New Faculty Series
News Center is posting profiles of tenured and tenure-track professors who have recently joined the University. The following schools' profiles have been published:
Students interested in engineering and computer science fields have been a major catalyst for University growth. Computer science and biomedical, mechanical, electrical and computer engineering have been among the top 10 declared majors for freshman the past two years.
At the master’s degree level, computer science and electrical engineering have been among the top 10 majors in recent years. Professors hired in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science are also integral in the Arts and Technology program, with majors that draw significant numbers of freshman and master’s students.
Responding to this demand, leaders of the Jonsson School have hired an average of 10 new tenured/tenure-track faculty members each year since 2009, outpacing the strategic goal set for the school to reach 175 faculty members by 2020.
“Faculty members pursue careers at UT Dallas for some of the same reasons our rapidly expanding student population attend — our recognized excellence in computer science and electrical and computer engineering and related fields, as well as our strategic expansion into areas important to society, such as biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering, materials science, analog electronics, cybersecurity, systems engineering, robotics and control systems, said Dr. Mark W. Spong, dean of the Jonsson School.
The school currently has 140 tenured/tenure-track faculty members, with an additional 33 full-time senior lecturers, who educate nearly 5,000 students.
“The Jonsson School is reputable enough to lure talent at the top of their game, yet still flexible enough to provide a base for younger faculty to shape the Jonsson School and University culture as they grow in impact on their fields,” said Spong, holder of the Lars Magnus Ericsson Chair in Electrical Engineering and the Excellence in Education Chair.
Dr. Joseph Callenes-Sloan, assistant professor, electrical engineering
Previously: Doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Research Interests: Computer architecture, low-power design, fault-tolerant computing, and high performance and scientific computing
“The strong record and the potential for growth were some of the main factors that attracted me to the University. I have been greatly impressed by the students and faculty in the Jonsson School.”
Dr. Catrina Coleman, professor, electrical engineering
Previously: Professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Research Interests: Techniques for fabricating semiconductor lasers and photonic integrated circuits based on quantum well intermixing; high frequency mode-locked diode lasers
“There is a positive energy about the place and it feels like somewhere you can achieve your ambitions. I am particularly interested in semiconductor lasers that emit short pulses of light (around 1 ps) at very high frequencies (40 GHz and higher). These devices are very compact, efficient and low-cost sources of light pulses that can be used in applications such as fiber optic communications. I would like to explore other applications such as sources for atomic clocks and sensing and imaging systems.”
Dr. James Coleman, department head, electrical engineering; Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science Distinguished Chair; member, National Academy of Engineering
Previously: Intel Alumni Endowed Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Research Interests: Semiconductor lasers, optoelectronics, epitaxial growth, quantum dots, nanostructures
“Working on semiconductors is a two-part problem: the device and the materials. If you found something interesting about materials, then you had to find a way to get it into a device. I have always enjoyed that push and pull between materials and devices. Which one is pushing and which one is pulling is not always obvious.”
Dr. Paul Fishwick, ATEC Distinguished University Chair, professor of computer science
Previously: Director of Digital Arts and Sciences, University of Florida
Research Interests: Modeling and simulation, exploring new representational approaches to automata as well as mathematical and computational models
“Models are common to all disciplines within the University. They are designed and constructed to help us understand a breadth of subjects from extreme weather to business trends. And, creating a model is really an artistic process, so what we’re doing in the lab fully embodies the spirit of the Arts and Technology (ATEC) program.”
Dr. Robert Gregg, assistant professor, mechanical engineering and bioengineering
Previously: Research scientist at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and an Engineering into Medicine Fellow at Northwestern University
Research Interests: Modeling and control of legged robots, prosthetics and orthotics, neural mechanisms of human locomotion, modeling and simulation, nonlinear control theory
“Every time I visited the campus for meetings and seminars, there were new buildings somewhere or something was different. I would think, ‘Wow, this is an exciting, dynamic environment.’ Also, having the resources at UT Southwestern Medical Center nearby is crucial for my research. The vision for growth between UT Dallas and UT Southwestern provides great opportunity for my interests.”
Dr. Heather Hayenga, assistant professor, bioengineering
Previously: Postdoctoral fellow, University of Maryland, College Park
Research Interests: Cell and tissue biomechanics, mechanobiology of atherosclerosis, arterial growth and remodeling, multiscale modeling
“It is my honor to be a part of the unparalleled collaborative research family at UT Dallas. Working together, we can discover new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat unwanted diseases. My particular research involves understanding the mechanobiology of cells in order to predict tissue responses to perturbation and design better devices.”
Dr. Myoungsoo Jung, assistant professor, electrical engineering
Previously: Doctoral student at Pennsylvania State University
Research Interests: Computer architecture, high performance computing, graphic processing units, operating systems, memory/storage systems, emerging non-volatile memory technologies
“Data explosion is occurring in all market segments today, and their dataset sizes are growing faster than DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) capacity is scaling. Our ultimate vision is to enable infinite memory space in many computing domains with the assistance of novel, non-volatile memory systems. This infinite memory will define a wide spectrum of research in eliminating capacity limitations and power constraints faced by modern DRAM technologies.”
Dr. Stefano Leonardi, associate professor, mechanical engineering
Previously: Associate professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
Research Interests: Turbulence, computational fluid mechanics, wind energy, drag reduction, super hydrophobic surfaces, heat transfer, oceanography
“I am honored to be part of UTD and work in such a stimulating environment. Collaborating with motivated students and bright colleagues, I am sure we will become leaders in wind energy modeling, and build one of the most recognized computational fluid mechanics laboratories in the nation.”
Dr. Cong Liu, assistant professor, computer science
Previously: PhD student, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Real-time and embedded systems, battery-powered cyber-physical systems, real-time operating systems, mobile and cloud computing
“I am very happy and honored to join the Computer Science Department at UT Dallas, a big, friendly and collaborative family. The CS program, the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, and UT Dallas in general are on a clear uptrend. It is my goal to contribute to the department and make it one of the strongest CS programs in the nation."
Dr. S.M. You, professor, associate department head, mechanical engineering
Previously: Professor, associate department chair, mechanical and aerospace engineering, University of Texas at Arlington
Research interests: Micro/nano scale heat transfer, nucleate boiling and phase-change heat transfer, thermal management of high-heat flux microelectronics, heat transfer in thermal energy systems
"It is my goal to contribute to the construction of one of the most recognized Mechanical Engineering programs in the nation. Working together with bright students, hard-working fellow faculty, great leaders of the university, and reactive staff, we can vision UT Dallas to mature into the Tier One university in the DFW metroplex."