Principal Investigator Bio

Amor A. Menezes is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida, also affiliated with the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, and the Genetics Institute. His research interests lie in the modeling and control of biological processes for medical and space applications. His group uses feedback control to manipulate the concentrations of proteins driving inflammation-mediated coagulation disorders; advances the theory of biomolecular dynamical systems whose states are restricted to non-negative values; designs integrated biomanufacturing systems for Mars deployment; and genetically engineers microbes to reject extreme environments. His research results have been published in the top associated journals, including Science Translational Medicine, Nature Communications, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, and Automatica. His research has also been featured by national and international media outlets, including Science Today (CBS Radio), Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Der Spiegel, and Cosmos Magazine. He was Principal Investigator of three multi-university microbial biomanufacturing experiments launched to the International Space Station on SpaceX CRS-27, SpaceX Crew-7, and SpaceX CRS-31, as well as Science Principal Investigator of NASA's Center for the Utilization of Biological Engineering in Space. 

Dr. Menezes received his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan, and completed postdocs in Aerospace Engineering and Bioengineering at the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley, respectively. He is an NSF CAREER awardee, a past fellow of the Synthetic Biology Leadership Excellence Accelerator Program, and a past fellow of the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative.  He is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Control Systems Society Technology Conference Editorial Board. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and a Member of AIAA, ASME, and ASGSR. His lab is funded by the DoD, NASA, and NSF.