Director
Dr. Mayhan received his Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in 1983. Dr. Mayhan’s dissertation work examined the mechanisms that contribute to changes in microvascular permeability during inflammatory conditions. For this work, Dr. Mayhan received the Young Investigator Award from the Microcirculatory Society. Dr. Mayhan completed a post-doctoral position with Dr. Donald D. Heistad at the University of Iowa from 1983-1985. Dr. Mayhan was promoted to Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa in 1985 and served in that capacity until 1989 when he returned to the University of Nebraska Medical Center into the Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology. He rose through the ranks and was promoted to Professor in 1996 and Vice-Chair of the department in 1999. After 22 years of service to UNMC, Dr. Mayhan was named as the Chair of Cell Biology and Anatomy at the LSU Health Sciences Center-Shreveport in 2011. During his time at LSUHSC-Shreveport, Dr. Mayhan was able to attract high-quality faculty and significantly increase the extramural funding within the department. In 2016, Dr. Mayhan accepted the position of Dean of the Division of Basic Biomedical Sciences at the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine. Dr. Mayhan has successfully revitalized the Division with the addition of many successful researchers and educators. Dr. Mayhan has had continuous support from the National Institutes of Health and other extramural agencies since 1983. He has received numerous awards from local, national and international societies and has been and continues to serve on study sections for various organizations, including the NIH. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles/book chapters/reviews. His current research examines two aspects of endothelial cell control of the cerebral microcirculation, i.e., cellular pathways responsible for governing the permeability of the blood-brain barrier and regulating of basal and agonist-induced tone of cerebral blood vessels during physiologic and pathophysiologic conditions. These studies are critical for understanding the role for neurovascular coupling in the control of cerebral blood flow. The results from these studies are providing new and important information regarding the pathogenesis of cerebrovascular dysfunction during disease states and mechanisms by which disease states may predispose to cognitive dysfunction, and perhaps ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke.
Principal Investigator Team
Dr. Chen has been trained as a surgeon, engineer, and multidisciplinary scientist with a career vision of improving human health, longevity, and quality of life. He joined the faculty of Sanford School of Medicine at the University of South Dakota (USD) in 2021. Dr. Chen’s current research focuses on Synthetic and Systems Biology-Based Technologies for Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine. His research group aims to pioneer next-generation diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for cardiomyopathies by: 1) establishing transformative synthetic biology-inspired technologies for precision diagnosis and programmable cardiovascular protection and regeneration; and 2) combining experimental and computational systems approaches for understanding and perturbing complex signaling cascades in multifactorial cardiomyopathies. Dr. Chen received his B.S. and M.D. degrees from Chung-Shan Medical University in Taiwan. He completed the internship training and served as a resident surgeon before pursuing his master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Chen received Ph.D. in bioengineering under Drs. Bruno Péault and Johnny Huard and completed his postdoctoral associateship with Dr. Yadong Wang at the University of Pittsburgh. He completed NIH-sponsored postdoctoral fellowship and transitional training with Drs. Timothy Lu and Manolis Kellis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Dr. Anthony Rosenzweig at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Chen has over 50 publications, including multiple first- and/or corresponding-author articles published in leading scientific journals such as Nature Communications and Science Advances. He has received multiple extramural awards and grants to support his independent research from sources such as DoD, AHA, and SDBOR.
Prof. KC Santosh—a highly accomplished AI expert and TEDx speaker—is the chair of the Department of Computer Science and the founding director of the AI Research Lab (since 2015) at the University of South Dakota (USD). He also served the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a research fellow and LORIA Research Center as a postdoctoral research scientist, in collaboration with industrial partner, ITESOFT, France. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science—Artificial Intelligence from INRIA Nancy Grand East Research Center (France). With funding exceeding $8 million from sources like DOD, NSF, ED, and SDBOR, he has authored 11 books and more than 250 peer-reviewed research articles, including IEEE TPAMI and TMI. He serves as an associate editor for esteemed journals such as IEEE Transactions on AI, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, Int. J of Machine Learning & Cybernetics, and Int. J of Pattern Recognition & Artificial Intelligence. To name a few, Prof. Santosh is the proud recipient of the Visionary Leadership Award (University of Derby—UK, 2023) Cutler Award for Teaching and Research Excellence (USD, 2021), the President’s Research Excellence Award (USD, 2019), and the Ignite Award from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS, 2014).
Effective from Spring 2024, he joined the NIST AI Safety Institute Consortium and, since December 2024, has been serving in the U.S. Speaker Program (U.S. Department of State), delivering talks on AI and AI education—being the only representative from South Dakota in both roles.
As the founder of AI programs at USD, he has taken significant strides to increase enrollment in the graduate program, resulting in over 3,000% growth in the first three years. His leadership has helped build multiple inter-disciplinary AI/Data Science related academic programs, including collaborations with Biology, Physics, Biomedical Engineering, Sustainability and Business Analytics. Prof. Santosh is highly motivated in academic leadership, and his contributions have established USD as a pioneer in AI programs in the state.
More info: Personal page, YouTube, and TEDx talk
Effective from Spring 2024, he joined the NIST AI Safety Institute Consortium and, since December 2024, has been serving in the U.S. Speaker Program (U.S. Department of State), delivering talks on AI and AI education—being the only representative from South Dakota in both roles.
As the founder of AI programs at USD, he has taken significant strides to increase enrollment in the graduate program, resulting in over 3,000% growth in the first three years. His leadership has helped build multiple inter-disciplinary AI/Data Science related academic programs, including collaborations with Biology, Physics, Biomedical Engineering, Sustainability and Business Analytics. Prof. Santosh is highly motivated in academic leadership, and his contributions have established USD as a pioneer in AI programs in the state.
More info: Personal page, YouTube, and TEDx talk
Dr. McGough received his Bachelor’s degrees in Mathematics and Anthropology in 1985 from the University of Utah. In 1993, he received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Utah under Dr. Klaus Schmitt. In 1994, Dr. McGough served as a post-doctoral fellow in the Mathematical Biology Center working in pattern formation at the University of Utah. From 1994 to 1998, he worked as an Assistant Professor in the Mathematics Department at the University of Reno, Nevada. In 1998, Dr. McGough joined the faculty of the Mathematics and Computer Science Department at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT). In 2018, Computer Science was split out from Mathematics, and he assumed the role of Department Head of the new Computer Science and Engineering department. In 2021, the Electrical Engineering department and Computer Science and Engineering department were merged, and Dr. McGough assumed the Department Head position. Dr. McGough’s research interests span areas in computing, robotics and nonlinear analysis. In computing, he has focused on evolutionary algorithms, parallel computing, particle and swarm methods, and numerical methods for reaction-diffusion equations. In robotics, he has worked in simultaneous localization and mapping, and computer vision. In analysis, he has worked in partial differential equations, bifurcation theory, and variational methods. Dr. McGough has been PI or Co-PI for over $2 million extramural funding from sources such as NSF, NASA, and SDBOR. His current research focuses on bio-inspired algorithms for automated analog circuit design.
