Assoc. Director, Community Development and Education Core, MISM
Asst. Professor in Mathematics, Duke
Veronica Ciocanel, PhD, Co-Investigator, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics, with a joint appointment in Biology, in the Trinity School of Arts and Sciences at Duke University, and serves as MISM Community Development and Education Core (CDEC) Associate Director as well as Co-Investigator on MISM Research Project 2. Dr. Ciocanel has a history of mentorship and research at the interface of mathematical modeling and biology, with a particular interest in protein transport and organization in cells using mathematical and computational tools. She uses mathematical modeling, analysis, and simulation to address questions about molecular-motor-driven transport and protein filament organization. Dr. Ciocanel develops and applies techniques from dynamical systems, partial differential equations, stochastic processes, and data analysis. She collaborates with experimental researchers on problems related to messenger RNA transport in developing oocytes and neuronal cells, actin-myosin protein interactions, and the organization of microtubule filaments in neuronal dendrites, striving to understand stochastic and continuous models for these processes, parameter estimation, and identifiability based on limited experimental data, and appropriate measures for analyzing complex simulated and experimental datasets. Dr. Ciocanel has received awards as a co-PI on an NIH R01, a co-PI on an NSF Physics of Living Systems grant, and as Senior Personnel on a Research Training Grant in Applied Mathematics at Duke Mathematics. She has reviewed proposals for NSF DMS Mathematical Biology and joint DMS/NIGMS panels and has served as Chair of the Cell and Developmental Biology Subgroup of the Society for Mathematical Biology (SMB).
Dr. Ciocanel is committed to mentoring and advising a diverse population of trainees; she currently serves on the SMB DEI Team. She currently mentors a PhD candidate and two postdoctoral scholars. Dr. Ciocanel serves on the thesis committees of three graduate students in Biology and the School of Medicine programs. She has mentored 20 undergraduate students in research in mathematical biology since her time as a graduate student. Dr. Ciocanel has completed the NRMN Postdoctoral Mentor Training Workshop at The Ohio State University, received formal mentoring training through the Duke STEM Faculty Fellows Program in Mentoring, and participated in the Association for Women in Mathematics Mentoring Program. She will work to ensure that CDEC activities meet the research, training, and professional development needs of ESI and trainees, support the mentored summer scholars’ research and training internships through the CDEC Core, and connect the center with other modeling communities.
Up-to-date information about her research can be found at https://services.math.duke.edu/~ciocanel/.