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SEAS Welcomes New Junior Faulty
Interim Dean Gerald Navratil began the semester with a Welcome Reception for nine new SEAS faculty members, bringing to 155 the total number of full time faculty members. “We are pleased that almost every department is welcoming a new member to its faculty ranks,” said Dean Navratil. “Columbia SEAS continues to attract new researchers and teachers of the highest caliber,” he said. “As we move toward building a more global School, we expect to benefit greatly from the relationships these new faculty members bring with them.” A short profile of new faculty appears below. Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics
Matias Courdurier is the Chu Assistant Professor in Applied Mathematics, whose work impacts medical imaging. His research interest is in the mathematical area of inverse problems and, in particular, the study of the X-ray transform and the radon transform. These transformations appear in the mathematical models of medical imaging techniques like computerized tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). The improvement of such imaging techniques is heavily related to a better understanding of the mathematical elements that appear in the model. For example, recent results conclude that it is possible to obtain, in a stable way, images of a subregion of the patient with a reduced set of measures. “This allows a reduction in the radiation that patients are exposed to while still obtaining useful images,” he said. “My study focuses on those kind of results: the characterization of reduced sets of measurements under which it is still possible to obtain good CT images.” A graduate in mathematic engineering from Universidad de Chile, in Santiago, Dr. Courdurier received his PhD in mathematics from the University of Washington, Seattle. He received the Best Graduate Award from the Department of Mathematical Engineering, Universidad de Chile, and, from the University of Washington, a Microsoft Scholarship, academic Excellence Award and McFarlan Fellowship Award.
Assistant Professor Latha Venkataraman’s research involves exploring the electronic transport and mechanical properties of materials on the nanometer scale. The motivation to study the properties of materials at this scale is based partly on the developments in the integrated circuit industry. The size of components has been dropping exponentially over the past few decades, following a trend originally identified by Gordon Moore. In recent decades, developments in nanotechnology, including the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope and other scanned probe techniques, have enabled the study of materials in these previously inaccessible length scales. “My research will use these tools to study the electronic and mechanical properties of single molecules and novel nanowire materials,” she said. Dr. Venkataraman received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MS and PhD in physics from Harvard University, where she also received an Applied Physics Fellowship and the White Prize for Excellence in Teaching. Following her doctorate, she spent three years at Vytran Corporation as a research scientist, developing new technologies for fusion splicing of optical fibers. Prior to joining the SEAS faculty, Dr. Venkataraman was a research scientist and executive committee member at Columbia’s Nanoscience and Engineering Center. Chemical Engineering
Assistant Professor Mark Borden is designing biocolloids for medical applications, particularly in molecular imaging and targeted therapy. Biocolloids are formed by the directed assembly of biomolecules. These nano-scale constructs can be engineered to carry a payload, circulate in the bloodstream, and target specific organs. “My work involves the total life cycle of the biocolloid,” said Prof. Borden, “from understanding the thermodynamics and kinetics of assembly to elucidating structure/property relationships to modeling and testing biological performance.” Prof. Borden’s specialty is microbubbles, which are tiny gas cavities stabilized by a thin shell of lipids, proteins and polymers. Microbubbles are routinely used in the clinic for diagnosing heart conditions, and current research is underway to expand their use in imaging and therapy. Dr. Borden received a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Arizona and PhD in chemical engineering from the University of California, Davis. He was a project scientist in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UC Davis and a visiting scientist in the Department of Radiology at the University of Arizona prior to coming to Columbia SEAS.
Assistant Professor V. Faye McNeill’s research is focused on understanding the chemical and physical processes that occur at environmental interfaces, and how they influence the chemical composition of the atmosphere. Her research program combines laboratory and modeling studies, the results of which improve our understanding of the effects of human activity on our environment and provide insight into practical approaches for pollution mitigation. The interdisciplinary nature of Professor McNeill’s work will likely lead to collaborative efforts within SEAS and the campus-wide environmental science community at Columbia. Prof. McNeill first developed an avid interest in atmospheric chemistry and aerosol science as an undergraduate at Caltech. After graduating with a BS degree in Chemical Engineering, she earned an MS in Chemical Engineering Practice and PhD in Chemical Engineering from MIT. Her PhD thesis yielded new evidence that surface disordering exists on ice surfaces under stratospheric conditions, thus explaining the catalytic role that ice clouds play in polar stratospheric ozone depletion. Prior to coming to SEAS, she was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Washington Department of Atmospheric Sciences in Seattle where she studied the effects of organic films at the surfaces of submicron aqueous aerosols on gas-aerosol interactions, and the viability of these films when subject to oxidation in the atmosphere. Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics
Assistant Professor John E. Taylor specializes in investigating project network dynamics in the global architecture, engineering and construction industry. His research focuses on the increase in global outsourcing of complex engineering services and the impact of integrated technologies on project networks. “Both create fundamental changes in the processes, technologies and organizational arrangements required for productive project execution,” he said. “Through a combination of in-depth field research, lab experimentation, and computational simulation modeling, I will develop practical organizational change strategies while extending theories of project networks.” Dr. Taylor received his BS and MS from Tulane University in civil and environmental engineering. A Fulbright Scholar, he studied at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, from which he received an MS in management of logistical systems. He holds a PhD in civil and environmental engineering from Stanford University and has been a visiting researcher at Innovation Centre of Trinity College Dublin, visiting professor and researcher at the Technical Research Center of Finland in Helsinki, consulting assistant professor at Stanford, and assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Earth and Environmental Engineering
Assistant Professor Nikhil Krishnan works in the area of sustainable design and manufacturing and industrial ecology. “Sustainability issues are strongly intertwined with industrial activities. I am interested in developing a research program related to quantifying environmental implications of industrial activities, and developing sustainable solutions that also make sense from an economic perspective,” he said. He is currently working in three broad areas: high-technology industries, energy systems and solid waste management. Prof. Krishnan received his BS degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and MS and PhD degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. He has worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, as a research scientist at Applied Materials Inc., and was a postdoctoral research fellow at Columbia University’s Earth Institute.
Assistant Professor Ah-Hyung (Alissa) Park, who is Lenfest Junior Professor in Applied Climate Science, researches issues in energy, environmental engineering and particle technology. “I plan to establish an energy and environment program, which will advance technologies that will bring about not only scientific achievement but also strengthening our national security,” she said. Three interrelated, but distinct, research areas that she is currently pursuing are: green liquid fuel technology (thermochemical conversion of various feedstocks); carbon capture and sequestration, and electrostatic phenomenon in multiphase flow systems and electrostatic tomography. “The synthesis of hydrogen or liquid fuels from domestic, renewable energy sources such as biomass is important for the future of our society. The environmental aspect, especially carbon management, is one of the key issues for the alternative energy production technologies and is emphasized throughout my research. By incorporating energy and environmental technologies, a sufficient supply of environmentally sustainable energy can be achieved without threatening to destabilize the Earth’s natural systems. This coincides with the mission of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy, in which I am an associate director.” In addition, she will build a Particle Technology Research Laboratory specializing in electrostatic phenomenon in multiphase flows. A graduate of the University of British Columbia, Prof. Park received the bachelor of applied science degree with distinction and the masters of applied science degree, both in chemical and biological engineering. She received the PhD degree in chemical and biomolecular engineering from The Ohio State University. She was a postdoctoral researcher at Ohio State prior to joining the SEAS faculty. Electrical Engineering
Gil Zussman will be joining the Electrical Engineering Department with research interests in the area of wireless and mobile networks, including wireless local area networks, sensor networks, mobile ad hoc networks, and mesh networks. Because of their potential ease of deployment, these networks are likely to be used in many practical applications, including health care, city-wide broadband access, military operations, disaster recovery, manufacturing, and space exploration. “Efficiently controlling wireless networks is a challenging task because of interference, mobility of the nodes, limited capacity, energy limitations, and lack of central control,” he said. The conventional layered networking protocol stack is not well suited to wireless networks, since it does not exploit the potential improvements in performance that can be obtained by jointly designing protocols that span multiple layers. “I am designing algorithms and architectures that take into account cross-layer considerations and interactions, especially distributed algorithms that will provide various functionalities, such as medium access control, topology control, power control, and routing,” he said. He holds a BSc degree in industrial engineering and management and BA degree in economics, both summa cum laude, from the Technion, an MSc degree in operations research summa cum laude from Tel-Aviv University, and a PhD in electrical engineering from the Technion. He has been a postdoctoral associate in the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems and in the Communications and Networking Research Group at MIT. He received the Marie Curie Outgoing International Fellowship, the Fulbright Fellowship, the best student paper award at the IFIP Networking 2002 conference, and the best paper awards at the OPNETWORK 2002 and the ACM SIGMETRICS/IFIP Performance’06 conferences. Mechanical Engineering
Assistant Professor Arvind Narayanaswamy is working on understanding electromagnetic properties of nanoscale materials. He will focus on near-field effects that generally result in an enhancement of radiative transfer far beyond the predictions of Planck’s theory of blackbody radiation. “This enhancement of thermal radiation between objects of different shapes and sizes will be investigated experimentally as well as theoretically,” he said. “The experimental investigation, using a bi-material cantilever as in atomic force microscopy, is based on a technique I developed as a doctoral student at MIT working under Prof. Gang Chen. With this technique, I hope to indirectly probe changes in van der Waals and Casimir forces with temperature,” he said. Numerical solutions to the near-field radiative transfer problems are challenging, he said, because of the disparate length scales involved in the problem: the size of the body is on the order of a millimeter while a gap is on the order of a micron or less. Prof. Narayanaswamy’s aim is to develop efficient techniques to analyze such problems. Investigation of selective emission of thermal radiation from periodic microscopic structures, which can be used as efficient emitters for thermophotovoltaic energy conversion, will be another focus area of his over the next few years. He received a bachelor of technology degree with honors in mechanical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, MS in mechanical engineering from University of Delaware and his PhD in mechanical engineering from MIT.
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