Biology | Chemistry | Computer Science | Engineering   | Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts | Mathematics | Physics 

Biology

Stephen C. Adolph, Professor of Biology and Interim Department Chair

Education: Ph.D., University of Washington
Research Interests: Physiological, evolutionary and behavioral ecology of lizards; mathematical models in ecology and evolution; statistical estimation of physiological performance

Anna Ahn, Barbara Stokes Dewey Assistant Professor of Biology

Education: Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Research Interests: Neural control and mechanics of animal locomotion

David Asai, Stuart Mudd Professor of Biology

Education: Ph.D., California Institute of Technology
Research Interests: structural basis for dynein-mediated microtubule motility

Eliot Bush, Assistant Professor of Biology

Education: Ph.D., California Institute of Technology
Research Interests: Molecular evolution of noncoding DNA.

Robert Drewell, Assistant Professor of Biology

Education: Ph.D., King's College, University of Cambridge
Research Interests: The functional role of presently uncharacterized genomic DNA in epigenetic and cis-regulation of gene expression during embryonic development

Elizabeth Glater, Assistant Professor of Biology

Education: Ph.D., Harvard University
Research Interests: Neuroscience. Use the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to investigate the genetic basis of olfactory behavior.

Karl Haushalter, Iris and Howard Critchell Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biology

Education: Ph.D. Harvard University
Research Interests: The biochemistry of protein:nucleic acid interactions in the context of DNA repair and the innate immune response to HIV infection

Catherine S. McFadden, Vivian and D. Kenneth Baker Professor of Biology

Education: Ph.D., University of Washington
Research Interests: Molecular systematics of Octocorallia; life history evolution in colonial marine invertebrates

Daniel M. Stoebel, Assistant Professor of Biology

Education: Ph.D., The State University of New York, Stony Brook
Research Interests: function and evolution of bacterial regulatory networks.

Mary E. Williams, Professor of Biology

Education: Ph.D., The Rockefeller University
Research Interests: molecular and cellular mechanisms regulating plant development in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.

Chemistry

Shenda Mary Baker, Professor of Chemistry and Director of Global Clinic

Education: Ph.D., California Institute of Technology
Research Interests: Creation and control of self-assembled nanoscopic structures of thin polymer films and diblock copolymers, surface and interfacial properties, nano-biosensors and biopolymer chemistry.

Robert J. Cave, Professor of Chemistry and Dean of Faculty

Education: Ph.D., California Institute of Technology
Research Interests: Electronic structure theory and the quantum mechanical treatment of electron transfer reactions with a particular focus on understanding how distance and orientation affect the rate of electron transfer in biological and synthetic electron transfer reactions

G. William Daub, Seeley Wintersmith Mudd Professor of Chemistry

Education: Ph.D., Stanford University
Research Interests: The development of new regio- and stereoselective reactions for organic synthesis

Karl Haushalter, Iris and Howard Critchell Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biology

Education: Ph.D. Harvard University
Research Interests: The biochemistry of protein:nucleic acid interactions in the context of DNA repair and the innate immune response to HIV infection

Lelia Hawkins, Barbara Stokes Dewey Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Education: Ph.D., Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego
Research Interests: characterization of light-absorbing compounds in atmospheric aerosol

Adam R. Johnson, Associate Professor of Chemistry

Education: Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research Interests: Design of ligands for the synthesis of chiral transition metal complexes; enantioselective catalysis

Kerry K. Karukstis, Professor of Chemistry

Education: Ph.D., Duke University
Research Interests: Applications of absorbance and fluorescence spectroscopy to supramolecular assemblies (micelles, reverse micelles, vesicles) and macromolecular host-guest systems (cyclodextrins, dendrimers); spectroscopic analyses of surfactant aggregations and drug-delivery systems; determination of phase diagrams via fluorescence spectroscopy; incorporation of the case study method in chemistry courses to explore the interaction of science and society and develop critical thinking, teamwork, and oral communication skills; women as leaders in science and engineering

Mitsuru Kubota, Professor of Chemistry Emeritus

Education: Ph.D., University of Illinois
Research Interests: study of catalysis by metal compounds and inorganic chemistry.

Gerald R. Van Hecke, Donald A. Strauss Professor of Chemistry and Associate Dean for Administration

Education: B.S., Harvey Mudd College; Ph.D., Princeton University
Research Interests: Studies of liquid crystals: synthesis, thermodynamics of mixtures, polarized spectroscopy and computer simulations of liquid crystalline mixtures; thermodynamics of liquid mixtures studied by laser light scattering.

Katherine M. Van Heuvelen, Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Education: Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison
Research Interests: synthesis and spectroscopic characterization of bio-inspired transition metal complexes.

Hal Van Ryswyk, Professor of Chemistry and Department Chair

Education: Ph.D., University of Wisconsin
Research Interests: Solar energy conversion, study of energy and electron transfer in self-assembled systems; electronic materials; monolayer chemistry at surfaces; analytical chemistry

David A. Vosburg, Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Education: Ph.D., The Scripps Research Institute
Research Interests: Biomimetic cyclizations, natural product synthesis, and green chemistry

Computer Science

Christine Alvarado, Assistant Professor of Computer Science

Education: Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research Interests: Computer sketch understanding; sketch-based user interfaces

Zachary Dodds, Associate Professor of Computer Science

Education: Ph.D., Yale University
Research Interests: Real-time computer vision, vision-based autonomous robotics and mapping, and the development of low-cost robots for research and education.

Michael A. Erlinger, Professor of Computer Science and Department Chair

Education: Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Research Interests: Computer networking (protocols, management, security and wireless sensor networks), implementation and use.

Robert M. Keller, Csilla and Walt Foley Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Computer Science Clinic

Education: Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Research Interests: intelligent music software, programming languages, logic, model-checking, parallel and real-time computing, soft computing, formal methods.

Geoff Kuenning, Associate Professor of Computer Science

Education: Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Research Interests: Operating systems, file systems, trace analysis, computer systems performance.

Colleen M. Lewis, Assistant Professor of Computer Science

Education: Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley
Research Interests: computer science education

Ran Libeskind-Hadas, Joseph B. Platt Professor in Effective Teaching and Professor of Computer Science

Education: Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [GTE Fellow]
Research Interests: Computational biology, algorithms, optical networking.

Melissa O'Neill, Associate Professor of Computer Science

Education: Ph.D., Simon Fraser University
Research Interests: Functional programming languages and parallelism.

Christopher Stone, Associate Professor of Computer Science

Education: Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University
Research Interests: Type theory, programming language semantics, object calculi and compilers, concurrency.

Elizabeth Sweedyk, Associate Professor of Computer Science

Education: Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Research Interests: algorithms, complexity theory, computational biology, visualization, computer games, and computer graphics.

Benjamin Wiedermann, Assistant Professor of Computer Science

Education: Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin
Research Interests: programming languages.

Engineering

Lori Bassman, Associate Professor of Engineering

Education: Ph.D., Stanford University
Research Interests: Deformation mechanisms in polycrystalline metals, computational mechanics and plant biomechanics.

Carl J. Baumgaertner, Clinical Professor of Engineering

Education: B.S., St. Thomas College; postgraduate studies at University of Minnesota
Research Interests: Engineering challenges in the aerospace and defense industry, particularly analog electronic circuits and closed loop control systems.

Anthony Bright, Professor of Engineering

Education: Ph.D., University of Bradford, England
Research Interests: hydrodynamics of jets and drop formation.

Mary Cardenas, Associate Professor of Engineering, La Fetra Professor of Environmental Engineering and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

Education: Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara
Research Interests: numerical modeling of the fate and transport of sediments and toxic contaminants in water, both surface waters and groundwater.

Philip D. Cha, Professor of Engineering

Education: Ph.D., University of Michigan
Research Interests: Effects of parameter uncertainties on the dynamics of structures; model updating; imposing nodes for arbitrarily supported elastic structures during harmonic excitations; frequency analysis of combined dynamical systems; vibration of beams carrying spring-mass-damper systems; vibration suppression using oscillators.

Christopher Clark, Associate Professor of Engineering

Education: Ph.D., Stanford University
Research Interests: multi-robot systems and their applications.

Ziyad H. Duron, Jude and Eileen Laspa Professor of Engineering, Director of the De Pietro Fellowship Program in Civil Engineering and Department Chair

Education: B.S. Harvey Mudd College, Ph.D., California Institute of Technology
Research Interests: earthquake engineering, aerospace engineering, fire engineering, system characterization, and structural dynamics. Experimental field tests on large structures and launch vehicles. Active areas of research include development of field procedures for monitoring impending collapse in burning buildings, development of progressive monitoring technqiues for damaged structures, development of enhanced analysis technqiues that transform measured vibration responses from damaged structures and create stability indicators allowing spatial and time evaluation of changing conditions in the structure. A second and active area include the development of field test procedures or large civil structrues including large concrete dams and the correlation of measured field responses and observed behavior to numerical models that can be used to evaluate seismic and operational performance under varying load conditions.

Clive L. Dym, Fletcher Jones Professor of Engineering Design, Director of the Center for Design Education

Education: Ph.D., Stanford University
Research Interests: Engineering design theory and methodology; design education; modeling of structural behavior; structural engineering.

Kash Gokli, Professor of Manufacturing Practice

Education: M.S., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Research Interests: manufacturing, engineering, product development, quality management and process improvement.

David Money Harris, Associate Professor of Engineering and Director of the Engineering Computer Facility

Education: Ph.D., Stanford University
Research Interests: Digital systems, integrated circuit design and microprocessors.

Sarah Harris, Assistant Professor of Engineering

Education: Ph.D., Stanford University
Research Interests: Computer architecture and digital systems.

Adrian Hightower, Assistant Professor of Engineering

Education: Ph.D., California Institute of Technology
Research Interests: the study and design of nanostructured electrodes for fuel cells and rechargeable batteries.

Joseph A. King, Professor of Engineering

Education: Ph.D., University of Oklahoma
Research Interests: materials science related phenomena with particular interest in the materials-environmental interactions.

Nancy Lape, Assistant Professor of Engineering

Education: Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Research Interests: The effects of hydration and mechanical stretching on transport of drugs and toxins across human skin; Design and modeling of nanocomposite gas separation membranes; Engineering education.

Patrick Little, J. Stanley and Mary Wig Johnson Professor of Engineering Management and Director of Engineering Clinic

Education: Sc.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research Interests: transportation, reliability and management of engineered systems.

John I. Molinder, James Howard Kindelberger Professor of Engineering

Education: Ph.D., California Institute of Technology
Research Interests: communication systems and signal processing.

Elizabeth Cornelius Orwin, Associate Professor of Engineering

Education: B.S., Harvey Mudd College; Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Research Interests: Tissue engineering, bioreactor design and soft tissue biomechanics

Donald S. Remer, Oliver C. Field Professor of Engineering

Education: Ph.D., California Institute of Technology
Research Interests: Management including technical and project management, leadership styles, engineering economics and capital investment evaluation and cost estimation

R. Erik Spjut, Professor of Engineering

Education: Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research Interests: Materials processing (especially containerless), process control, optical diagnostics and heat transfer (especially radiant)

B. Samuel Tanenbaum, Professor of Engineering and Dean of Faculty Emeritus

Education: Ph.D., Yale University
Research Interests: Analysis of sustainability technologies and issues, particularly those related to energy use.

Ruye Wang, Professor of Engineering

Education: Ph.D., Rutgers University
Research Interests: image processing, pattern recognition, vision systems, data mining, remote sensing, neural computation and bioinformatics.

Qimin Yang, Associate Professor of Engineering

Education: Ph.D., Princeton University
Research Interests: Optical Communications, Optical Packet Switching networks, QoS in Optical Networks.

Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts

William Alves, Associate Professor of Music

Education: D.M.A., University of Southern California
Research Interests: Music composition, computer music, tuning systems, abstract animation, gamelan and other world music.

Isabel Balseiro, Alexander and Adelaide Hixon Professor of Humanities and Comparative Literature

Education: Ph.D., New York University
Research Interests: Contemporary writers and filmmakers from Africa and Latin America. Teaches on cultural and race studies, cinema and postcolonial literatures.

Hal S. Barron, Louisa and Robert Miller Professor of Humanities

Education: M.A., Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Research Interests: History of rural America; immigration and ethnicity; food and American culture

Tad Beckman, Professor Philosophy Emeritus

Education: Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Research Interests: History of Western philosophy, philosophy of science and environmental philosophy. Founder of the HMC Center for Environmental Studies.

David Cubek, Assistant Professor of Music; Director, Claremont Concert Orchestra, Scripps College (Joint Music Program)

Education: D.M.A., Northwestern University
Research Interests: conducting symphonic and operatic repertoire; research on alternative modes of orchestral training and music as an interdisciplinary art form.

Erika W. Dyson, Iris and Howard Critchell Assistant Professor of Religious Studies

Education: Ph.D., Columbia University
Research Interests: religion and science; intersections between social-change activism and religion; American religious history; and church and state.

Gary R. Evans, Professor of Economics

Education: Ph.D., University of California, Riverside
Research Interests: financial institutions and small business development, enterprise and entrepreneurship.

Ken Fandell, Associate Professor of Photography

Education: MFA, University of Illinois at Chicago
Research Interests: interdisciplinary arts

Jeffrey D. Groves, Professor of Literature

Education: Ph.D., The Claremont Graduate School
Research Interests: nineteenth-century American literature and publishing, the history of the book.

Vivien Hamilton, Assistant Professor of History

Education: Ph.D., University of Toronto
Research Interests: History of physics; history of medicine; gender and science; disciplinary cultures in science

Charles W. Kamm, Assistant Professor of Music, Scripps College and the Joint Music Program of Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges

Education: D.M.A., Yale University
Research Interests: Conductor of the Claremont Concert Choir and the Claremont Chamber Choir; professional vocal soloist and conductor; research on performance practices of renaissance and early Baroque music, 19th century nationalism in music and contemporary Scandinavian choral repertoire.

Marianne de Laet, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Science, Technology and Society

Education: Ph.D., University of Utrecht
Research Interests: Social studies of science; cultural anthropology; technology and culture; video game culture; practices of knowledge-making; collaboration and management in big science

Michael Deane Lamkin, Professor of Music in the Joint Music Program, Harvey Mudd College and Scripps College

Education: Ph.D., University of Iowa
Research Interests: Conducts the Claremont Concert Orchestra and research on performance practices of the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Central Europe. Formerly artistic director and principal conductor of The Classical Music Festival, Eisenstadt, Austria. Concert performances in Eisenstadt, Vienna, Hungary, and Bratislava.

Debra Mashek, Assistant Professor of Psychology

Education: Ph.D., State University of New York, Stony Brook
Research Interests: Psychology of close relationships, causes and consequences of feeling "too close" to intimate others, how jail inmates manage potentially competing allegiances to the criminal community and the community at large.

Rachel Mayeri, Associate Professor of Media Studies

Education: M.F.A., University of California, San Diego
Research Interests: contemporary art, media studies (especially film studies), cultural studies, science studies, video and new media production and installation.

Richard G. Olson '62, Professor of History, Willard W. Keith, Jr., Fellow in the Humanities

Education: B.S. Harvey Mudd College; Ph.D., Harvard University
Research Interests: Historical interactions between developments in the natural sciences and other cultural domains, especially religion and ideology; Scientific and anti-scientific movements in the nineteenth century.

J'nan Morse Sellery, Professor of Literature Emerita,

Since 2005, Visiting Scholar in English at Stanford University
(1998-99) Fulbright Scholar at the University of Calgary in the Humanities Institute
(2001-2005) Senior Scholar at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Stanford University

Education: Ph.D., University of California, Riverside
Research Interests: Contemporary Canadian and American literature with an emphasis upon culture, gender, identity, nomadism, post-colonialism and textuality.

Lisa M. Sullivan, Professor of Economics and Department Chair

Education: Ph.D., University of Toronto
Research Interests: Economic anthropology and economic history, specifically the comparative history of work and work ethics; The political economy of higher education.

Paul Steinberg, Associate Professor of Political Science and Environmental Policy

Education: Ph.D., University of California Santa Cruz
Research Interests: Comparative and international environmental politics; environmental governance in developing countries; biodiversity; research methods

Chang Tan, Assistant Professor of Chinese Language and Culture

Education: Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin
Research Interests: Contemporary Chinese Art and Visual Culture; Modernity and Modernism in Asia; Representation of Urban Space in Art and Literature.

Darryl Wright, Professor of Philosophy

Education: Ph.D., University of Michigan
Research Interests: History of ethics; moral and political philosophy.

Mathematics

Arthur Benjamin, Professor of Mathematics

Education: Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University
Research Interests: Combinatorics, game theory, and number theory, with particular emphasis on combinatorial proofs and Fibonacci numbers.

Andrew Bernoff, Professor of Mathematics

Education: Ph.D., Cambridge University
Research Interests: Fluid Mechanics including thin films, free surface problems, modelling of intermolecular forces, microfluidics and generation of micron-sized aerosols, mixing and advection/diffusion processes; material science, in particular continuum modelling and surface diffusion; mathematical methods, in particular dynamical systems, pattern formation self-similarity and scaling phenomena, and asymptotic methods.

Alfonso Castro, Kenneth and Diana Jonsson Professor of Mathematics

Education: Ph.D., University of Cincinnati
Research Interests: Existence, multiplicity and bifurcation of solutions to nonlinear partial differential equations, general applied mathematics.

Lisette G. de Pillis, Norman F. Sprague, Jr., Chair of Life Sciences, Professor of Mathematics and Department Chair

Education: Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Research Interests: Cancer immunology modeling, mathematical biology, optimal control, parallel computing, numerical analysis, computational fluid dynamics and numerical linear algebra.

Weiqing Gu, Professor of Mathematics

Education: M.A., Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Research Interests: Differential geometry and topology; geometrical modeling and design, applications to math-biology, applications to industrial mathematics (optimal control, encryption and color scheme).

Jon Jacobsen, Associate Professor of Mathematics

Education: Ph.D., University of Utah
Research Interests: Partial differential equations, dynamical systems, pattern formation, mathematical biology.

Dagan Karp, Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Education: Ph.D., University of British Columbia
Research Interests: Geometry and algebraic geometry. Including quantum geometry, Gromov-Witten theory and related subjects.

Henry Krieger, Professor of Mathematics Emeritus

Education: Ph.D., Brown University
Research Interests: Probability theory and stochastic processes.

Rachel Levy, Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Education: Ph.D., North Carolina State University
Research Interests: Fluid dynamics with applications in industrial and biological systems.  The mathematical models are comprised of nonlinear systems of hyperbolic and parabolic partial differential equations.  Physical contexts  include industrial coating processes, particle-laden slurry flows, surfactant replacement therapy for premature infants and animal locomotion.

Susan E. Martonosi, Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Education: Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research Interests: Operations research techniques applied to problems in homeland security; other public sector applications of mathematical modeling.

Michael Orrison, Associate Professor of Mathematics

Education: Ph.D., Dartmouth College
Research Interests: graph theory, voting theory, representation theory, computational noncommutative harmonic analysis.

Nicholas Pippenger, Professor of Mathematics

Education: Ph.D., MIT
Research Interests: discrete mathematics, probability, applications to computation and communication.

Francis Su, Professor of Mathematics

Education: Ph.D., Harvard University
Research Interests: Geometric and topological combinatorics, fair division problems in game theory and mathematical economics.

Talithia D. Williams, Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Education: Ph.D., Rice University
Research Interests: Statistical techniques applied to problems in the environment, dynamic space - time modeling, nonstationary covariance estimation, change-of-support problem.

Darryl Yong, Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Education: B.S., Harvey Mudd College; Ph.D., University of Washington
Research Interests: partial differential equations and asymptotics, mathematics education.

Physics

Chih-Yung Chen, Associate Professor of Physics

Education: Ph.D., MIT
Research Interests: Solid-state physics, including electromagnetic and optical properties of high-temperature superconductors, semiconductors and magnetic materials.

Thomas Donnelly, Professor of Physics and Associate Dean for Faculty Development

Education: Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Research Interests: Experimental laser physics, including studies of laser-driven fusion and related microfluid aerosols, the generation of polymer nanoparticles and nonlinear optics.

James C. Eckert, Professor of Physics

Education: Ph.D., University of Southern California
Research Interests:

Adam Edwards, Assistant Professor of Physics

Education: Ph.D., Stanford University
Research Interests: Experimental particle physics.

Ann Esin, Associate Professor of Physics

Education: Ph.D., Harvard University
Research Interests: Astrophysics, with a focus on observations and theoretical modeling of young stellar clusters.

Richard C. Haskell, Burton Bettingen Professor of Physics and Director of the Physics Clinic

Education: Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University
Research Interests: Biophysics and optics, including laser light scattering to study membranes and muscle; photon diffusion and optical coherence microscopy to image biological tissue.

Thomas M. Helliwell, Professor of Physics Emeritus

Education: Ph.D., California Institute of Technology
Research Interests: Theoretical general relativity, relativistic astrophysics, and cosmology; the foundations of quantum theory.

Theresa W. Lynn, Assistant Professor of Physics

Education: Ph.D., California Institute of Technology
Research Interests: Atomic and optical physics, including quantum optics; observational study of ultra-high energy cosmic rays.

Gregory A. Lyzenga, Professor of Physics

Education: B.S., Harvey Mudd College; Ph.D., California Institute of Technology
Research Interests: geophysics, including observational study of crustal deformation and earthquakes using geodetic, seismological and gravimetric methods; computer simulation of tectonic processes.

Vatche Sahakian, Assistant Professor of Physics

Education: Ph.D., University of Chicago
Research Interests: Theoretical particle physics, string theory, quantum gravity, cosmology.

Peter N. Saeta, Professor of Physics

Education: Ph.D., Harvard University
Research Interests: Nonlinear optics and semiconductor physics, including surface and buried interface effects, metal surfaces and > nanoparticles; magneto-optics; plasmonics and solar energy conversion.

Patricia D. Sparks, Professor of Physics

Education: Ph.D., Cornell University
Research Interests: solid-state physics, including study of the optical and magnetic properties of metals and interfaces.

John S. Townsend, Susan and Bruce Worster Professor of Physics and Department Chair

Education: Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University
Research Interests: Theoretical particle physics and quantum field theory