Lily Cheung

Lily Cheung is an Associate Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, affiliated with the College of Engineering and the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. She is also the Roy C. and Polly B. Sheffield Faculty Fellow. Her work integrates computational methods with experimental approaches in plant biology, focusing on the interplay between metabolic and gene regulatory networks to advance agricultural biotechnology.

• BS, Chemical Engineering, Rutgers University, 2008
• PhD, Chemical Engineering, Princeton University, 2013

Her research bridges systems biology, synthetic biology, and computational modeling to study plant physiology and development. She specializes in designing biomolecular sensors, quantitative fluorescence microscopy, and predictive models to decode how metabolic and genetic interactions govern plant growth.

Lily’s publications emphasize systems-level approaches to plant biology, with recurring themes in gene regulatory networks, sugar transport, computational modeling, and plant-microbe interactions. Recent work (2025) applies hybrid modeling to lignin bioconversion, while earlier studies (2024-2015) explore transporter specificity, root microbiome dynamics, and developmental signaling.

Scientific awards include:

• NSF NPGI Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology
• NSF CAREER Award
• Human Frontier Science Program Early Career Award

Lily’s lab develops quantitative tools for plant systems biology, with a focus on metabolic network interactions and predictive agricultural models. She previously held postdoctoral positions at the Carnegie Institution for Science and conducted foundational work at Rutgers University and Princeton University.