Sep 07, 2005 - Claremont, Calif. -

by Whitney Buchanan '07

Harvey Mudd College is excited to welcome in the new academic year and with it, several fantastic new faculty members. Six of eight new professors are women, making Harvey Mudd's faculty 35 percent women.

Beyond their academic excellence, all bring with them a wide array of interests and hobbies, which are certain to fit right in with Mudd's eclectic group of students and faculty. This term we also have the privilege of welcoming Daniel Goroff as our new dean of faculty. Goroff comes to Mudd from Harvard University. His academic interests are extensive, covering dynamical systems and Hamiltonian mechanics, mathematical history, philosophy, and education, clearly exemplifying the breadth of education that Harvey Mudd strives to instill in its students.

New faculty joining HMC this fall are:

Anna N. Ahn joins as an assistant professor of biology, having served last year as visiting assistant professor. Both her Ph.D. and undergraduate degrees are in integrative biology from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to coming to HMC, she worked as an NIH post-doctoral fellow at Harvard and as a visiting scientist at MIT. Her research focuses on the neural control and mechanics of animal locomotion by examining the neural signals sent to muscles and how the different levels of musculoskeletal organization respond to these signals. Her hobbies include running, tennis, and traveling to the tropics for scuba diving.

Christine Alvarado comes to Computer Science as an assistant professor. She has Ph.D. and S.M. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and an A.B. in computer science from Dartmouth. She comes to HMC from a post-doc at the University of San Diego, and has served as an instructor at the University of California, San Diego and at MIT. Her research interests lie in the conjunction of artificial intelligence and human computer interaction, particularly in the technical challenges of building intelligent interfaces. While at MIT, she was co-captain of the women's ice hockey team, and was on the masters swim team and in the triathlon club.

Sarah Harris comes as an assistant professor of engineering, having served this past year as visiting assistant professor. She holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford, and holds a B.S. in electrical and computer engineering from Brigham Young University. While at Stanford, she served as an instructor, research assistant, and teaching assistant. Her research interests include computer architecture, with particular emphasis on multiprocessor systems, memory, and system design. She is fluent in German and Spanish, and can converse in Mandarin Chinese. She has a black belt in taekwondo, and enjoys many outdoor activities like windsurfing, climbing, and tennis.

Nancy K. Lape comes to Engineering as an assistant professor. She completed her B.S. in chemical engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and earned her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She comes to HMC from a post-doctoral fellowship at the Laboratoire des Sciences du Genie Chimique in Nancy, France, where she conducted research into novel methods for carbon dioxide capture based on polymer absorption and taught courses in chemical product design. While a graduate student, she was an NSF graduate research fellow, and served as a recitation instructor and teaching assistant. Her current research interests include chemical product design, the barrier behavior of skin, and diffusion in micro- and nanophase systems. Lape recently ran her third marathon, and also likes hiking, literature, singing, cooking and speaking French.

Susan E. Martonosi joins Mathematics as an assistant professor. She earned her Ph.D. in operations research from MIT and a B.S. in operations research and industrial engineering from Cornell. She has served as a research and yeaching assistant at MIT and Cornell, and has conducted research with the RAND Corporation. She also served as a high school mathematics teacher with the Peace Corps in the Republic of Guinea, where she learned two foreign languages. Her research interests are in stochastic and optimization models for problems in the public sector, including homeland security, health care, education, and public safety. She enjoys running, swimming, Senegalese sabar drumming and playing the piano.

Debra Mashek comes to Humanities and Social Sciences as assistant professor of psychology from George Mason University, where she served as research assistant professor, and post-doctoral Research Fellow. She earned both a M.A. and Ph.D. in social/health psychology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and a B.S. in biopsychology from Nebraska Wesleyan University. Her research on the psychology of relationships addresses questions such as: What are the causes and consequences of feeling "too close" to romantic partners?, and how do jail inmates manage potentially competing allegiances to the criminal community and the community at large?

Christopher D. Tirres joins Humanities and Social Sciences as assistant professor of religious studies. He received a M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University in the Modern West and religion and society, a M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School, and an A.B. in religion from Princeton, with additional studies at Universidad Autónoma Nacional de México. He has served as a teaching fellow and senior thesis advisor at Harvard, and received a Distinguished Teaching Award from Harvard's Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning in 2003. His dissertation was titled "Transforming the Everyday: The Aesthetic and Ethical Dimensions of John Dewey's Theory of Religious Experience." Tirres enjoys running, swimming, music, and, most important of all, raising two small kids!

David A. Vosburg comes as an assistant professor of chemistry from Harvard Medical School, where he was a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow and laboratory manager for the renowned biochemist Christopher T. Walsh. He received his Ph.D. in chemistry from The Scripps Research Institute, and a B.A. in chemistry from Williams College. While at The Scripps Research Institute, he synthesized two antitumor agents and served as classroom instructor and teaching assistant for graduate synthetic organic chemistry. His current area of study is the biomimetic synthesis of medicinal natural products, with an emphasis on interesting cyclization reactions. His hobbies and interests include theology, movies, role-playing games, basketball, and a variety of outdoor sports, including hiking and camping.