UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Three faculty members, representing three different Penn State colleges, have been named Huck Leadership Fellows for the 2025-26 academic year.
Jill Hamilton, associate professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, director of the Schatz Center in Tree Molecular Genetics and Ibberson Chair of Silviculture Research; Wenrui Hao, professor of mathematics, and Gustavo Nader, professor of kinesiology and Huck Chair in Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Physiology have been selected to participate in the yearlong professional development program, which involves faculty members in high-level decision-making at the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and encourages them to develop projects that contribute to the broader institutional mission.
“It’s incredibly rewarding to see how the Huck Leadership Fellows program continues to grow and evolve,” said Camelia Kantor, research professor and the Huck associate director overseeing the program. “This year’s cohort brings together faculty from three different colleges, each working at the frontiers of their fields. Their selection reflects our continued commitment to fostering interdisciplinary leadership and amplifying the diverse scientific excellence found across Penn State.”
Along with their deeper exposure to strategic Huck processes, each of the fellows has proposed personal projects to advocate. Hamilton, an evolutionary biologist, aims to explore the feasibility of a dual-title graduate degree in this area, while Hao plans to establish a multidisciplinary working group that advances the mathematical foundations of artificial intelligence in the life sciences to make Penn State a leader in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven biomedical research. Nader aims to leverage the fellowship to support two ongoing projects: one in AI-driven biological discovery and a second focused on developing infrastructure and platforms to enhance “deep phenotyping” by integrating whole-body-to-cell physiological phenotypes — an organism's biologically observable traits — with molecular data.
“What excites us most about these fellows is the ambition and diversity of their proposed projects,” Kantor said. “They exemplify Huck’s broad research scope, reflecting the visionary thinking and strategic engagement this program was created to support. Each project is a powerful example of how faculty can shape not only their personal research trajectories but the future of life sciences at Penn State.”
The Huck Leadership Fellows initiative began in 2022-23 and is now in its fourth year. For more information about the Huck Leadership Fellows program, visit the Huck Institutes website.