Candidates for Position of Arkansas Research Alliance Scholar to Present Seminars

Three candidates will be at the University of Arkansas to interview for an Arkansas Research Alliance Scholar position in the area of data science and data analytics. The Arkansas Research Alliance is dedicated to elevating research and public-private partnerships via investment in research that stimulates innovation, encourages collaboration and strengthens economic opportunity. 

The Arkansas Research Alliance Scholars program serves as the cornerstone for the alliance and plays a pivotal role in bridging university research and economic development. Scholars concentrate on Arkansas' strongest and most commercially viable research competencies. Current research projects include drug development, stem cell research and cutting-edge membrane technology. The U of A will leverage the resources from the Arkansas Research Alliance for a senior faculty hire in the area of data science and data analytics.

The three candidates, in order of appearance, are Justin Zhan, Lior Shamir and Mei Chen.

Justin Zhan

Justin Zhan, professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, presented a seminar earlier this month on Big Data Bridge.

Zhan is also an adjunct professor at the School of Medicine and Nevada Institute of Personalized Medicine. His research interests include big data, information assurance, social computing, biomedical computing and health informatics. He has served as a conference general chair, a program chair, a publicity chair, a workshop chair, or a program committee member for over 150 international conferences and an editor-in-chief, an editor, an associate editor, a guest editor, an editorial advisory board member, or an editorial board member for about thirty journals. Zhan has published more than two hundred articles in peer-reviewed journals and conferences and delivered thirty keynote speeches and invited talks. His research has been extensively funded by National Science Foundation, Department of Defense and National Institute of Health. 

Lior Shamir

Lior Shamir, associate professor of computer science and assistant dean for research at Lawrence Technological University, will present a seminar from 8:30-9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 12, in J.B. Hunt Center 149. His topic will be Data Science Methodology and Application to Astronomy, Biology, Medicine, Zoology, Computer Science, and the Humanities.

Shamir received his doctorate in computational science and engineering in 2006 from Michigan Technological University, and was with the NIH Intramural Research Program until 2010. His research is focused on the development of data science methodology that enables data-driven discoveries, and the application of the methodology to real-world data from multiple fields such as astronomy, biology, medicine, psychology, and the humanities. In the past seven years he received over $4M in competitive grants for research, education, inclusion, and instrumentation. He is one of the founders of the Midwest Big Data Hub, a member of international collaborations such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, and a Howard Hughes program director. 

Mei Chen

Mei Chen, associate professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, will present a seminar from 4-5 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 13, in J.B. Hunt Center 148. Her topic is Amplifying Human Capabilities Through Computer Vision.

Chen has served as a principal scientist at Microsoft's AI, Perception, and Mixed Reality group since June 2018. From 2011 to 2014, she built and led the Intel Science and Technology Center on Embedded Computing at Carnegie Mellon University, driving collaborations across four research themes involving seven universities including UC Berkeley, Cornell, UIUC, UPenn, Georgia Tech, UW, and Penn State. Previously, she held researcher and research lead positions at Intel Labs, Hewlett Packard Labs, and SRI Sarnoff Corporation. Mei's work in computer vision and biomedical image analysis were nominated finalists for six Best Paper Awards and won three. While at HP Labs, she successfully transferred her research in computational photography to five hardware and software products that went to market. She earned a doctorate in robotics from the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, and a master's and bachelor's degree from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.