More Than A Dozen New Faculty Join College of Engineering
With a new semester comes new faces around Patrick F. Taylor Hall.
In addition to the more than 1,300 freshmen who began their journeys as LSU Engineers today, the LSU College of Engineering also welcomed new full-time faculty members to its various academic departments. Twelve began today, and two more will join the College in 2017. This is in addition to the 16 assistant professors who were hired last year.
By department, the new faculty members, who also all hold the rank of assistant professor, include:
Cain Department of Chemical Engineering
Bhuvnesh Bharti comes to LSU from Raleigh, North Carolina, where he worked as a research assistant professor at North Carolina State University. His research interests include colloids and their application in medicine and the environment. He received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Technische University in Berlin, Germany.
Kunlun Ding comes to LSU from Evanston, Illinois, where he worked as a postdoctoral scholar with Professor Peter Stair at Northwestern University. His research interests focus on homogeneous catalysis and the conversion of natural gas. He received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the Institute of Chemistry at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Xiuping Zhu comes to LSU from Pennsylvania, where she worked as a postdoctoral researcher since 2011. Her research experience includes the development of a thermally regenerative ammonia-based flow battery for low-grade thermal energy capture, new approaches for salinity gradient energy recovery based on hydrogels, new bioelectrochemical systems for H2 production and CO2 sequestration, investigations of reversed-electrodialysis cells for salinity gradient energy recovery and characterizations of the electrochemical properties of anodic biofilms acclimated at different anode potentials in bioelectrochemical systems. Zhu received her Ph.D. in environmental engineering from Peking University in China.
Zimeng Wang comes to LSU from California, where he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University since July 2014. His research experience includes carbon capture and sequestration (Water-Energy Nexus), nutrient cycling at biogeochemical interfaces, groundwater and soil remediation (metal fate and transport) and advanced oxidation processes (photocatalysis). Wang received his Ph.D. in energy, environmental and chemical engineering from Washington University.
Samuel Snow comes to LSU from Lansing, Michigan, where he worked as a postdoctoral research associate at Michigan State University. His research interests include photocatalytic approaches for virus removal in membrane bioreactor effluent. He received his Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Shuai Shao will join us in January 2017 after completing a postdoctoral position at the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems at Mississippi State University. Shao’s research interests include modern computational mechanics with an emphasis on multi-scale modeling and plasticity. He earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Washington State University.
Hunter Gilbert will join us in August 2017 after completing a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Plank Institute in Germany. His specialty is robotics, specifically medical robotics. He received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University.
Shyam Menon comes to LSU after working as a postdoctoral scholar at Oregon State University. His research interests include combustion, fuels and energy storage, internal combustion engines, computational fluid dynamics, high speed flows and unmanned aerial vehicles. He earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland.
Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering
Ipsita Gupta comes to LSU after eight years of industry experience with Chevron, ESRI India and ONGC. Her specialization is in numerical modeling of fluid and heat flow and transport in geologic media. She earned her PhD in basin-scale hydrogeology from the University of South Carolina.
Division of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Jian Xu comes to LSU after working as a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University and Georgia Tech. His research focuses on biomedical instrumentation for clinical applications, biomedical imaging devices for real-time and sensitive cancer identification in image-guided cancer surgery, and biomimetic devices for eco-friendly energy harvesting. He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Yale University.
LaVonda Brown comes to LSU after working as a research scientist in the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Emory University. Her research interests include robotics platforms for educational engagement and for physical therapy as well as biomarkers for detection of early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease. She received her Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Georgia Tech.
Bert S. Turner Department of Construction Management
Yong Cheol Lee comes to LSU after working as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research interests include construction management data analysis and visualization, infrastructure and facility asset maintenance using wearable sensors and BIM, interoperability and automated rule-based validation of BIM data, construction safety and process using automated rule-based validation, design computation and scripting for virtual design and construction, building automation, technology and performance, and sustainable design and facility management using BIM. He received his Ph.D. in digital design and fabrication in architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Jangwook “Philip” Jung comes to LSU after working as a postdoctoral fellow and associate at the University of Minnesota at Twin Cities. His research interests include tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, stem cell research, 3-D cell culture and biomaterials. He received his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Cincinnati.
Elizabeth Martin comes to LSU after working as a postdoctoral researcher at Tulane University. Her research interests include cell biology and molecular biology. She received her Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from Tulane University.