Biophysics Program Co-Directors Named
IPST and Physics Professor Arpita Upadhyaya and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Associate Professor Jeffery Klauda have been appointed co-directors of the Biophysics Program in the Institute for Physical Science and Technology (IPST) for a one-year period effective August 5, 2020.
“I am excited to welcome Dr. Arpita Upadhyaya and Dr. Jeffery Klauda to the role of Co-Directors of the BioPhysics Program. Both Arpita and Jeff have made invaluable contributions to the program over the years as inspiring faculty advisors to BioPhysics students and as major research contributors in the field. I anticipate that, under their leadership, the BioPhysics Program will thrive, increase its visibility and national standing and continue to attract excellent students to our campus.”
The Biophysics Program faculty are drawn from several departments including biochemistry, biology, chemistry, engineering, and physics. Students, with a background in science and technology, are trained to use theoretical and computational methods, in combination with cutting edge experimental techniques, to solve some of the outstanding problems in biology, biomedicine, and bioengineering. The curriculum is tailored to suit the needs of individual students.,
Before joining the UMD faculty in 2006, Upadhyaya was a Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT before being awarded an MIT Pappalardo Fellowship in the Department of Physics. Upadhyaya’s research uses quantitative imaging, biophysical measurements and computational analysis to study cellular mechanics and the physical forces that enable a cell to sense and respond to its physical environment, in particular cells of the immune system and cancer cells. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame.
Upadhyaya served as Associate Director of the Chemical Physics Program from July 2016 to June 2019 and currently serves as Director of the Physics for Living Systems Network (PloS) at the University of Maryland.
Klauda was an Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA) Postdoctoral Fellow in the Laboratory of Computational Biology at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH) before joining the Chemical Engineering Department at UMD in 2007. Klauda’s research interests encompass thermodynamic modeling and molecular simulations with applications in energy, gas separation, and biomolecular systems. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Delaware.
