MERCED, CA— Freshmen and transfer students
aren’t the only new faces on campus at the University of
California, Merced, this fall. The three schools at the newest
campus in the UC system are welcoming 19 new faculty members for
the fall 2008 semester. The total number of
faculty membersat UC Merced
is now 117.
“As we enter our fourth year, UC Merced is proud of the growth
it has accomplished - both in terms of student enrollment and
faculty appointments,” said Keith Alley, executive vice chancellor
and provost. “Our students are fortunate to have the opportunity to
work with such accomplished professors, and we are excited to have
such enthusiastic faculty on board.”
As professors in the
UC
system— the research arm of California’s three-tier
higher education system — these individuals have a unique
mandate to perform exemplary research at the forefront of their
fields and then bring that knowledge into the classroom to benefit
their students.
The
School of Engineeringhas
secured two new professors:
-
Elliott
Campbell, an assistant professor, was most recently a
postdoctoral fellow at Stanford. He holds a Ph.D. in civil and
environmental engineering from the University of Iowa and
investigates how bioenergy systems might supply energy needs and
affect the climate. -
Ming-Hsuan
Yangis a new assistant professor. He was previously a senior
research scientist with the Honda Research Institute in Mountain
View and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. He studies computer vision for robotics applications.
The
School of Natural
Scienceshas brought in five new faculty members:
-
Harish S.
Bhatis an assistant professor specializing in applied
mathematics. He holds a Ph.D. from Caltech in control and dynamical
systems and has previously served on the faculties of Claremont
McKenna College and Columbia University. -
Stephen C.
Hartjoins the school as a full professor. He was previously on
the faculty in ecosystem ecology at the Northern Arizona University
School of Forestry. Hart holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in soil
science and studies the biogeochemistry of forest soils and vegetation. -
Linda S.
Hirstis an assistant professor in physics. She was previously
on the faculty at Florida State University and holds a Ph.D. in
physics from Manchester University (United Kingdom). Hirst’s
specialty is biophysics and soft-matter physics. -
Eric Menkeis a
new assistant professor. He comes most recently from a postdoctoral
appointment at UCLA and holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from UC Irvine.
Menke specializes in nanotechnology for energy collection and
storage, specifically for solar energy applications. -
Lin Tianjoins
the faculty as an assistant professor following her postdoctoral
appointment at Stanford. She holds a Ph.D. in physics from MIT and
studies quantum engineering and nanomechanical systems.
The
School of Social Sciences,
Humanities and Artswelcomes 12 new professors:
-
Susan
Amussenmost recently mentored doctoral learners in a variety of
interdisciplinary fields at Ohio’s Union Institute and University.
She earned her Ph.D. at Brown University and studies early modern
England, women’s history and Atlantic history. -
Irenee
Beattiejoins the school an assistant professor of sociology.
She was previously an assistant professor at Washington State
University, and earned her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona,
Tucson. Her areas of interest include education, racial/ethnic and
gender inequality, adolescent transitions to adulthood and law/policy. -
Ignacio Lopez
Calvo, a literature professor, comes to UC Merced from the
University of North Texas. He earned his Ph.D. in romance languages
from the University of Georgia, and he studies Spanish language and literature. -
Christopher T.
Kellois an associate professor of cognitive science. He earned
his Ph.D. in experimental psychology from UC Santa Cruz, and most
recently has worked as an associate professor at George Mason
University and an expert consultant for the National Science
Foundation. His research interests include reading, speech, neural
networks and complex systems. -
Nathan Monroeis
the newest assistant professor of political science. He comes to UC
Merced from the University of the Pacific and holds a Ph.D. in
political science from UC San Diego. His research focuses on
American political institutions, especially the U.S. Congress. -
Sholeh Quinnis
an associate professor. Most recently, he taught history at Ohio
University. He received his Ph.D. in near Eastern languages and
civilizations from the University of Chicago. His specialty is the
history of 16th and 17th century Iran, with emphasis on historiography. -
Linda-Anne
Rebhunjoins the school as an associate professor in UC Merced’s
newest major, anthropology. She holds a Ph.D. in cultural and
medical anthropology from UC Berkeley and specializes in gender,
sexuality, reproductive health and popular medicine. -
Anna Songjoins
the faculty as an assistant professor following her postdoctoral
appointment at UC San Francisco. She has a Ph.D. in psychology from
UC Davis and studies psychosocial decision-making and risk behavior. -
Mike
Spiveyjoins the cognitive science faculty as a professor. He
holds a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester and has taught at
Cornell University and the Max Planck Institute in Munich, Germany.
His research interests include language/vision interaction,
sentence processing, word recognition, memory and neural networks. -
Nella Van
Dykeis an associate professor from Washington State University,
where she taught in the women’s studies department. She earned her
Ph.D. from the University of Arizona and studies political social
movements; hate crime; and gender, race, class and sexuality. -
Jack Veveais an
associate professor who most recently taught at UC Santa Cruz and
holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His research
interests include experimental psychology and statistics. -
Peter
Vanderschraafis a philosopher who joins the faculty as an
associate professor. He comes to UC Merced from Boston University
and holds a Ph.D. from UC Irvine. His research focuses on the
analysis of social conventions and their role in moral and
political philosophy.
These 19 professors bring the total faculty count at UC Merced
to 117, including several top-tier administrators who hold faculty
appointments and the directors of the campus’ writing program and
Spanish language program.
The efforts of the faculty in supporting UC Merced’s students
body — expected to top 2,500 this fall — are
complemented by dozens of highly qualified lecturers and teaching
assistants — not to mention tutors and other staff members
— who ensure students receive personal attention at a level
unsurpassed in the 10-campus University of California system.
UC Merced has also already received commitments from four
academics who plan to join the faculty within the next year:
-
Asmeret Asefaw
Berhe, joining the faculty of the School of Natural Sciences as
an assistant professor, previously was a President’s Postdoctoral
Fellow at UC Berkeley, where she also earned her Ph.D. in
environmental science, policy and management. She studies soil
erosion and carbon dynamics. She is scheduled to start work at UC
Merced Jan. 1, 2009. -
Teamrat S.
Ghezzehei, a new assistant professor in the School of Natural
Sciences, was previously a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory. His Ph.D. from Utah State University is in
soil physics, and he now studies questions of flow and water
retention in soils. He plans to start his UC Merced appointment
Jan. 1, 2009. -
Lilian P.
Davilaplans to join the School of Engineering as an assistant
professor Jan. 1, 2009. She has been a President’s Postdoctoral
Fellow at UC Merced since 2006 and holds a Ph.D. in materials
science and engineering from UC Davis. Her research uses simulation
and characterization techniques to study materials at the nano scale. -
Jessica
Trounstinewill join the faculty of the School of Social
Sciences, Humanities and Arts in summer 2009. She holds a Ph.D.
from UC San Diego and specializes in the politics of U.S. cities.
Presently, she is an assistant professor of politics and public
affairs at Princeton.
