medals, and two NASA Achievement Medals. She is an AIAA Associate Fellow and International Women’s Forum Fellow. Wyche was recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer.

Wyche is married to George Wyche Jr. Esq, and has one son, George Wyche III.

Follow Wyche on Twitter at twitter.com/V_Wyche.

For more information about Johnson Space Center, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/johnson.

Jian Zhou

Jian Zhou, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Lyda Hill Department of Bioinformatics

UT Southwestern Medical Center

Jian Zhou is an Assistant Professor in the Lyda Hill Department of Bioinformatics. He is a Lupe Murchison Foundation Scholar in Medical Research and is a Scholar of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). Prior to joining UTSW, he was a Flatiron Research Fellow at the Center of Computational Biology at Flatiron Institute, New York. He received his B.S. in Biological Sciences from Peking University and Ph.D. in Quantitative and Computational Biology from Princeton University. The Zhou lab works at the intersection of machine learning and genomics. The lab develops computational methods to improve our understanding of genome-based gene regulation and the genetic basis of human diseases. Currently the lab focuses on developing computational methods for improving predictive models for genomic sequence, understanding underlying biological mechanisms, and designing genomic sequences with desired properties. Advancing machine learning and AI methods for science is a long-term goal of the lab. Visit the lab website for more details https://zhoulab.io.

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