Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering

Brian Munsky, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Colorado State University

Brian Munsky

Associate Professor, Chemical & Biological Engineering

Dr. Brian Munsky joined the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering in January of 2014. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in 2000 and 2002, respectively, and his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2008.

Following his graduate studies, Dr. Munsky worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory — as a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow (2008-2010), as a Richard P. Feynman Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in Theory and Computing (2010-2013), and as a Staff Scientist (2013).

Dr. Munsky is best known for his discovery of Finite State Projection algorithm, which has enabled the efficient study of probability distribution dynamics for stochastic gene regulatory networks. Dr. Munsky’s research interests at CSU are in the integration of stochastic models with single-cell experiments to identify predictive models of gene regulatory systems. Dr. Munsky has received several prestigious grants including the WM Keck Foundation Medical Research Grant, the NIH-NIGMS Maximizing Investigator Research Award, and the NSF CAREER award.

Dr. Munsky is the contact organizer of the internationally recognized, NSF-funded Undergraduate Quantitative Biology (UQ-Bio) summer school, where he runs a 3-week summer course on measurement, analysis, and modeling of single-cell gene regulation (q-bio.org).

Contact Information

Resources

Research Interests

Dr. Munsky is excited about the future of quantitative biology at CSU. He is always interested to meet with new graduate students, undergraduates, postdocs, and collaborators to discuss opportunities for multidisciplinary investigations to integrate experimental and computational analyses with the goal to acquire predictive quantitative understanding of biological systems.

Interested students, postdocs, and collaborators should email him directly or just stop by the Scott Bioengineering building to chat. Students from engineering, computer science, biology, physics, and chemistry are all encouraged to apply.

Take a look at our recent publications to see how interdisciplinary research is changing the way we study biological processes, and let us know if you want to get involved!

Education

  • Ph.D. (2008), University of California at Santa Barbara, Mechanical Engineering
  • M.S. (2002), Pennsylvania State University at University Park, Aerospace Engineering
  • B.S. (2000), Pennsylvania State University at University Park, Aerospace Engineering

 

Other appointments

  • School of Biomedical Engineering, Core Faculty
  • Cell and Molecular Biology, Affiliate

Honors and Awards

  • 2019, NSF CAREER Award, Div Of Molecular and Cellular Bioscience, USA
  • 2019, George T. Abell Outstanding Early-Career Faculty Award, Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
  • 2017, Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA), National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), Bethesda, Maryland, USA
  • 2016, W.M. Keck Foundation Medical Research Grant (co-PI)
  • 2010, Richard P. Feynman Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship