Four Malone Center members and their collaborative research teams have been chosen to receive 2025 Johns Hopkins Discovery Awards. Chosen from 274 proposals, Muyinatu A. Lediju Bell, Kimia Ghobadi, Harold P. Lehmann, and Tin Yan “Alvin” Liu are among 150 individuals on the 39 multidisciplinary endeavors that have been selected to receive support this year.
The Discovery Awards program was announced in early 2015, as was the Catalyst Awards program for early-career researchers. Together the two programs represent a $45 million university commitment by university leadership, along with the deans and directors of JHU’s divisions, to faculty-led research.
The Discovery Awards are intended to spark new interactions among investigators across the university rather than to support established projects. Teams can apply for up to $150,000 to explore a new area of collaborative work with special emphasis on preparing for an externally funded large-scale grant or cooperative agreement.
Muyinatu A. Lediju Bell.
As the John C. Malone Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Bell leads a highly interdisciplinary research program that integrates optics, acoustics, robotics, electronics, and mechanics—as well as signal processing and medical device design—to engineer and deploy innovative biomedical imaging systems that simultaneously address unmet clinical needs and significantly improve the standard of patient care. Joined by Preeti Raghavan—the Sheikh Khalifa Stroke Institute Professor of Stroke Treatment, Recovery, and Rehabilitation in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine—and Kris Chesky, the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in Performing Arts Health, Bell will work on “MUSCLE-AID: AI-Driven Wearable Muscle Ultrasound Sensors to Detect Overuse Injury.”
Kimia Ghobadi.
Ghobadi’s research interests lie in using mathematical models, optimization, and analytics to solve problems in complex systems. The John C. Malone Assistant Professor in Civil and Systems Engineering, she is particularly interested in solving health care problems that are implementable and have a meaningful impact on society. She will work with Erik Hoyer, an associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the School of Medicine, and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory researchers Danielle Howe, Lee Stearns, and Alan Ravitz on “Smart Room Monitoring: AI-Powered 3D Simulation for Multi-Factor Fall Hazard Detection in Healthcare Settings.”
Harold P. Lehmann.
Lehmann’s research interests include real-world evidence, evidence-based medicine and decision-making, decision analysis, and Bayesian and computable scientific communication. He will research “Transforming Hypertension Care Through Artificial Intelligence: A Multi-Divisional Initiative Enabling Clinicians to Drive Precision Population Health Improvements” with Johns Hopkins School of Nursing faculty Yvonne Commodore-Mensah and Oluwabunmi Ogungbe; Alhassan Yasin, a lecturer for the Whiting School’s Engineering for Professionals program and a senior research scientist at APL; Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Equity in Health and Healthcare Lisa Cooper; Serwaa Karikari, an assistant professor of practice in marketing at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School; and Judith Lee Greengold, an instructor at the School of Medicine.
Tin Yan “Alvin“ Liu.
Liu’s research interests center on the application of artificial intelligence in the screening, diagnosis, prognostication and treatment of ophthalmic diseases, with a specific focus on vitreoretinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. Along with Aaron Carass, an assistant research scientist in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and William B. Kouwenhoven Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Jerry Prince, Liu will explore “Hyperreflective Foci Analysis in Optical Coherence Tomography.”