Pal joined the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering faculty in 2007. Since then he has shifted much of his focus toward computational biology, blending his original training in electrical engineering with mathematics and genomics.
Pal says the harder the problem, the more it pulls him in. His work looks at how biology connects to engineering and math, an approach that does not fit neatly into one department.
For Texas Tech, having a faculty fellow who crosses lines between engineering, math and genomics adds weight to the university's research profile. Students in the Whitacre College of Engineering see it firsthand. They watch a professor treat disciplinary boundaries as something to work around, not stay inside. That kind of cross-training matters for a region trying to build its reputation in research beyond oil and agriculture.
Pal has spent close to two decades at Texas Tech working across those boundaries.