UCLA Samueli New Faculty
As part of the school’s continued expansion to meet the growing demand from students and industry, UCLA Samueli has recruited two dozen new faculty members in FY 2024–2025 with expertise spanning AI/machine learning, network systems, semiconductors, sustainable transportation, gene editing, genomics, autonomous robotics and beyond. Following is a brief introduction to the new faculty.
Mohamad Abedi
Assistant Professor
Bioengineering
July 2026
- Computational protein engineering to control cell signaling and advance cell therapies
- Currently a postdoc at University of Washington
- Ph.D. from Caltech
Alberto Casillas-Trasvina
Assistant Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering
November 2025
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Hydrogeology and hydrochemistry for groundwater modelling
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Previously a lecturer and researcher at Technical University Berlin
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Ph.D. from University of Ghent, Belgium
Jason Choi
Assistant Professor
Electrical and Computer Engineering
November 2025
- Safer decisions in autonomous physical systems
- Currently a visiting scholar at Stanford
- Ph.D. from UC Berkeley
Hooman Darabi
Assistant Teaching Professor
Electrical and Computer Engineering
July 2025
- Next-gen cellular and connectivity radios
- Previously taught circuit design classes at UCLA for more than 20 years as a lecturer and adjunct professor
- Broadcom Fellow
- Ph.D. from UCLA
Pedro de Souza
Assistant Professor
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
March 2026
- Mechanisms of colloid assembly
- Currently a postdoc at Princeton
- Ph.D. from MIT
Yangruibo (Robin) Ding
Assistant Professor
Computer Science
July 2026
- Large language models for generating, analyzing and refining software
- Previous experience with Google DeepMind, Amazon AI Labs, IBM Research
- Ph.D. from Columbia
Tobias Dürschmid
Assistant Teaching Professor
Computer Science
July 2025
- Complex software systems
- Previously designed two courses on application programing interface (required for M.S.) and large-scale software systems (an elective for B.S. and M.S. students)
- Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon
Md Shafayat Hossain
Assistant Professor
Materials Science and Engineering
July 2025
- Nanoscale interactions at ultra-low temperatures and in high magnetic fields
- Postdoc at Princeton
- Ph.D. from Princeton
Allen Jiang
Assistant Professor
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
July 2027
- mRNA technologies and gene editing for treatment of disease
- Currently a postdoc at the Broad Institute of Harvard/MIT
- Ph.D. from MIT
Youngseo Kim
Assistant Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering
July 2025
- Network systems theory for multimodal, coordinated transportation systems
- Part of Federal Highway-funded Mobility Center
- Ph.D. from Cornell
Yue Liu
Assistant Professor
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
July 2025
- Micromechanical devices that interface with the human body
- Postdoc at MIT and a researcher at Michigan
- Ph.D. from Brown
Ying Sheng
Assistant Professor
Computer Science
July 2026
- Efficient LLMs and automated reasoning models
- Co-founder and director of LMSYS.org, non-profit to make AI more accessible
- Ph.D. from Stanford
Fang-Yi “Ida” Su
Assistant Professor
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
November 2025
- In vivo engineering the immune system’s
T cells - Currently a postdoc at Georgia Tech
- Ph.D. from University of Washington
Nathan Szymanski
Assistant Professor
Materials Science and Engineering
November 2025
- Theoretical simulations to develop next-generation energy storage materials
- Currently a postdoc at University of Minnesota
- Ph.D. from UC Berkeley
Shahriar Talebi
Assistant Professor
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
July 2025
- Decision-making in dynamic, noisy and uncertain systems
- Postdoc at Harvard
- Ph.D. from University of Washington
Chen Tang
Assistant Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering
November 2025
- Autonomous robotic systems for human-centered environments
- Currently a postdoc at UT Austin
- Will be part of Federal Highway-funded Mobility Center
- Ph.D. from UC Berkeley
Yosuke Tanigawa
Assistant Professor
Bioengineering
July 2025
- Statistical methods to analyze the human genome
- Previously a research scientist at MIT
- Ph.D. from Stanford
Luca Vialetto
Assistant Professor
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
July 2026
- Plasma modelling including, how they interact and chemically react with other surfaces and materials
- Currently a postdoc at Stanford
- Ph.D. from Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands
Tiwei Wei
Assistant Professor
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
July 2025
- Processing, materials and architecture development for future semiconductor interconnects and packaging technologies
- Will be associate director for CHIPS
- Previously an assistant professor at Purdue University, and a postdoc at Stanford
- Ph.D. from KU Leuven, Belgium
Sean Yamada-Hunter
Assistant Professor
Bioengineering
November 2025
- Engineering proteins for use in cellular immunotherapy
- Currently a postdoc at Stanford and a researcher with Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy
- Ph.D. from Stanford, B.S. from UCLA
J.D. Zamfirescu-Pereira
Assistant Professor
Computer Science
November 2025
- Human-AI interactions for design
- 13-year industry experience before starting Ph.D., including at Google, and co-founding a startup that was acquired by Google
- Ph.D. from UC Berkeley
Jason Zhang
Assistant Professor
Bioengineering
November 2025
- Cell signaling by engineering new molecular tools
- Currently a postdoc at University of Washington
- Ph.D. from UC Berkeley
Lianmin Zheng
Assistant Professor
Computer Science
July 2026
- Systems to train large language models
- Currently a member of xAI technical staff
- Ph.D. from UC Berkeley
Yu Zheng*
Assistant Professor
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
March 2026
*(Offer declined for personal reasons after initial acceptance)
- Polymer networks for novel materials and soft electronics
- Currently a postdoc at MIT
- Ph.D. from Stanford