Dr. Guang Song has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure for 2012, along with 13 other faculty in the LAS College.
Song studied theoretical physics for his bachelor's and master's degrees, working on computer modeling and simulation of relativistic heavy-ions collisions. The basic idea is similar to using molecular dynamics (MD) to study the dynamics and functions of biomolecules. He then moved to the field of computer science, studying robotics and motion planning. He soon applied the techniques well developed in robotics to protein folding. His doctoral work (advisor: Nancy M. Amato) on using robotic motion planning to protein folding was novel and was featured in Genome Technology (Nov. 2001 issue) and NSF CISE quarterly newsletter (Sept. 2002) and cited by BBC World (Aug. 2002). His postdoctoral work (advisor: Robert L. Jernigan, 2003-2006) focused on protein motion, dynamics and functions.
His research interests spread over several disciplines: physics, robotics, computer science, and biology. One goal of his research is to gain a deeper understanding of life and its fascinating mechanisms, which orchestrate various components to function together. His current research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of protein functions, for example, how does the structure of a protein facilitate the realization of its functions? How does the binding a ligand open up an ion channel at a remote site? His work thus involves physically and structurally based modelings and simulations.
Congratulations to Dr. Song!