Jacob Davis, a 2017 graduate of Kennesaw State University (KSU), has advanced to a leadership role in biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Before his career in science, Davis served five years in the U.S. Army, including two deployments to Afghanistan. During his military service at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, he took night classes through the University of Maryland Global Campus, which renewed his interest in academics.
“I didn’t really have plans for college before that. I didn’t have plans to do anything academically. I was just kind of living life,” Davis said. “But after getting older and a little more mature, I started to enjoy learning again and decided that was the path I was going to go into.”
After leaving the military, Davis returned to Georgia and enrolled at Southern Polytechnic State University (SPSU), completing his degree following its consolidation with KSU in 2015. At KSU, he worked with professors Rich Ruhala and Ayse Tekes on research projects that shaped his future direction.
“The biggest thing and why I recommend KSU as compared to some other schools for undergrad was the exposure to research early,” Davis said. “I was able to do research, and the more I did it, I really started enjoying it, and that got me on the path to grad school.”
Davis went on to earn a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from Georgia Tech through a joint program with Emory University and later completed a doctorate in bioengineering. His academic focus shifted from mechanical design toward biological systems over time.
“It’s been a gradual transition,” Davis said. “I’ve really just kind of been creeping down that path from the mechanical side to almost all biology now, but I still use a lot of those design and engineering principles day to day.”
Initially accepting an offer with the U.S. Navy while awaiting security clearance, Davis joined a new data center at NIH as a computational biologist. The temporary position became permanent; he now leads the Systems and Computational Biology Section at NIH where he works closely with clinicians and researchers across various agencies.
“It’s a very collaborative role,” Davis said. “At any time, I have my hands in from five to 50 projects at once, helping with data analysis, modeling, and experiment design. My job is very variable, and I like that I don’t have my own set research program. My research is just whatever the NIH is doing, really.”
Davis acts as both consultant and collaborator rather than operating his own laboratory—supporting teams with experiment design, data analysis for genomics and clinical studies, as well as building predictive models. He is currently involved in projects aimed at improving outcomes for sickle cell disease patients using data-driven methods.
“People do experiments and clinical trials, and all that needs to be analyzed to formulate the new clinical trials,” Davis said. “We’re not something separate. We’re part of the cycle at this point. You can make these datasets easily and cheaply, but what do they mean? They’re just a bunch of numbers.”
He also supports mentorship efforts within NIH by helping establish high-performance computing resources for researchers who previously lacked access.
“We have our own cluster now,” Davis said. “We started teaching classes, and we’ve been bringing these tools to clinicians and researchers who didn’t really have access to them before. That’s probably the thing I’m most proud of.”
Lawrence Whitman, dean of Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology at KSU, commented on Davis’s achievements: “Jacob’s career shows how professional paths can evolve in unexpected ways beyond our original plans,” Whitman said. “We’re proud to see our alumni contributing to top-tier national research and making a meaningful impact on people’s lives.”
