Bios Archive - Page 6 of 11 - Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering

James M. Mayer

Charlotte Filch Roberts Professor Of Chemistry, Yale Faculty Of Arts And Sciences

Elected to the Academy in 2025

Education

Harvard University, 1978, AB, Chemistry; California Institute of Technology, 1982, PhD, Chemistry

Professional Areas

Inorganic, materials, bioinorganic, organometallic, and physical organic chemistry; primary focus on redox reactions that involve bond formation and bond cleavage, in particular the coupled transfers of protons and electrons.

Citation

For key contributions to the study of chemical reactivity; research focuses on the development of a fundamental understanding of reactions that involve the transfer of protons and electrons in systems including transition metal complexes, organic molecules, electrocatalysts, colloidal nanocrystals, and interfaces.

Xiuling Lu

Professor Of Pharmaceutics, UConn School Of Pharmacy; Associate Director, Center For Pharmaceutical Processing Research

Elected to the Academy in 2025

Education

Tianjin University of Science & Technology, 1998, BS, Biochemical Engineering; 2001, MS, Fermentation Engineering; National Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2005, PhD, Biochemical Engineering

Professional Areas

Formulation development and assessment, especially nanoparticle-based therapeutics and their product development, tumor-specific drug delivery, image-guided drug delivery and therapy, and translational research.

Citation

For tremendous contributions to enhancing the fundamental understanding and development of complex pharmaceutical systems such as nanoparticle-enabled therapeutics, in-site forming implants for overcoming delivery and treatment barriers for intractable diseases; active in translating potential therapeutics to the clinic and commercialization of nanomedicines.

Chuan-Ju Liu

Charles W. Ohse Professor Of Orthopeadics & Rehabilitation, Yale School Of Medicine

Elected to the Academy in 2025

Education

Shandong University, 1989, BS, Molecular and Cellular Biology; Shandong Medical University, 1992, MS, Biochemistry; Shanghai Institute of Cell Biology, 1996, PhD, Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology

Professional Areas

Musculoskeletal health, particularly inflammation, aging in joints and bones, and skeletal diseases; investigates common conditions like osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and fracture healing, as well as rare diseases such as Gaucher Disease, advancing knowledge in musculoskeletal, autoimmune and lysosomal storage disorders.

Citation

Renowned scientist who has made groundbreaking contributions to musculoskeletal biology, particularly through discoveries of progranulin’s role in inflammatory arthritis and Nav1.7 in osteoarthritis; Innovative research has led to potential therapeutic avenues, high-impact publications, and numerous patents.

Jonathan Lenchner

Senior Technical Staff Member, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

Elected to the Academy in 2025

Education

Dartmouth College, 1981, BA, Mathematics; Cambridge University, 1982, Certificate of Postgraduate Study Part III (MS Equivalent), Mathematics Tripos; Polytechnic Institute of New York University, 2008, PhD, Mathematics

Professional Areas

(i) Computational complexity with an emphasis on mathematical logic, finite model theory and using combinatorial games to separate complexity classes, (ii) combinatorial geometry with applications to robotics, (iii) the applications of game theory, (iv) the interplay between information theory and mathematical logic, and (v) understanding the drivers of employee engagement.

Citation

For advancing theoretical computer science in computational complexity and computational geometry, and practical applications to robotics, professional sports, and the Watson Jeopardy! playing system; dedication to advancing science and engineering in the developing world, promoting lifelong growth and an engaged workforce.

Charles Lee

Robert Alvine Family Endowed Chair And Professor, The Jackson Laboratory

Elected to the Academy in 2025

Education

University of Alberta, 1990, BS, Genetics; 1993, MS, Experimental Pathology; 1996, PhD, Medical Sciences

Professional Areas

Human Genomics; clinical Diagnostics; Cytogenetics; Cancer Genomics; Functional Genomics

Citation

For the discovery of the widespread presence of copy number structural variants in the human genome, transforming the understanding of disease mechanisms and human evolution. Inaugural scientific director of the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine and built a world-class research institution, attracting scientists to Connecticut.

Arvind Krishna

Chairman And Chief Executive Officer, IBM

Elected to the Academy in 2025

Education

Indian Institute of Technology (Kanpur), 1985, BTech, Electrical Engineering; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1987, MS, Electrical Engineering; 1991, PhD, Electrical & Computer Engineering

Professional Areas

Seasoned expertise as a technologist and business leader who drove IBM’s development of transformative technologies, including enterprise-focused data and AI platforms, hybrid cloud software and infrastructure, and quantum computing, Contributions to wireless networking, databases, security, and open technology standards.

Citation

Led a redefinition of the hybrid cloud market, making it the destination for the world’s massive computing needs, and the creation of a business-centric AI platform capable of running and customizing diverse AI models. Pioneered the deployment of 80 quantum systems on which users have run over 3 trillion programs.

Yuval Kluger

Anthony N. Brady Professor Of Pathology, Yale School Of Medicine

Elected to the Academy in 2025

Education

Tel Aviv University, 1984, BSc, Physics; 1987, MSc, Physics; 1992, PhD, Theoretical Physics

Professional Areas

Computational Biology, Machine Learning, Mathematical Modeling, Bioinformatics, Statistical Analysis of High-Dimensional Data, Artificial Intelligence in Biomedicine, with specific expertise in genomics, proteomics, and spatial biology data analysis for disease research. Background in theoretical physics.

Citation

For pioneering contributions to computational biology through general innovative mathematical and artificial intelligence approaches that significantly improve the analysis of genomic and spatial data, enabling discoveries in biomedical research to advance our understanding of complex diseases.

Omer Khan

Professor Of Electrical And Computer Engineering, UConn College Of Engineering

Elected to the Academy in 2025

Education

Michigan State University, 2000, BSc, Electrical and Computer Engineering; University of Massachusetts, 2009, PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Professional Areas

Computer Architecture, Parallel Computing, Heterogeneous Computer Systems, Architecture-Software Interactions, Explainable Artificial Intelligence with Graph Analytics, Security, Privacy, Resilience, Simulating & Building Architecture Prototypes

Citation

For pioneering contributions to computer architecture and methods that exploit parallelism, locality, resiliency, and privacy suitable for high-performance graph intelligence problems, and for contributing open-source simulators, benchmarks, and tools to the broader community to explore futuristic massively parallel microprocessors to solve complex societal problems using graph theoretic algorithms.

Naftali Kaminski

Professor Of Medicine (Pulmonary), Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Elected to the Academy in 2025

Education

Hebrew University – Hadassah Medical School (Biology Medical Sciences), 1985, B, Med Sciences; 1989, MD

Professional Areas

Physician scientist and an expert in pulmonary medicine; main disease expertise Areas is pulmonary fibrosis; Areas of expertise include genomics, transcriptomics, single cell profiling, systems biology, biomarker and drug discovery and molecular and cell biology. Dedicated mentor with superb expertise in medical and research education.

Citation

Award winning pulmonary researcher and leader, who has pioneered the application of high throughput ‘omics’ and systems biology approaches to advanced lung disease; Paradigm shifting research led to the discovery of novel mechanisms, validated biomarkers and therapeutic targets in pulmonary fibrosis.

Erica L. Herzog

John Slade Ely Professor Of Medicine (Pulmonary) And Professor Of Pathology, Yale School Of Medicine

Elected to the Academy in 2025

Education

University of North Carolina, 1993, BA, English; University of North Carolina School of Medicine 1997, MD; Yale University, 2005, PhD, Investigative Medicine

Professional Areas

Chronic lung diseases, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), has led to new insights and therapeutics for the mechanisms of lung injury and repair

Citation

Physician-scientist whose research on chronic lung diseases, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), has led to new insights and therapeutics for the mechanisms of lung injury and repair; Directs the Yale Interstitial Lung Disease Center of Excellence and leads the Yale Office of Student Research.