One of the largest entering faculty classes in WPI's history, they are the latest product of an unprecedented investment in talent that has brought 74 new tenure-track faculty members to campus over the past five years alone

Worcester, Mass. (PRWEB) November 06, 2012

"These researchers, scholars, educators, and leader bring an exceptional scope of expertise and experience to our campus," said Eric W. Overstrm, provost and senior vice president. "With their prestigious research awards, impressive scholarly output, and diverse expertise, they will help WPI meet a burgeoning demand for its undergraduate and graduate programs in the arts and sciences, business, and engineering while they also expand our reputation for education and research that blends theory and practice to solve some of the worlds most pressing problems."

Dirk Albrecht, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, conducts research in biological microtechnology and bioMEMS, neural dynamics and behavior, and neuropeptide signaling, among other areas, work that has been has been funded a Career Award at the Scientific Interface from the Burroughs Welcome Foundation and that has been published in several journals, including Nature Methods. He will join WPI in January after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at The Rockefeller University. He holds BS degrees in bioengineering and biochemistry and cell biology and MS and PhD degrees in bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego.

Scott Barton, assistant professor of music in the Department of Humanities and Arts, is a composer, musician, producer, programmer, and instrument builder who conducts research in the broad areas of music technology and perception. His research interests include electroacoustic composition, music cognition/auditory perception, musical robotics, and artificial musical intelligence. He has a BA in music and a BA in philosophy from Colgate University, a Master of Music in Composition from the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, and a PhD in composition and computer technologies from the University of Virginia.

Dmitry Berenson, assistant professor of computer science and robotics engineering, conducts research on robotic manipulation, motion planning, collaborative robotics. He joins WPI after serving as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of California at Berkeley. His research has been featured in National Geographic, Scientific American, and Fortune and has been covered by PBS and the BBC. He holds a BS in electrical and computer engineering from Cornell University and an MS and a PhD in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University.

Maria Chierichetti, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, conducts research in response and model identification, structural vibrations, structural health monitoring, and innovative structural configurations for aerospace applications. While a graduate student, she received the Amelia Earhart Fellowship from Zonta International; the organization awards 35 fellowships annually to women around the world pursuing doctoral work in aerospace-related sciences and engineering. She earned a BS in aerospace engineering and an MS in aeronautical engineering at Politechnico di Milano in Italy, and an MS and a PhD in aerospace engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Thomas Eisenbarth, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, joins WPI after spending two years as an assistant professor of mathematical sciences at Florida Atlantic University. He conducts research is in the area of IT security, with a focus on embedded systems security, physical attacks and counter measures, and applied cryptology. In 2011 he received a five-year CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation for a research project titled "Practical Leakage Resilience: Provable Side-Channel Resistance for Embedded Systems." He holds an MS and a PhD in electrical engineering from Ruhr University Bochum in Germany.

Patrick Flaherty, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, joins WPI after completing a postdoctoral fellowship in biochemistry at Stanford University. A researcher in bioinformatics, machine learning, and cancer genomics, he is currently engaged in work aimed at improving the diagnosis and treatment of human diseases by applying statistical machine learning methods to high-throughput genomics data.. He received a BS in electrical engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology and an MS and a PhD in electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California at Berkeley.

Lifeng Lai, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, comes to WPI from the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, where he was an assistant professor of systems engineering. In 2011 he received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to support his research in the areas of wireless network security, information theory, and stochastic signal processing. His research has resulted in two best paper awards: at the IEEE Global Communications Conference in 2008 and at the IEEE International Conference on Communications in 2011. He earned a BE and an ME in information science and electrical engineering at Zhejiang University in China and a PhD in electrical and computer engineering at Ohio State University.

Link:
WPI Welcomes 20 New Educators and Researchers to its Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty Ranks