By Rebecca E. Jones
The addition of 16 new teaching and research faculty members this academic year increases full-time faculty in the School of Engineering to 109, which is among the largest expansions since the school’s founding in 1996. Instructional and research specialties include pharmaceutical engineering, robotics, nanomaterials, polymer chemistry, additive manufacturing, tissue engineering and nuclear engineering design.
The School of Engineering is focused on providing student-centered teaching, research that addresses problems facing society in the 21st century, a commitment to our community locally, nationally and globally and innovation,” said Barbara D. Boyan, Ph.D., Alice T. and William H. Goodwin Chair in Biomedical Engineering and dean of the School of Engineering. “Our new faculty share these values. We are happy to have them as colleagues.”
The new faculty cohort is joining VCU during a period of robust growth for the School of Engineering, which includes facilities expansion in the Virginia Biotech Research Park for a major initiative in pharmaceutical engineering, a new flagship undergraduate engineering scholarship program and planning for a new 130,000 square foot engineering research building.
Meet the new faculty members joining the VCU School of Engineering this year:
Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Education:
Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Toronto
Research Interests:
Autonomic computing, model-based design and analysis of cyber-physical systems, formal verification and cybersecurity
Caroline Budwell, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
Education:
Ph.D. in computer science from Nova Southeastern University
Research Interests:
Aspect-oriented software development; Structured Lexicon for Aspectual Identification (SLAI) Methodology.
Carlos E. Castano, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering
Education:
Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology
Research Interests:
Tailoring surface properties of materials for applications in energy, transportation and manufacturing.
Sheng-Chieh Chen, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering
Education:
Ph.D. in environmental engineering from National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan.
Research Interests:
Nanoparticle generation and control; ambient air monitoring; indoor air ventilation measurement and simulation; sub-10 nm nanoparticle liquid filtration.
D. Joshua Cohen, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Education:
M.D. from the UNIBE School of Medicine
Research Interests:
Biomedical applications to solve orthopedic and dental challenges involving the musculoskeletal system
Robert Dahlberg, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
Education:
Ph.D. in computer science from Virginia Commonwealth University
Research Interests:
Cyber security; blockchain management and utilities; software engineering
James K. Ferri, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering
Education:
Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Johns Hopkins University
Research Interests:
Smart nanomaterials; interfacial phenomena; stability of disperse systems; polymer physical chemistry; additive manufacturing
Mo Jiang, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering
Education:
Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research Interests:
Continuous crystallization and novel purification/formulation of pharmaceuticals and proteins
Tyler McQuade, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering
Education:
Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison
Research Interests:
Pharmaceutical engineering; pharmaceutical agent synthesis; catalysis
Tamer Nadeem, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science
Education:
Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Maryland, College Park
Research Interests:
Wireless networks; mobile computing; ad-hoc and sensor networks; vehicular networks.
Jennifer Puetzer, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Education:
Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from North Carolina State University
Research Interests:
Tissue engineering; meniscus; musculoskeletal; collagen fiber development.
Joao Soares, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering
Education:
Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University
Research Interests:
Mechanically-conditioned tissue engineering, degradation and erosion of polymeric scaffolds, shear-induced platelet activation
Nakul Telang, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering
Education:
Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from the University of Mississippi
Research Interests:
Medicinal chemistry; synthetic organic chemistry
Zeyun Wu, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering
Education:
Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from Texas A&M University
Research Interests:
Reactor physics; advanced computational methods on reactor design and analysis; sensitivity and uncertainty analysis
Cang Ye, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Computer Science
Education:
Ph.D. in electrical and electronics engineering from the University of Hong Kong.
Research Interests:
Mobile robotics; robotic assistive technology; intelligent systems
Raiyan Zaman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Education:
Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Texas, Austin
Research Interests:
Biomedical optical imaging systems