By Julia Parmley
When Jason Zara joined GW’s School of Engineering and Applied Science in 2002, seven students were in the inaugural class of GW’s biomedical engineering program. Together with his colleagues, Dr. Zara began developing the curriculum and creating classes, drawing on faculty from the University’s chemistry, physics, mathematics and biology departments. Now the largest undergraduate program in the school with around 140 students, the biomedical engineering program offers an adaptable curriculum, an independent research course and internships in local research laboratories.
The field of biomedical engineering, which applies engineering skills and principles to advance medical diagnoses and treatments, is an emerging area of study, and Dr. Zara believes GW is one of the best places to pursue it. “Because of GW’s location, we have access to places like the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, which have world-class scientists and facilities that don’t exist anywhere else,” says Dr. Zara.
Proximity to renowned research facilities was just one of the reasons Dr. Zara was attracted to GW. “I’ve found that teaching and research is evenly emphasized at GW,” he says. “While we are encouraged to conduct research, we are also strongly encouraged to bring what we’ve discovered into the classroom.”
Dr. Zara came to GW from Duke University, where he received his doctorate in biomedical engineering in 2001. He earlier earned a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
At GW, Dr. Zara teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in biomedical engineering and medical imaging, and he works with colleagues to teach a capstone design course in which students pursue an independent project. He is an advocate for interactive, hands-on learning and says he constantly challenges his students to problem solve. For example, to solve a problem in his medical imaging class, Dr. Zara presented his students with the basic physics behind magnetic resonance imaging and asked how they would use those facts to create an image. “I help them approach the problem and solve it rather than them reading in a textbook or listening to me lecture,” he says. “If they are actively engaged in the material, there is a better chance they will retain the information and be able to explain it to someone else later.”
The ability to apply and communicate knowledge is a skill Dr. Zara wants every one of his students to develop. “You can succeed quite well in academics by knowing the right words, but you need to be able to convey your knowledge in a way that makes sense,” he says. “I like to ask my students difficult questions and point out when they are giving ‘non-answers,’ because being able to communicate how they applied their knowledge to new situations is what gets them hired as engineers.”
The recipient of the department’s 2009 Outstanding Teaching Award for Assistant Professors, Dr. Zara also enjoys training graduate and doctoral students to conduct research. “At some point, they surpass you in their subject knowledge, and you go from being a mentor to being a colleague. It’s a fun transition,” he says.
Although he devotes a considerable amount of time to teaching, Dr. Zara is also engaged in research projects that use medical imaging for early cancer detection. In one current project, he is collaborating with GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences’ Department of Urology to identify urinary bladder cancer using a type of imaging called optical coherence tomography. In another, he is helping students from his design class develop software algorithms that can rapidly scan through signals from electroencephalography, a procedure that records brain activity, and identify problem areas. “If we can develop software that can aid diagnoses, we can improve medical care,” says Dr. Zara, who conducts research in a laboratory in GW’s Staughton Hall and at the Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, Md.
Outside of the classroom and lab, Dr. Zara enjoys spending time with his wife, Rebecca, and their 3-year-old son and newborn daughter in their Vienna, Va., home. Dr. Zara says he welcomes the challenges of juggling fatherhood and academia and finds both fulfilling. “My job can be really consuming because there are countless opportunities out there for research and study, so it’s important to have the work-life balance,” he says. “I know I do, because I am still excited to come to work every day.”