James N Warnock, PH.D.

Founding School Chair
Professor
Interim Director, Engineering Education Transformations Institute

Riverbend Research Center South
Room 112

James N. Warnock joined the faculty of the University of Georgia College of Engineering in 2017 as the founding chair for the new School of Chemical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering.

Before coming to Athens, Warnock served as a professor and associate dean for academic affairs at Mississippi State University’s Bagley College of Engineering.

He is an active researcher in novel therapeutic strategies to treat cardiovascular disease. He’s also earned international attention for his work in advancing the field of engineering education. Warnock serves as adjunct director of training and instruction for ABET, the engineering college accreditation board. In this role he supports the planning, production and execution of the organization’s professional-development programming and directs all activities related to educational offerings and workshop-facilitator training.

“In my engineering education research I’ve studied ways that we can improve engineering curricula to better prepare graduates for engineering practice,” he said. “Specifically, I have looked at how students develop professional skills, such as teamwork, communication, intercultural competence, self-directed learning and innovative thinking.”

Warnock earned a bachelor’s degree in biological science from the University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom. He earned a master’s in biochemical engineering and a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, before completing a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Education

Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, UK, 2003
MSc., Biochemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, UK, 1999
BSc. (Hons.), Biological Sciences, University of Wolverhampton, UK, 1998

Honors / Awards / Achievements

2022 Lowry Gillespie, Jr. Engineering Curriculum Enhancement Award, University of Georgia

2013 Regions Bank – DAFVM Superior Faculty Award: Teaching, MS State University

2011 Excellence in Teaching (Overall Award), College of Ag & Life Sciences, MS State University

2011 Excellence in Teaching (Upper Division Award), College of Ag & Life Sciences, MS State University

2011 Selected to attend Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium, National Academy of Engineering

Selected Publications

Ozkan, E., Mondal, A., Douglass, M., Hopkins, S., Garren, M., Devine, R., Pandey, P., Manuel, J., Singha, P., Warnock, J. N., Handa, H. (2022) Bioinspired ultra-low fouling coatings on medical devices to prevent device-associated infections and thrombosis. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science. 608 (Part 1), 1015-1024. doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2021.09.183.

Marklein, R.A., Mantay, M., Gomillion, C., Warnock, J.N. (2021). Biomanufacturing of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells for Therapeutic Applications. In: Pörtner, R. (eds) Cell Culture Engineering and Technology. Cell Engineering, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79871-0_9

Ozkan, E., Mondal, A., Singha, P., Douglass, M., Hopkins, S., Devine, R., Garren, M., Manuel, J., Warnock, J. N., Handa, H. (2020) Fabrication of Bacteria and Blood Repellent Superhydrophobic Polyurethane Sponge Material. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c13098

Solis, A. G., Bielecki, P., Harman, C. C. D., Palm, N. W., De Zoete, M. R., Warnock, J. N., Filip To, S. D., York, A. G., Jackson, R., and Flavell, R. A. (2019) Mechanosensation of Cyclical Force by Piezo1 is Essential for Innate Immunity. Nature. doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1485-8.

Viola, F., Jermyn, E., Warnock, J. N., Querzoli, G., Verzicco, R. (2019) Left Ventricular Hemodynamics with an Implanted Assisting Device: An in vitro Fluid Dynamics Study. Ann Biomed Eng. doi: 10.1007/s10439-019-02273-6

Educational Activities

BCHE 4650/6650 – Animal Cell Biomanufacturing: One-hour lecture, two-hour discussion. This course advances students’ comprehension of biochemical engineering concepts related to large-scale animal cell biotechnology and scalable manufacturing of cellular products such as recombinant proteins, monoclonal antibodies, viral vaccines, therapeutic cells and gene therapy vectors. Working in small groups, students will address a range of contemporary problems.

BIOE 8120 – Regenerative Medicine, Cell Manufacturing and Society: Designed to introduce advanced students working in cell biology and regenerative medicine research to ethical, policy, and social issues relevant to the field, specifically stem cell research.

Scholarship & Research

Dr. Warnock maintains a strong reputation within the biomedical engineering and engineering education communities. Since starting his faculty career at Mississippi State University in 2005, he has been the PI or co-PI on grants and contracts worth approximately $46 Million. Currently, he is the co-director for Engineering Workforce Development in the NSF-funded Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT) and the co-PI on an NSF-funded Future Manufacturing Network grant. This funding has enabled him to publish over 50 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings in numerous prestigious journals including Nature. Recently, Dr. Warnock’s research has included engineering education and many of his latest publications have focused on first-year engineering programs, developing students’ professional skills, and global education. Dr. Warnock regularly serves as a grant proposal reviewer for the NSF.