Yonatan Chemla joins UC Santa Barbara as an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering, founding the Chemla Lab on March 1, 2027. He is currently a Research Scientist in the Voigt Lab at MIT, Department of Biological Engineering, and is recruiting the lab's founding members now — see how to join.
The Department of Bioengineering
UC Santa Barbara's Department of Bioengineering is a hub for research and teaching at the interface of biology, engineering, and the physical sciences — building on UCSB's renowned strengths in biophysics, biomaterials, biomolecular discovery, and computational and experimental systems biology. It sits within the Robert Mehrabian College of Engineering, consistently ranked among the world's leading engineering schools.
The department's collaborative, interdisciplinary culture is a natural home for the Chemla Lab's work spanning mRNA design, hyperspectral reporters, and engineered microbes in the field.
The Bioengineering Building
The department is housed in the Bioengineering Building (Building 512) on the central UCSB campus — just east of the Davidson Library. The three-story, ~48,000 sq ft, LEED-Silver building holds research labs, faculty and graduate offices, and a 100-seat auditorium.
Address: Bioengineering Building, 494 UCEN Rd, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 · Department location & directions · Open in Google Maps
Santa Barbara
UCSB sits on a bluff above the Pacific in Santa Barbara, California — a coastal setting that puts soil, water, and coastal ecosystems, the very environments the lab engineers for, right outside the door.
Want to be part of the founding cohort?
Bioengineering Building photograph courtesy of the Chemla Lab. Other campus photographs via Wikimedia Commons, reused under their respective licenses: “University Center and Storke Tower” by Coolcaesar (CC BY-SA 4.0); “UC Santa Barbara Entrance” by UCSB-IGSA (CC BY-SA 4.0); “Storke Tower, northwest view” by Mys 721tx (CC BY-SA 3.0). The Chemla Lab is not affiliated with these photographers.