New faculty welcomed
The College of Arts and Sciences welcomed several new faculty members at the beginning of the Fall ’03 semester. In addition, several new faculty in the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science have strong ties to CAS programs via cross-disciplinary initiatives, and we highlight them here with the new CAS faculty.
Biosciences
Matthias Falk
Falk, assistant professor in the department of biological sciences, comes to Lehigh from the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, where he served as an assistant professor in the department of biology. He earned his doctorate in molecular biology from the University of Heidelberg (Germany), and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Giessen (Germany). Dr. Falk is extensively published, and has delivered presentations at universities and conferences worldwide. He has received research grant awards from the National Institute of Health and his research interests include biosynthesis, structure, and function of gap junction membrane channels and of other membrane proteins.
Stefan Maas
Maas, assistant professor in the department of biological sciences, comes to Lehigh from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he served as a research scientist in the department of biology. He earned his doctorate from the University of Heidelberg (Germany) and his master’s degree from the Free University of Berlin. Dr. Maas has had extensive research experience at institutions such as the Max-Planck Institutes for Medical Research and Molecular Genetics, and has received fellowships such as the Anna Fuller Fellowship in Molecular Oncology. He has been published in numerous journals and presented at conferences such as the Gordon Research Conference on Cancer: Mechanisms and Models, and the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting.
Anand Jagota
Jagota, professor in the department of chemical engineering and director of bioengineering and applied life science programs, earned his doctorate and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Cornell University and his bachelor’s from the Indian Institute of Technology. Prior to his appointment at Lehigh, he served as a research associate at E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company where he was leader of a program on Biological and Chemical Routes to Nanoelectronic Devices. Dr. Jagota is extensively published in over 70 publications, holds five patents, and has delivered many invited and contributed presentations for organizations such as the Materials Research Society and the American Ceramic Society.
Samir Ghadiali
Ghadiali, assistant professor in the department of mechanical engineering, received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University and master’s and doctorate degrees in biomedical engineering from Tulane University. He served as a research assistant professor in the pediatric otolaryngology department at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh where he developed a multi-disciplinary bioengineering research program. Specific areas of research include surfactant transport dynamics, drug-delivery in the pulmonary system, biomechanical analysis of tissue engineering therapies, fluid-structure interactions, cellular adhesion dynamics and multi-scale modeling of microbiological systems. He has received the Louisiana Board of Regents scholarship and competitive research grants from the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and the National Institute of Health.
Environmental Sciences
Kristen Jellison
Jellison, the P.C. Rossin assistant professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering, received her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and her doctorate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both in civil and environmental engineering. Jellison was the recipient of graduate research fellowships from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and was an invited student speaker at an annual meeting of the American Society of Microbiology. Her research interests focus on the prevention of waterborne disease through both improved water treatment technology and a better understanding of microbial pathogen ecology.
Stephen Peters
Peters, assistant professor in the department of earth and environmental sciences, earned his doctorate at the University of Michigan, his master’s degree from Dartmouth College and his bachelor’s degree from Bates College. Dr. Peters has research interests involving the quantification of low-temperature geochemical processes using sensitive major and trace element analytical techniques. He was awarded an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2001 and has completed numerous research experiences including a study of biotic and abiotic controls on arsenic concentration and speciation in groundwater, and the geochemistry of arsenic in a fractured bedrock aquifer. Peters is published in Environmental Science and Technology, and the Annual International Conference on Heavy Metals in the Environment.
Global and Cultural Studies/Social Sciences
Janice Bially Mattern
Bially Mattern, assistant professor in the department of international relations, comes to Lehigh from Temple University where she served as an assistant professor in the department of political science. She earned her doctorate and masters’ degrees from Yale University and her bachelor’s from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Dr. Bially Mattern is extensively published and has spoken at conferences and seminars both nationally and internationally. She won the Helen Dwight Reid Award for the Best Dissertation in International Relations, Law and Politics from the American Political Science Organization. Prior to her appointment at Temple, she was a visiting assistant professor at Dartmouth College, a lecturer at Yale University, and a political analyst intern and consultant for RAND Corporation.
Robert Rozehnal
Rozehnal, assistant professor in the department of religion, earned his doctorate from Duke University with a concentration in Islamic Studies and the History of Religions, his master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Puget Sound. His teaching and research interests include religions of Asia, religious nationalism in South Asia, and theories of religion. He has been published in Items and Issues: Social Science Research Council and given presentations at the American Academy of Religions National Conference. He has received numerous fellowships, awards and honors such as the Woodrow Wilson/Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship.
Ziad Munson
Munson, assistant professor in the department of sociology and anthropology, earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in sociology from Harvard and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago. As a doctoral student, he received the NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant and was named a Doctoral Fellow by the Hauser Center for the Study of Non-Profit Organizations. He has designed and taught courses such as “The Social Origins of Terrorism,” “Religion and Society,” and “Political Sociology,” and received Distinction in Teaching Awards during his time at Harvard. Munson has authored work for publications such as The Sociological Quarterly and The Sociology of Religion.
Elizabeth Vann
Vann, assistant professor in the department of sociology and anthropology, earned her doctorate and master’s degrees in anthropology from the University of Virginia, and her bachelor’s from Georgia State University. Her areas of specialization include Vietnam, Southeast Asia, and cultural anthropology, transnationalism and global capitalism. While at the University of Virginia she taught courses such as Anthropology and Medicine and Witchcraft and the Occult. She has received numerous grants, fellowships and honors, such as being recognized as the Jacob Jimeson Teaching Fellow at Hartwick College in 2002-2003, and receiving the Fullbright Foreign Research Fellowship, which she used for study in Vietnam.
Miren Edurne Portela
Portela, assistant professor in the department of modern languages and literature, earned her doctorate and master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Navarra (Spain). Her research and teaching interests include twentieth century Latin American and Peninsular Literature, feminist theory and literature, and representations of violence, state terrorism, repression and trauma in Hispanic culture. Portela has had a variety of teaching experiences and she earned the Dana Drake Teaching Award for graduate assistant excellence in undergraduate teaching in 2002. She has written numerous conference papers, and been published in Hispanófila.
Stephanie Watts
Watts, assistant professor in the department of English, earned her master’s and doctorate in writing (English fiction, concentration: African American literature and folklore) from the University of Missouri-Columbia and her bachelor’s from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. She has published numerous short stories and poems, and was the recipient of the Student Diversity Enhancement Award and First Prize at the Research and Creative Activities Forum at UMC. Watts was also a founding co-editor of Center: A Journal of the Literary Arts, which is one of only a few professional literary journals managed by graduate students to feature the work of new and established writers. She has presented at a variety of conferences, including the Midwest Modern Language Association and the International Blues Conference.
Brian Pinaire
Pinaire, assistant professor in the department of political science, earned his doctorate in political science from Rutgers University and a bachelor’s degree in politics from Whitman College. He was published in The Journal of Law and Politics and has presented professional papers at the Annual Meeting of the New England and Western Political Science Associations. Pinaire’s research interests include constitutional law, law and politics, and criminal justice. He has served as an instructor for various courses at Rutgers, including Expository Writing, Law and Politics, and Philosophy of Law, and received one of three graduate student teaching awards given campus wide in 2001.
Science and Mathematics
Huai-Dong Cao
Cao, professor in the department of mathematics, earned his doctorate and master’s degrees from Princeton University, and his bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University in Beijing. He has research interests in differential geometry and nonlinear partial differential equations, and has received multiple NSF research grants. Dr. Cao is widely published in mathematical journals and has delivered invited speeches at meetings such as the International Conference of Mathematics, the Pacific Rim Geometry Conference and the American Mathematical Society Annual Meeting. Prior to his appointment at Lehigh, he served as the associate director of the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics at UCLA (whose overall mission involves connections between a broad spectrum of mathematicians and scientists), and a professor of mathematics at Texas A&M University.
Timothy Lomauro
Lomauro, professor of practice in the department of psychology, earned a doctorate in clinical psychology from St. John’s University, a master’s degree in applied educational psychology from Columbia University, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and philosophy from Montclair State University. Dr. Lomauro has held teaching positions at various universities such as La Salle University and Mercer County Community College, as well as Lehigh University. He has had numerous professional experiences, including serving as a rehabilitation psychologist/behavioral medicine specialist and coordinator in the pain rehabilitation program at Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital in Allentown, Director of Psychology at the St. Lawrence Rehabilitation Center, and a clinical psychologist in private practice.
Katherine Restuccia
Restuccia, professor of practice in the department of psychology, has served as the associate director of counseling services at Moravian College, adjunct faculty at Lehigh University, and is in private practice in Bethlehem, PA. She earned her master’s and doctorate degrees in clinical psychology from the Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology at Widener University. She has been published in the Journal of Constructivist Psychology and Clinical Studies: International Journal of Psychoanalysis and has had a variety of training experiences, including the Albert Einstein Medical Center and the Safe Haven Unit for Women, Eugenia Hospital.
Biosciences
Matthias Falk
Falk, assistant professor in the department of biological sciences, comes to Lehigh from the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, where he served as an assistant professor in the department of biology. He earned his doctorate in molecular biology from the University of Heidelberg (Germany), and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Giessen (Germany). Dr. Falk is extensively published, and has delivered presentations at universities and conferences worldwide. He has received research grant awards from the National Institute of Health and his research interests include biosynthesis, structure, and function of gap junction membrane channels and of other membrane proteins.
Stefan Maas
Maas, assistant professor in the department of biological sciences, comes to Lehigh from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he served as a research scientist in the department of biology. He earned his doctorate from the University of Heidelberg (Germany) and his master’s degree from the Free University of Berlin. Dr. Maas has had extensive research experience at institutions such as the Max-Planck Institutes for Medical Research and Molecular Genetics, and has received fellowships such as the Anna Fuller Fellowship in Molecular Oncology. He has been published in numerous journals and presented at conferences such as the Gordon Research Conference on Cancer: Mechanisms and Models, and the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting.
Anand Jagota
Jagota, professor in the department of chemical engineering and director of bioengineering and applied life science programs, earned his doctorate and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Cornell University and his bachelor’s from the Indian Institute of Technology. Prior to his appointment at Lehigh, he served as a research associate at E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company where he was leader of a program on Biological and Chemical Routes to Nanoelectronic Devices. Dr. Jagota is extensively published in over 70 publications, holds five patents, and has delivered many invited and contributed presentations for organizations such as the Materials Research Society and the American Ceramic Society.
Samir Ghadiali
Ghadiali, assistant professor in the department of mechanical engineering, received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University and master’s and doctorate degrees in biomedical engineering from Tulane University. He served as a research assistant professor in the pediatric otolaryngology department at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh where he developed a multi-disciplinary bioengineering research program. Specific areas of research include surfactant transport dynamics, drug-delivery in the pulmonary system, biomechanical analysis of tissue engineering therapies, fluid-structure interactions, cellular adhesion dynamics and multi-scale modeling of microbiological systems. He has received the Louisiana Board of Regents scholarship and competitive research grants from the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and the National Institute of Health.
Environmental Sciences
Kristen Jellison
Jellison, the P.C. Rossin assistant professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering, received her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and her doctorate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both in civil and environmental engineering. Jellison was the recipient of graduate research fellowships from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and was an invited student speaker at an annual meeting of the American Society of Microbiology. Her research interests focus on the prevention of waterborne disease through both improved water treatment technology and a better understanding of microbial pathogen ecology.
Stephen Peters
Peters, assistant professor in the department of earth and environmental sciences, earned his doctorate at the University of Michigan, his master’s degree from Dartmouth College and his bachelor’s degree from Bates College. Dr. Peters has research interests involving the quantification of low-temperature geochemical processes using sensitive major and trace element analytical techniques. He was awarded an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2001 and has completed numerous research experiences including a study of biotic and abiotic controls on arsenic concentration and speciation in groundwater, and the geochemistry of arsenic in a fractured bedrock aquifer. Peters is published in Environmental Science and Technology, and the Annual International Conference on Heavy Metals in the Environment.
Global and Cultural Studies/Social Sciences
Janice Bially Mattern
Bially Mattern, assistant professor in the department of international relations, comes to Lehigh from Temple University where she served as an assistant professor in the department of political science. She earned her doctorate and masters’ degrees from Yale University and her bachelor’s from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Dr. Bially Mattern is extensively published and has spoken at conferences and seminars both nationally and internationally. She won the Helen Dwight Reid Award for the Best Dissertation in International Relations, Law and Politics from the American Political Science Organization. Prior to her appointment at Temple, she was a visiting assistant professor at Dartmouth College, a lecturer at Yale University, and a political analyst intern and consultant for RAND Corporation.
Robert Rozehnal
Rozehnal, assistant professor in the department of religion, earned his doctorate from Duke University with a concentration in Islamic Studies and the History of Religions, his master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Puget Sound. His teaching and research interests include religions of Asia, religious nationalism in South Asia, and theories of religion. He has been published in Items and Issues: Social Science Research Council and given presentations at the American Academy of Religions National Conference. He has received numerous fellowships, awards and honors such as the Woodrow Wilson/Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship.
Ziad Munson
Munson, assistant professor in the department of sociology and anthropology, earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in sociology from Harvard and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago. As a doctoral student, he received the NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant and was named a Doctoral Fellow by the Hauser Center for the Study of Non-Profit Organizations. He has designed and taught courses such as “The Social Origins of Terrorism,” “Religion and Society,” and “Political Sociology,” and received Distinction in Teaching Awards during his time at Harvard. Munson has authored work for publications such as The Sociological Quarterly and The Sociology of Religion.
Elizabeth Vann
Vann, assistant professor in the department of sociology and anthropology, earned her doctorate and master’s degrees in anthropology from the University of Virginia, and her bachelor’s from Georgia State University. Her areas of specialization include Vietnam, Southeast Asia, and cultural anthropology, transnationalism and global capitalism. While at the University of Virginia she taught courses such as Anthropology and Medicine and Witchcraft and the Occult. She has received numerous grants, fellowships and honors, such as being recognized as the Jacob Jimeson Teaching Fellow at Hartwick College in 2002-2003, and receiving the Fullbright Foreign Research Fellowship, which she used for study in Vietnam.
Miren Edurne Portela
Portela, assistant professor in the department of modern languages and literature, earned her doctorate and master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Navarra (Spain). Her research and teaching interests include twentieth century Latin American and Peninsular Literature, feminist theory and literature, and representations of violence, state terrorism, repression and trauma in Hispanic culture. Portela has had a variety of teaching experiences and she earned the Dana Drake Teaching Award for graduate assistant excellence in undergraduate teaching in 2002. She has written numerous conference papers, and been published in Hispanófila.
Stephanie Watts
Watts, assistant professor in the department of English, earned her master’s and doctorate in writing (English fiction, concentration: African American literature and folklore) from the University of Missouri-Columbia and her bachelor’s from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. She has published numerous short stories and poems, and was the recipient of the Student Diversity Enhancement Award and First Prize at the Research and Creative Activities Forum at UMC. Watts was also a founding co-editor of Center: A Journal of the Literary Arts, which is one of only a few professional literary journals managed by graduate students to feature the work of new and established writers. She has presented at a variety of conferences, including the Midwest Modern Language Association and the International Blues Conference.
Brian Pinaire
Pinaire, assistant professor in the department of political science, earned his doctorate in political science from Rutgers University and a bachelor’s degree in politics from Whitman College. He was published in The Journal of Law and Politics and has presented professional papers at the Annual Meeting of the New England and Western Political Science Associations. Pinaire’s research interests include constitutional law, law and politics, and criminal justice. He has served as an instructor for various courses at Rutgers, including Expository Writing, Law and Politics, and Philosophy of Law, and received one of three graduate student teaching awards given campus wide in 2001.
Science and Mathematics
Huai-Dong Cao
Cao, professor in the department of mathematics, earned his doctorate and master’s degrees from Princeton University, and his bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University in Beijing. He has research interests in differential geometry and nonlinear partial differential equations, and has received multiple NSF research grants. Dr. Cao is widely published in mathematical journals and has delivered invited speeches at meetings such as the International Conference of Mathematics, the Pacific Rim Geometry Conference and the American Mathematical Society Annual Meeting. Prior to his appointment at Lehigh, he served as the associate director of the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics at UCLA (whose overall mission involves connections between a broad spectrum of mathematicians and scientists), and a professor of mathematics at Texas A&M University.
Timothy Lomauro
Lomauro, professor of practice in the department of psychology, earned a doctorate in clinical psychology from St. John’s University, a master’s degree in applied educational psychology from Columbia University, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and philosophy from Montclair State University. Dr. Lomauro has held teaching positions at various universities such as La Salle University and Mercer County Community College, as well as Lehigh University. He has had numerous professional experiences, including serving as a rehabilitation psychologist/behavioral medicine specialist and coordinator in the pain rehabilitation program at Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital in Allentown, Director of Psychology at the St. Lawrence Rehabilitation Center, and a clinical psychologist in private practice.
Katherine Restuccia
Restuccia, professor of practice in the department of psychology, has served as the associate director of counseling services at Moravian College, adjunct faculty at Lehigh University, and is in private practice in Bethlehem, PA. She earned her master’s and doctorate degrees in clinical psychology from the Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology at Widener University. She has been published in the Journal of Constructivist Psychology and Clinical Studies: International Journal of Psychoanalysis and has had a variety of training experiences, including the Albert Einstein Medical Center and the Safe Haven Unit for Women, Eugenia Hospital.
Posted on:
Thursday, August 21, 2003
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