Dr. Jaydev P. Desai is currently a Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory and holds the G.P. “Bud” Peterson and Valerie H. Peterson Faculty Professorship in Pediatric Research. He is also the Associate Chair for Undergraduate studies in BME, Adjunct Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, and founding Director of the Georgia Center for Medical Robotics (GCMR). He completed his undergraduate studies from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, in 1993. He received his MA in Mathematics in 1997 and MSE and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics in 1995 and 1998 respectively, all from the University of Pennsylvania. He was also a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. 

Dr. Desai is a recipient of several NIH R01 grants, NSF CAREER award, and was the lead inventor on the “Outstanding Invention in the Physical Science Category” at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he was formerly employed. He has given numerous Keynote, Plenary, and other invited talks, including an invited talk at the National Academy of Sciences “Distinctive Voices” seminar series. He was also invited to attend the National Academy of Engineering’s U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. Dr. Desai has provided tremendous service to the professional community including the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) and was recently an invited panel member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Panel on Assessment of Military Information Sciences. He is an author on 220 peer-reviewed publications, 6 book chapters, is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Medical Robotics Research, Senior Editor of IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, and Editor-in-Chief of the four-volume Encyclopedia of Medical Robotics. At the 2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), his seminal work in swarm robotics was the finalist for “IEEE RAS Award for the Most Influential Paper from ICRA 1998” (20-years impact). Dr. Desai recently received the 2024 IEEE RAS George Saridis Leadership Award in Robotics and Automation for his foundational work in medical robotics and swarm robotics as well as service to the IEEE RAS. He is also the recipient of the Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award and the 2021 IEEE RAS Distinguished Service Award. His research group has received several accolades including the best student paper award, best symposium paper award, cover image of IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, and featured article in the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. His current research interests are primarily in the areas of endovascular and transcatheter robotics, image-guided surgical robotics, MEMS-based cancer diagnosis, pediatric robotics, and rehabilitation and assistive robotics. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, ASME, and AIMBE.