Speakers

Dr. Akshaya Kumar is an Associate Professor of physics at Tuskegee University with more than ten years of undergraduate teaching experience. He has been the recipient of Tuskegee University’s outstanding faculty performance award for teaching and faculty of the year award. His area of research is spectroscopy of rare earth doped glasses and laser induced breakdown spectroscopy.  He is the author of several joint publications in refereed journals and has a patent. Dr. Kumar has been chair and co-chair for several terms in the Physics and Mathematics section of the Alabama Academy of Science. Dr. Kumar’s role in the EVTC program will be to serve as the Tuskegee project co-PI. In this role, he will help in organizing lectures, demonstrations, seminars and providing outreach education activities for Tuskegee University students and for K-12 students and teachers from Tuskegee associated public school systems.

Eric Seabron is an assistant professor at Howard University Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He was born and raised in Baltimore Maryland where he graduated from Randallstown High School. His career began at Morgan State University where he earned a BS degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2013. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign in 2017, where he developed novel scan probe characterization methods to study GaAs nanowires and Carbon Nanotubes. After which, he worked for over three years as a Principal Microelectronic Engineer in a semiconductor fabrication laboratory at Northrop Grumman Corporation in Baltimore Maryland. Before joining HowardU, Dr. Seabron was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow residing at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (Washington, D.C.). from 2020-2021. His research group focuses on 1D/2D nanomaterials growth and devices, Phase Change Chalcogenide Metamaterials, reconfigurable microwave/RF electronics, and polariton physics of hyperbolic optical crystals. His vision for the future is to grow his group to enable high impact research, education outreach, and workforce readiness.

Dr. Hongmei Chi received Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from Florida State University in 2004. She is currently professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the Florida A&M University. She redesigns and teaches various CIS courses via active learning. Her research interests span many areas related to HPC, machine Learning, digital forensics,mobile health security, quantum computing,  and data science Her work in those areas has been published in top journals and conferences. 

Dr. Kayla Lee is a growth product manager at IBM Quantum. In this capacity, she leads strategic initiatives to grow the quantum community with new global partnerships and creates pathways to a diverse and equitable quantum workforce. Kayla joined IBM Quantum in 2018 as an industry consultant, where she worked with Fortune 500 companies to explore potential quantum computing applications across industries, including healthcare & life sciences, financial services, and media & entertainment.

Following an early career in industry as a Sr. research scientist  working in the fields of ultrafast lasers, optical communications, and materials processing, I joined the Center for Ultrafast Optical Sciences (CUOS) to explore light transmission through highly scattering media through light manipulation or wavefront shaping. This newly emerging field of optical wavefront shaping involves the ability to manipulate light fields both spatially and temporally. It has largely been enabled by the availability of spatial light modulators (SLM). SLMs are used to create arbitrarily complex light fields that are now powerful elements of the optics toolbox. An SLM also provides means to manipulate the fundamental constituents of classical light or single photons, which obey the laws of quantum physics.
In my research, i will be using these new tools to explore novel ways to address topics where conventional optical techniques are hard to apply, such as the control of light propagation in biological tissues, complex photonic structures, plasmonic systems, and multimode fibers. My research (https://ngomresearch.com/) will also directly address the core problem of entanglement degradation by developing methods to create and manipulate entangled light fields carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) and related structured light fields. The light fields are manipulated using wavefront shaping techniques in  waveguide e.g. multimode fibers in order to overcome environment induced destruction of coherence.

As Senior Director of Research Development & Strategic Partnerships at Howard University, Pamela plays a critical role in advancing the University’s mission of academic excellence, research innovation, and strategic partnerships. She oversees the design, implementation, and stewardship of research development programs that enhance faculty competitiveness, expand interdisciplinary collaborations, and strengthen the University’s research enterprise. Pamela leads initiatives to increase proposal success rates, elevate Howard’s research profile, and forge sustainable external partnerships.

Pamela plays a key leadership role in developing strategic research partnerships that position Howard University at the forefront of innovation. She works closely with federal agencies, national laboratories, and industry leaders—including Argonne, Brookhaven, Oak Ridge, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratories, as well as IBM, Google, Microsoft, NIH, NSF, and NASA—to advance collaborative research in AI, quantum information science, precision health, microelectronics, and climate science. These partnerships provide access to world-class facilities, expand training opportunities, and enhance faculty research capacity.

Pamela has been instrumental in advancing interdisciplinary research initiatives and major center development at Howard University. Notably, she led the proposal development team that secured the first HBCU University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) from the U.S. Air Force—the Research Institute for Tactical Autonomy (RITA UARC)—positioning Howard as a national leader in defense and autonomous systems research. Her strategic leadership has also supported major initiatives in AI/ML, precision health, microelectronics, and other emerging research domains.

Her expertise lies in building and managing robust research networks that connect educational institutions, federal agencies, industry partners, national laboratories, philanthropic organizations, and community stakeholders. As Strategy and Operations Lead for research development, Pamela develops and manages programs that: Strengthen faculty engagement in research; Provide strategic guidance for competitive proposal development; Support large, complex, and interdisciplinary grant submissions; Identify funding opportunities; and Expand partnerships that bring program officers and decision-makers to campus.

In addition to her leadership in research development, Pamela has conducted scientific research investigating the molecular mechanisms of endocrine resistance in breast cancer, focusing on how cancer cells adapt to systemic endocrine and cytotoxic therapies and the roles of hormones and growth factors in tumor progression. Pamela is the PI of the Chan Zuckerberg Initative, Accelerating Precision Health grant to further support the cutting-edge scientific research at Howard University to address significant gaps in genomics research, create new tools and methods to prevent and treat disease, and accelerate precision health for everyone.

Pamela holds a Master’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Georgetown University and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology (Cellular and Molecular) from Howard University. Her strategic vision, commitment to research excellence, and passion for empowering faculty and students make her a driving force behind the continued growth of Howard University’s research enterprise and its national impact.

A chemical engineer, biophysics researcher, physician, orthopedic surgeon, health scientist, Dr. Samuel is known for his interinstitutional and transdisciplinary collaboration on research and education programs. 

From 2013 to 2017, he served as Contact Principal Investigator on a large ($3,000,000 per year; $13,500,000 over 5-year project period) NIH-funded Cooperative Agreement, the Hampton University-based Minority Men’s Health Initiative (MMHI). A major component of the MMHI was an innovative Pilot Project Program that catalyzed the entry of new investigators at participating HBCUs to develop strong capabilities in minority men's health disparities research. 

Dr. Su Yan received his B.S. degree in Electromagnetics and Microwave Technology from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China, in 2005, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC), Urbana, IL, USA, in 2012 and 2016, respectively.

From August 2016 to July 2018, Dr. Yan worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate and Instructor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UIUC. In August 2018, he joined the Howard University in Washington, DC, USA, as an Assistant Professor, and was promoted to Associate Professor in August 2024. In June 2020, Dr. Yan was appointed Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Howard University. Since October 2023, he has served as Director of the IBM-HBCU Quantum Center. He has authored or co-authored over 120 papers in refereed journals and conferences, contributed to three book chapters, and edited one book. His research interests include nonlinear electromagnetics and multiphysics problems, extreme-scale and multi-scale algorithms for electromagnetic scattering and radiation, numerical methods in electromagnetic design and optimization, computational imaging, and the application of machine learning in scientific computing.

Dr. Yan is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a Full Member of the US National Committee for the International Union of Radio Science (USNC-URSI) Commission B, a Full Member of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE), and a Life Member of the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES). He was a recipient of the DOE Early Career Award in 2024, the NSF Early Career Award in 2023, and the ACES Early Career Award in 2020 for his contributions to linear and nonlinear electromagnetic and multiphysics modeling and simulation methods. Additionally, he was the recipient of the Up and Coming Researcher of the Year Award by Howard University as one of its  Inaugural Excellence in Innovation and Academic Achievement Awards in 2025, and the P. D. Coleman Outstanding Research Award and the Yuen T. Lo Outstanding Research Award by UIUC in 2015 and 2014, respectively. Dr. Yan also received the Edward E. Altschuler AP-S Magazine Prize Paper Award from the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society in 2020, the Best Student Paper Award (The First Place Winner) at the IEEE ICWITS/ACES 2016 Conference in Honolulu, HI, USA, the USNC/URSI Travel Fellowship Grant Award from the National Academies in 2015, the Best Student Paper Award (The First Place Winner) at the 27th International Review of Progress in ACES in Williamsburg, VA, USA, in 2011, and the Best Student Paper Award from the IEEE Chengdu Section in 2010. He serves on the Board of Directors for ACES from 2024 to 2027, is an Associate Editor for IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letter, IEEE Access, and the International Journal of Numerical Modelling: Electronic Networks, Devices and Fields, and a Reviewer for multiple journals and conferences. He also served as a Chair/Member of Organizing Committee, Technical Program Committee, and Session Organizer for numerous international conferences.

Condensed Matter Physics & Materials Science

My general area of expertise is in theoretical and computational condensed matter physics. My research works are predicting the new quantum materials using artificial intelligence and studying the new quantum states of those quantum materials. These quantum materials might open exciting new directions for research and eventually lead us to optimized high quality, energy-efficient nanodevices and possible quantum computers. In general, my current research focus can be divided into three areas: (1) quantum information and computing, (2) exploration of the properties of quantum materials, and (3) materials genome using artificial intelligence.

Thomas A. Searles currently serves as an Associate Professor in the Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago, hired under the University of Illinois System Distinguished Faculty Recruitment Program.  This past year (20-21), he was a Martin Luther King Visiting Professor at MIT and served as the Director of the IBM-HBCU Quantum Center.  Thomas received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Rice University in 2011, where his thesis work primarily focused on the magneto-optical properties of carbon nanotubes. Upon his appointment at Howard University in the Fall of 2015,  Thomas has established a new research program in applied and materials physics, which now focuses on quantum materials, metamaterials and quantum information science and engineering at UIC.  In recognition for his research in light-matter interactions and his capability to train and mentor Black students in Physics and Engineering, Thomas was recently awarded the inaugural AIP-NSBP Joseph A. Johnson Award for Excellence and an NSF CAREER Award.   Thomas graduated from Morehouse College with a B.S. in Mathematics and Physics. He is a native of Albany, GA.

Dr. Wesley Sims '09, assistant professor of physics at Morehouse College, continues to make significant strides in the field of quantum optics and photonics. Recognized as one of the inaugural recipients of the IBM-SPIE HBCU Faculty Accelerator Award in Quantum Optics and Photonics, Dr. Sims is helping to elevate Morehouse College as a hub for cutting-edge quantum research. This $100,000 annual award, jointly presented by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, and the IBM-HBCU Quantum Center, highlights Dr. Sims’ groundbreaking contributions to the field.