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University research directory
Research labs at
Arizona State University (Tempe).
Compare 5 listed faculty-led profiles, explore their research interests, and follow the evidence in their selected work. These listings are a starting point for discovery and do not establish recruiting availability.
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Review each lab’s official website and recent publications. Compare the methods used, the questions being asked, and the practical requirements of any published opening. Unclaimed profiles are independently curated; the university has not approved or endorsed them.
How to compare research labs ↗Official university website ↗5 research-led lab profiles
Browse labs by their listed college affiliationChitta Baral Research Group
Arizona State University (Tempe)Chitta Baral · Professor
How can knowledge and reasoning be combined with statistical models to improve language and vision understanding? The laboratory of Cognition and Intelligence develops neuro-symbolic and knowledge-based approaches to natural language understanding, vision-language question answering, and multi-modal document understanding. Projects investigate prompting and programming large language models, bias origins in NLP, efficient low-data methods, and knowledge assimilation for inference. Researchers apply methods spanning symbolic knowledge representation, reasoning frameworks, and machine learning to develop robust, generalizable models for tasks in cybersecurity, robotics, and biological and health sciences. The group maintains publications and a public lab website documenting tools and project outputs.
David Nielsen Research Group
Arizona State University (Tempe)David Nielsen · Professor
Can engineered microbes be reprogrammed to convert renewable feedstocks into fuels and chemicals efficiently at scale? The Nielsen Lab engineers microbial biocatalysts and bioprocesses to convert renewable resources into fuels, chemicals and bioplastics using metabolic engineering and synthetic biology approaches. Projects include pathway engineering, strain optimization, product tolerance enhancement and co-culture systems to improve production from mixed sugars. Methods include heterologous expression, transporter characterization, adaptive laboratory evolution, and integrated bioprocess/product separation designs to enhance yields and robustness. Current projects reported on the lab site highlight applications to CO2 fixation, bicarbonate transporter studies, and bioproduction process integration.
Jacob Adler Research Group
Arizona State University (Tempe)Jacob Adler · Research Assistant Professor
What surface processes and histories on Earth, Mars, and the Moon reveal past habitability and planetary evolution? The Adler Lab applies remote sensing, laboratory experimentation, modeling, and field-based geological analysis to study planetary surface processes and histories relevant to astrobiology. Current projects span comparative planetary geology, experimental simulation of surface processes, and development of remote-sensing methods to infer mineralogy and geomorphology. Researchers combine geologic mapping, GIS/remote-sensing datasets, and numerical modeling to interpret depositional and erosional records across planetary surfaces. The lab maintains a public website summarizing experimental workflows, field studies, and publications in planetary science.
Xiaojun Tian Research Group
Arizona State University (Tempe)Xiaojun Tian · Associate Professor
How do gene regulatory circuits and host growth interactions determine robust cellular behavior in synthetic systems? The Tian Lab combines quantitative experiments, synthetic biology, systems biology, and mathematical modeling to uncover design principles of gene regulatory circuits and engineer programmable cellular behaviors. The group studies mechanisms such as growth-mediated dilution, phase separation, and feedback/feedforward control to stabilize synthetic circuits under host growth conditions. Researchers use experimental molecular biology, synthetic circuit design, and computational nonlinear-dynamics modeling to quantify circuit-host interactions and predict circuit behavior across contexts. Ongoing projects document multi-scale engineering of heterogeneity and host-aware synthetic gene circuits supported by recent NIH and NSF awards.
Xuesong Zhou Research Group
Arizona State University (Tempe)Xuesong Zhou · Professor
How can multimodal transportation planning algorithms be made scalable, accurate, and deployable for large metropolitan systems? The ASU Transportation+AI Lab develops methods for dynamic traffic assignment, traffic estimation and prediction, large-scale routing, and rail scheduling, and implements open-source packages like DTALite, NEXTA, and OSM2GMNS. Projects couple differentiable programming, layered computational graphs, and cross-resolution performance models to integrate traffic state estimation with queue and routing models. Researchers use optimization, nonlinear programming, integer programming, and distributed computing to solve time-dependent routing and timetabling problems for transit and rail. The lab documents deployments and downloads of its open-source tools used by metropolitan planning agencies and state DOTs.
Showing 1–5 of 5 labs