Q&A: Dr. Vamsy Chodavarapu

Being a professor is not merely his profession but his passion. Through his determination and hard work, Dr. Chodavarapu is an inspiration for many students. Here, he unravels the wonders of Bio-engineering and gives us a peak into the life of a professor.

How did you get to where you are right now? 

I did my Undergraduate studies in Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering which deals with studying and understanding electronic measurement techniques, sensor technologies, and sensor signal processing. At that time, the area of microsensors was not as advanced as today, most of the sensors were still bulky in size and the ability to use microsensors for chemistry, biology, and medical applications had not matured yet. After finishing my Undergraduate studies in 2001 in India, I joined University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York where I did my Masters and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering. After completing my PhD degree, I looked for some opportunities in academia and found one at McGill. When I started my Graduate studies, becoming a professor was not my first choice because I actually did not know what a professor career would involve. But, my supervisor, Prof. Alexander Cartwright, was a great inspiration to me. He portrayed the profession as something far more interesting than a career in industry. In academia, every day brings new opportunities and you get to meet some amazing students and researchers and work on projects which you are truly passionate about.

What are your day-to-day responsibilities? 

In an academic career no two days are alike. For any research intensive universities like McGill, there are three roles to perform: research, teaching and administration. At an Assistant Professor level, the research, teaching and mentoring responsibilities are more important. And both research and teaching responsibilities are equally important.

As a professor how do you contribute to research? 

There are many ways to contribute towards research which include publishing of research articles, presenting at international conferences, and training of students and researchers. A professor prepares research proposals to attract funding from Government and Industry. This funding is used to financially support students and researchers who work with the professor to pursue various research activities. Undergraduate and Graduate students, and Post-Doctoral Fellows pursue research activities as part of their summer projects, thesis and research projects. The projects are commonly defined by the Professor supervising the students, but occasionally students think of a brilliant idea or a new discovery which becomes their topic of future research. Post-Doctoral fellows are people who have completed their PhD and want to continue their research for a few years before they enter into industrial or academic careers.

Is it required to do a Post-Doctoral fellowship to become a professor? 

I have not done a Post-Doctoral fellowship. But doing a post-doctoral fellowship before pursuing full-time professorship is becoming more common. Post-doctoral fellowship is a semi-independent research career during which the person not only helps in supervising the research of other students working in the laboratory but also undertakes some research projects independently with minimal supervision by the Professor. For Engineering Departments, it is not compulsory to do one before applying as professor. But, recently we notice that having a Post-Doctoral experience is useful to compete for professorial positions. This is because professorial positions are very scarce. Usually, there is only one opening in any department at a given time and there are many suitable candidates to make a selection.

Would you recommend an undergraduate student to follow this as a career option? 

Yes! When I was a student, I never imagined I would be a Professor. So, I think it’s the role of a Professor to inspire his/her students to follow in his/her footsteps. My recent PhD graduate is now an Assistant Professor and I am very happy about it.

My graduate studies supervisor was my biggest inspiration. He encouraged me to lead an academic career. During my graduate studies, I do not know what he saw in me, but he said I would be a good professor one day! To be a professor, you need to be very creative in work. You will never feel bored in this job. It is great fun to work with students. A Professor will need to raise money through grants and fellowships to support research projects. The quality and originally of the research plays a big role in attracting these grants. The Professor’s output is in terms of patents, publications and student training. Also, you can choose your own research path. If you like something interesting or find something new, you can start to work on it without any constraints.

Your background is Electrical Engineering. How did you come up with the idea of specializing in Bio-Engineering? 

Electrical Engineering covers many areas including microelectronics, power engineering, communications, signal processing, and photonics. It is what we call one of the pillars of modern day Engineering. I am trying to apply the principles of Electrical Engineering to applications in chemistry, biology, and medicine. The areas of Bio-Engineering and Bio-Electronics have been around for many years.

This area is attracting significant attention due to the increasing concern to maintain good human health given that a greater percentage of population is aging along with an increasing rate of chronic diseases. Nanotechnology is another promising area that is emerging as part of Electrical Engineering. Also, it is important to note that multi-disciplinary research is more common these days where the research activities covers several disciplines and not just limited to Electrical Engineering.

Why is Bio-Engineering so interesting these days? 

This is because maintenance of good human health is very important. Majority of population is aging and many chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiac problems, and diabetes are increasing. So, it is increasingly important to develop new devices and systems that would improve and maintain good quality of human life. And, I think that Electrical Engineering provides excellent technologies and platforms to develop sensors and other biomedical microdevices for these applications. In addition to biomedical diagnostics, bioengineering covers many other areas includes environmental monitoring, food/personal safety, prosthetic devices, therapeutics, and rehabilitation.

Can you elaborate on some of the projects in your lab? 

Research in my lab covers materials, devices, and systems. We do integrated circuits for sensor signal detection, biomedical microdevices, nanomaterials, and chemical microsensors. My current active research projects include bacterial biosensors, glucose biosensors, and neural prosthetics.

There are many recent reports of hospital borne infections and food poisoning caused by pathogenic bacteria. If we develop hand-held scale and miniaturized devices that are easy to use for bacteria sensing, it would be of great use to people and would also hold great commercial potential. Working with Prof. Mark Trifiro, Professor in Department of Medicine, we are developing ultra high-throughput bacterial biosensors and high-sensitive miniaturized bacterial biosensors. Many of these systems are currently being commercialized and are being purchased by Universities and Industries across North America.

Again working with Prof. Mark Trifiro, we have a major research project on glucose sensors for diabetics. Diabetes and its related diseases take 10% of all health care expenditures in Canada. Here, we are working on an implantable, replenishable, real-time, and long lasting glucose biosensor. We are working on silicon neural prosthetics for brain-machine interfaces with Prof. Sam Musallam, Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering. This is to help paralyzed patients gain motor control. We provide silicon neural electrodes to Prof. Musallam, who uses these electrodes to research new ways to record signals from the brain to control robotic arms and limbs, which are useful in providing motor functions to paralyzed patients.

How important is interdisciplinary research in our contemporary days? 

I think that multidisciplinary research is where you will see a lot of innovation happening in recent times. Students in my group collaborate with several local hospitals including The Montreal’s General Hospital where we are trying to develop orthopaedic implants with Prof. Janet Henderson and Dr. Ed Harvey. We work with Prof. Frank Bright, Department of Chemistry at University at Buffalo, to develop new sol-gel derived chemical sensors. I was trained in a very multidisciplinary environment and I am trying to do the same in my lab. All my education was in Engineering, so I did not take many biology or chemistry courses. But, working in a multidisciplinary environment, you learn a lot about the other fields. During my graduate research, I spent more time in chemistry and biology labs then in my own engineering lab!  And, that is how I obtained knowledge in chemistry and life sciences. So, my students are getting trained in such an environment as well.

Most undergraduates are reluctant to step out of their own field. How easy is it to adapt to a completely new field? 

I agree that it is hard at the beginning. When I started my PhD studies, I was developing implantable electrochemical pH sensors. These sensors were implanted in small animals to monitor heart rhythms. I was once invited to attend a surgical implantation of a sensor device in a small animal and I was not able to attend the complete procedure as I have never been in a surgical theater before. It is difficult to get used to it. But, after some time you become comfortable with it. It is important to understand that whatever you are developing by collaborating with other disciplines, it will ultimately be useful in improving the lives of people.

How does it work when you are a new professor and have no students yet? 

Starting an independent career as a new and young professor is quite hard because you have nothing else other than a vacant lab space and a mind full of ideas. The University provides an initial small grant to help the Professor get started. But attracting external funding is very important and crucial for my research area as experimental work is very expensive to pursue. I need to pay for materials and facilities usage along with student stipends. Once the lab is constructed, students start to join the lab and the research then beings to start.

How does funding work for new professors? 

In Canada, we have infrastructure grants that help a new professor set up his research lab for the first few years. Once the lab is ready, you are expected to do research, train students and publish articles. There are federal and provincial funding agencies which provide grants based on the area and quality of research.  A Professor writes research proposals and it takes a large amount of Professor’s time. A research proposal is a document that explains the project the Professor intends to work for the coming years. You have to propose something that is very novel and that no one else in working; so it brings out creativity again.

What does a university base on to hire a professor? 

The selection is mostly based on the number of research publications, experience in student mentoring, research area, and quality of research journals that are published. The University and the Department look to see whether the candidate’s research area fits the strategic plan of the University. When I joined McGill in 2006, there was an opening for bioelectronics area and so I was selected.

What would you say is the main difference between academia and industry? 

You get total freedom in academia. No matter where you do R&D in Industry it is always oriented towards a specific project with strict guidelines. You are rarely allowed to think outside of that. But, as a professor, you are free to think about any idea. That freedom is important. You have no one telling you what you can and cannot work on. That does not mean there is any less pressure in academia! A professor has to obtain research funding to support projects and students