Colleen B. Jonsson, PhD

Director, iSHPS
Van Vleet Chair of Excellence in Virology
Director, Regional Biocontainment Laboratory
cjonsson@uthsc.edu

As director, Dr. Jonsson focuses on synergizing infectious disease research among an interdisciplinary group of faculty across UTHSC. iSHPS is centered on the model of convergence research and aims to build new relationships across departments and colleges focused on pathogen research critical to the development of new treatments and diagnostics tools. "The convergence approach requires collaboration between research groups, but even more so, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches to problem-solving and the merging of technologies, processes, and devices."
 

Na Seung Yeon

Program Administrator, iSHPS
Grants and Contracts Coordinator, RBL, MIB and Basic Sciences Administration
nyeon@uthsc.edu

Amber Smith, PhD

Core Faculty Member, iSHPS
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Division of Peds Infectious Diseases
amber.smith@uthsc.edu
 
Dr. Smith is a quantitative biologist trained in both applied mathematics and experimental microbiology and immunology. She received her PhD from the mathematical biology program at the University of Utah under the mentorship fo Dr. Fred Adler. She did her postdoctoral training in biophysics and theoretical biology at the Los Alamos National Laboratory with Dr. Alan Perelson and in infectious diseases at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital with Dr. Jon McCullers.