Jonsson School Faculty Celebrate Investiture at 2026 University Ceremony
Outstanding researchers from the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, representing a variety of disciplines, were formally honored at The University of Texas at Dallas’ Investiture Ceremony in April.
Investiture is the highest honor the University can bestow, and it provides high-caliber faculty with additional funding to support their research. University leaders, including President Prabhas V. Moghe and Provost Inga H. Musselman, recognized each faculty recipient, and Dr. Poras T. Balsara, vice dean of the Jonsson School, awarded medallions to Jonsson School recipients.
Five Jonsson School faculty members were invested in 2026, including Dr. Leonidas Bleris, Texas Instruments Bioengineering Chair; Dr. Babu Chalamala, Jonsson School Distinguished Chair; Dr. Feng Chen, Fellow, Eugene McDermott Distinguished Professor; Dr. Caroline Jones, Fellow, Eugene McDermott Distinguished Professor, who will be recognized at a later ceremony; and Dr. Girgis Obaid, Fellow, Texas Instruments Catalyst Professor.
Chalamala, professor of materials science and engineering and of electrical and computer engineering, was introduced first by Dr. Bruce Gnade, professor emeritus of materials science and engineering and former Distinguished Chair in Microelectronics.
Gnade noted that he met Chalamala nearly 30 years ago when Chalamala was a PhD student in physics at the University of North Texas.
Chalamala spent nearly 20 years working in industrial research and development, then another 10 years in leadership roles at Sandia National Laboratories. He worked with Gnade, now also director of workforce development at the University’s North Texas Semiconductor Institute (NTxSi), at Texas Instruments early in his career and continued to collaborate with Gnade over the next 30 years.
“Throughout my career, I have been very fortunate to have great colleagues, mentors and collaborators around the world, and I’m truly grateful for the privilege of knowing so many remarkable people,” Chalamala said. “I also want to thank my wife and our two children for their support — life hasn’t been easy for them, and I owe them a great deal.”
He continued, “Here at UT Dallas, my goal is to help build a globally competitive research institute in power electronics and energy technologies and to help the school become a center of excellence in energy-related research and transformative technologies. I’m thankful to the university leadership for this honor.”
Chalamala was followed by Dr. Feng Chen, associate professor of computer science, who was introduced by Chen Zhao PhD’21, an assistant professor at Baylor University. Chen was Zhao’s faculty mentor and dissertation advisor during her PhD program.
“Since joining UT Dallas in 2019, I have felt very fortunate to be part of a community that values ambition, innovation and collaboration,” Chen said. “It has been a wonderful place to grow as a researcher, teacher and mentor. My work focuses on trustworthy artificial intelligence, and I’m grateful to be at a university that supports both rigorous research and meaningful student mentorship.”
Chen said, “I would like to thank my family — especially my wife Yuanyuan and my son Nathan, both of whom are here today. Their love, support and encouragement have meant everything to me.”
Next, Nimit Shah, a PhD student at UT Dallas, introduced his faculty advisor, Dr. Girgis Obaid, an assistant professor of bioengineering, who emphasized the research’s purpose.
“We do this for something bigger — for the greater good of humanity,” Obaid said. “That’s not just for me and not just for the incredible UTD Obaid Lab for Molecular Imaging and Optical Nanotherapeutics students but for everyone — my family, my incredible wife Mariann, who gave up quite a lot for us to be here and for all the cancer patients we hope to one day help. I’m thrilled to be at UT Dallas, not because of where we are now, but because of where we’re headed.”
Finally, Dr. Yi Li, past research scientist in the Bleris Lab and assistant professor of bioengineering at UT Dallas, introduced Bleris, professor of bioengineering, his faculty mentor.
“I will echo a sentiment that others have expressed today: the freedom to perform experiments is truly the greatest opportunity here,” Bleris said. “I’m grateful to Dr. Prasad, head of the Department of Bioengineering, to Jonsson School Dean Stephanie Adams and Dr. Balsara and to my colleagues and collaborators who have believed in what we’re building together. It’s an extraordinary time to be a bioengineer.”
Biographies
Dr. Leonidas Bleris
Texas Instruments Bioengineering Chair
Dr. Leonidas Bleris is a pioneer in synthetic biology and genome editing who investigates genetic circuits in human cells. Some of his recent breakthroughs include creating CRISPR-engineered models of solitary fibrous tumors and identifying promising treatment strategies for this rare sarcoma. His lab also developed genetic Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs), leveraging genome editing to embed tamper-proof molecular ‘fingerprints’ into engineered cell lines for authentication and IP protection.
Bleris’ research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), including an NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. Previously, Bleris was a visiting scientist and postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Systems Biology at Harvard University. In 2015, he was awarded the Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellowship from the National Academy of Sciences and served on the Board of Mathematical Sciences and Their Applications.
Dr. Babu Chalamala
Jonsson School Distinguished Chair
Dr. Babu Chalamala is a leader in grid energy storage research. With more than three decades of experience spanning fundamental research, industry leadership and energy policy, he is positioned to help define UT Dallas as a national leader in energy storage and grid technologies and to help shape the future electric grid.
Chalamala was a senior scientist at Sandia National Laboratories before joining the Jonsson School in 2026. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Materials Research Society (MRS) and the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).
Dr. Feng Chen
Fellow, Eugene McDermott Distinguished Professor
Dr. Feng Chen’s research focuses on AI safety and ethics, including creating responsible machine learning techniques and building resilient AI systems. His research focuses primarily on robust AI for out-of-distribution detection and generalization, uncertainty quantification and reasoning in AI safety and algorithmic fairness and equity in AI, with applications across a broad range of sectors. Chen received an NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. Prior to joining UT Dallas, Chen served as an assistant professor at the University of Albany, SUNY.
Dr. Girgis Obaid
Fellow, Texas Instruments Catalyst Professor
Dr. Girgis Obaid develops light-activated cancer therapies to eliminate tumors. He focuses on molecular nanomedicine and photodynamic approaches to curing cancer that stimulate the immune system. In one collaboration with UT Southwestern Medical Center, Obaid developed an enhanced photodynamic immunotherapy to treat stomach cancer. In a separate project, Obaid is leveraging a light-activated method to improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy and immunotherapy in people with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
Obaid’s work is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) as well as the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas.
