UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For the 2024-25 academic year, the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences has appointed Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Scott Medina, Professor of Statistics Lingzhou Xue and Associate Professor of Surgery Dino Ravnic to be Huck Leadership Fellows.
The Huck Leadership Fellows program, launched in 2022, is a year-long professional development opportunity for faculty members to experience and contribute to senior institutional leadership.
"The selection of these fellows was based on their innovative approaches and their potential to enhance our research and leadership capabilities significantly," said Camelia Kantor, Huck associate director for Strategic Initiatives. "Their expertise in bio-nanomedicine, artificial intelligence, and regenerative medicine not only stands on its own but also intersects in ways that will foster robust support and collaboration among the fellows. This synergy is poised to strengthen our leadership pipeline and position Penn State for groundbreaking interdisciplinary achievements."
Medina will use his fellowship appointment to develop a consortium of Huck-affiliated Engineering, Biology, Chemistry and Materials Science program faculty towards establishing an NIH-funded Center for Bio-Nanomedicine, with a focus on advancing nanotechnologies for gene editing.
“During the fellow period, my goal is to better understand how this center can integrate, serve, and advance the currently disparate research programs of nanomedicine faculty on campus,” said Medina. “The impact of this work will be realized through the development of a bio-nanomedicine hub on campus that will advance new opportunities in precision medicine.”
Xue plans to focus on catalyzing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) methods and tools to tackle complex challenges in the life sciences.
“In the past decade, I have expanded my research interest from the development of new methods and theory in statistical and machine learning to interdisciplinary research in biomedical data science,” Xue said. “I am eager to facilitate collaborations between AI researchers and Huck scientists to solve real-world problems in interdisciplinary life science research. I look forward to working with Huck faculty, postdocs and graduate students to explore new AI methods and tools to advance our research paradigms.”
Ravnic hopes to expand the University’s footprint within regenerative medicine/engineering and establish a translational pipeline towards improving patient care.
“Biomedical engineering is having an ever-expanding impact on patient care and its importance can be appreciated by more of our students taking up studies within it,” said Ravnic. “As a Huck Leadership Fellow, I will leverage Penn State’s expertise within biomedical engineering to address real world clinical problems, with particular focus on reconstructive surgery and tissue engineering.”
Neela Yennawar, research professor and director of Huck’s Automated Calorimetry and X-Ray Crystallography core facilities, and Scott Lindner, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, served as fellows during the 2023-24 academic year.
“The Huck leadership opportunity offered me a platform for personal growth and development, allowing me to hone on skills in strategic planning, communication and decision-making,” said Yennawar. “It fostered a sense of confidence and self-assurance in my abilities to build a large team around a new state-of-the-art technology: the Lumicks single molecule biophysics C-Trap capability. From a broader perspective, the Huck leadership has driven me to reach out to my colleagues in other Huck facilities for positive change, inspiring others to action, and cultivate a culture of collaboration and innovation within our cores.”
“As a member of the Huck’s executive team, we have extensively discussed and guided key recruitment, education, and outreach efforts,” said Lindner. “I have also focused my work as a fellow on how we can shape graduate education to meet the current values and priorities of biotech, pharma, and consulting organizations that increasingly hire our graduates. Together, being a Huck Leadership Fellow has provided an invaluable opportunity to grow as an academic leader and contribute to Huck’s mission of catalyzing research excellence. I am excited for all the incoming fellows and the strengths and vision they will bring to the Huck Institutes this coming year.”
For more information about the Huck Leadership Fellows program, visit the Huck Institutes website.