Interested in joining?

I am actively recruiting motivated students with strong mathematical ability and/or coding skills. Research experience in biology is not necessary, but one should be willing to learn new biological concepts as required.

PhD and Master’s students

Current JHU PhD and Master’s students. If you are a current or incoming PhD or Master’s student at JHU in CS, BME, AMS, or a related department, I would be very happy to talk about potential opportunities in the lab. Please reach out to me via email (uthsav@jhu.edu) with:

a brief description of who you are, your research interests, and your past research experiences,
your CV, and
any other relevant information (e.g. past projects, coursework, etc).

This information will allow me to assess your fit in the lab and suggest potential research projects. If there is a good fit, then I will schedule a time to meet.

Prospective PhD and Master’s students. I recruit students through the JHU Computer Science PhD program and Master of Science in Engineering in Computer Science. Please consult the program websites for further details and mention me (Uthsav Chitra) in your application. Please note that I am highly unlikely to respond to emails from prospective students who have not yet been admitted.

Postdoctoral researchers

If you are interested in joining the lab as a post-doc, I would be very happy to talk. Please reach out to me via email (uthsav@jhu.edu) with your CV, a brief description of your research interests and past work, and contact information for 1-3 references. Prospective applicants are also encouraged to apply to the DSAI postdoctoral fellowship.

JHU undergraduate students

I am quite happy to work with motivated and curious JHU undergraduate students. If you are interested, please reach out to me via email (uthsav@jhu.edu) with the following information:

a brief description of who you are (e.g. year and major) and why you are interested in the lab,
a list of classes that you have taken or are taking in computer science, applied math, statistics, computational biology, or other related fields,
your expected time commitment (hours per week) and when you would like to work (e.g. summer, during semester),
any prior research experiences and the supervising faculty member(s)
- Note that this is optional, as I do not expect undergraduates to have previous research experience
any other relevant information (e.g. course projects, website).

This information will allow me to assess your fit in the lab and help match you to a relevant research project. If there is a good fit, then I will schedule a time to meet.

I require a substantial time commitment from undergraduates in my lab, so please only reach out if you truly have the time and motivation. Many of the undergraduate students I have mentored have won research awards (thesis prize, NSF GRFP, MIT poster award) and have published papers in top venues (e.g. ICML 2021, RECOMB 2022/Cell Systems 2022, RECOMB 2024/Nature Methods 2025).

Others (e.g. visiting students, summer interns)

I may be able to host interns or visiting students on an ad hoc basis. If you are motivated and have strong interests or past experience in computational biology or machine learning, please reach out to me via email (uthsav@jhu.edu) with your CV, a brief description of your research interests, and why you specifically want to join our lab. (If you are an undergraduate, please also include the information requested in the previous section.)