Professor | Engineering
Dr. Jessica P. Houston is the Luke B. Shires Endowed Professor of Chemical and Materials Engineering at New Mexico State University (NMSU) in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Her research focuses on flow cytometry instrument optimization, fluorescence dynamics, high-throughput systems, optofluidics, and fluorescence bioprobes. She joined NMSU in 2009 as an Assistant Professor, marking the start of her academic career, after completing a three-year Director’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Bioscience Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory (2006–2009).
Dr. Houston is highly active in professional service, contributing to numerous scientific societies, boards, and advisory councils. She currently serves as President of the International Society for the Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC) for the 2023–2026 term and as Chair of the ISAC Executive Committee. In these roles, she serves on the ISAC Council and as an ex officio member of all 12 ISAC committees, along with multiple task forces and working groups. She is also Chair of the Conference on Imaging, Manipulation, and Analysis of Cells and Tissues for the SPIE Photonics West Congress.
Her scientific work has been disseminated through high-impact journal publications, conference proceedings, book chapters, and numerous invited national and international presentations. Dr. Houston holds a patent on lifetime measurements in cytometry and teaches courses in fluid mechanics, biomedical engineering, process control, and dynamics. She was twice awarded a Fulbright to be a visiting faculty scholar in Japan (2018) and Brazil (2024).
Education
- Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University (2005)
- M.S., Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University (2002)
- B.S., Chemical Engineering, New Mexico State University (2000)
Expertise
Biomedical Engineering, Cytometry, Optofluidics, Fluid Dynamics
Website: flowcytometry.nmsu.edu
