August 26, 2024

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

Today marks the beginning of a new academic year, and this year we are adding an exceptional group of new faculty to educate our students and push the frontiers of research. This accomplished group of scholars comes from top research institutions around the world and brings diverse, fresh perspectives to help make the Hajim School ever better.

The following faculty join us this academic year:

• Irving Barron ’18 MS, ’24 PhD joins the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as an assistant professor of instruction after earning his PhD here at the University. He will teach courses including senior design, wireless communications, signals, and entrepreneurship for engineers.
• Pooja Bhalode joins the Department of Chemical Engineering as a research assistant professor in October and tenure-track assistant professor next year after having served as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Delaware. Her research lies at the intersection of molecular, particulate physics, and systems engineering to devise resource-efficient and sustainable processes.
• Benjamin Castañeda joins the Department of Biomedical Engineering as a professor after having served as a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP). His research focuses on the development of point-of-care medical devices for limited-resource settings, overcoming challenges in environments that lack the necessary equipment, infrastructure, and specialized personnel.
• C.M. Downey joins the Department of Linguistics and the Goergen Institute for Data Science as an assistant professor after having earned a PhD in computational linguistics at the University of Washington. C.M. develops methods to improve the efficacy of natural language processing tools for under-resourced languages lacking the abundant data needed to train modern machine learning models.
• Yanan Guo joins the Department of Computer Science as an assistant professor after having earned her PhD in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. She studies the security vulnerabilities in modern computing systems—at both the hardware and the software level—and designs defense mechanisms to make these systems more secure.
• Darren Lipomi joins the Department of Chemical Engineering as professor and chair after having served as a professor of nanoengineering and associate dean for students at the University of California San Deigo’s Jacobs School of Engineering. Darren’s research interests include the molecular engineering of electronic and electroactive polymers, especially the mechanical properties of semiconducting polymers for flexible solar cells, biomechanical sensors, and phenomena that occur at the intersection of materials chemistry with human perception and cognition.
• Yukun Ma joins the Department of Economics and the Goergen Institute for Data Science as an assistant professor after having earned her PhD in economics at Vanderbilt University. Her research focuses on economic theory and its practical applications.
• Ibrahim Mohammad ’17, ’18 MS, ’23 PhD joins the Department of Mechanical Engineering as an assistant professor of instruction after having served as a postdoctoral research associate and lecturer here at the University. He will teach courses in incompressible flow.
• Eileen Otte joins the Institute of Optics in January as an assistant professor after having served as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University and the Center for Soft Nanoscience at the University of Muenster. Her research concentrates on the fundamental properties and diverse applications of structured light fields, in areas such as singular and nano-optics, nanoscale imaging and sensing, quantum cryptography, and optical manipulation.
• Wenjie Zang joins the Department of Mechanical Engineering as an assistant professor after having served as a postdoctoral scholar at University of California, Irvine. Her research aims to advance the next-generation catalytic materials and devices for applications in energy, water, and the environment.

Please join me in providing them a warm welcome to the Hajim School! Learn more about their expertise on the Hajim School website.

DOUG KELLEY SELECTED AS 2024 EXPERIMENTAL PHYSICS INVESTIGATOR

Congratulations to Doug Kelley, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and staff scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, who was named one of 19 researchers in the third annual cohort of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Experimental Physics Investigators. The initiative provides flexible funding to pursue imaginative research ideas, allowing the investigators to explore new and uncharted areas and advance the scientific understanding of the natural world.

Doug receives a five-year, $1.25 million grant to try to solve the mystery of how Earth’s magnetic field arose before the inner core formed. His lab will measure how peaks and valleys below a spinning, convecting layer of liquid metal affect its motions—their speed, structure, and capacity for transporting heat. By doing so, Doug hopes to learn whether the uneven boundaries of Earth’s liquid metal core could have promoted flows that were fast enough to generate the planet’s magnetic field, even before the solid inner core was formed.

Read more about his project.

PRINCIPAL DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF THE NIH TO VISIT ROCHESTER

Lawrence Tabak, the principal deputy director of the National Institutes of Health, will spend Friday, September 13 at the University of Rochester, where he will participate in a science symposium and present a lecture, both open to the University community. Right before his lecture, University President Sarah Mangelsdorf will present Tabak with the prestigious George Eastman Medal in recognition of his significant achievements and service.

Before joining NIH, Tabak was the first dentist-scientist to serve as the UR’s senior associate dean for research. He also served as a professor of dentistry, biochemistry and biophysics at the UR’s School of Medicine and Dentistry, where Tabak bolstered the prominence of oral biology research programs and provided the foundation for today’s Eastman Institute for Oral Health. He was named director of the Center for Oral Biology, now the Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences. Tabak recruited leading oral biologists and dental scientists, resulting in tremendous growth throughout the URMC research enterprise.

Learn more about the events at the URMC Newsroom.

LABOR DAY

Next Monday, the University will be closed in observance of Labor Day. The next edition of Hajim Highlights will come out on Tuesday, May 28.

I wish all our students, faculty and staff a wonderful start to the new academic year!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman