J. Craig Dutton, Bliss Professor and Department Head
Professor Dutton returns to Illinois after serving as chair of the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington since for the past three years. Having earned a PhD in mechanical engineering from Illinois in 1979, Professor Dutton began his academic career at Texas A&M University, returning to the University of Illinois in 1985 as an associate professor mechanical engineering. In 1998, he was named the department's W. Grafton and Lillian B. Wilkins Professor, and, in 2003, he became a Donald Biggar Willett Professor in the College of Engineering. His affiliation with aerospace engineering began in 1990 and continued until he left for the University of Texas three years ago.
Professor Dutton is a leading researcher in compressible fluid flow, propulsion, and heat transfer. His current research interests are centered on laser-diagnostic measurements of high-speed separated and mixing flows and shock wave/boundary layer interactions. The experimental techniques used in his work include LDV, PIV, PLIF, Mie/Rayleigh scattering, CARS, and PSP/TSP. Dutton's widely published research has been funded by several federal agencies including ARO, ONR, AFOSR, DARPA, and NSF.
He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He currently serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the journal, Experiments in Fluids.
New Faces 2008
Faculty
New Faces 2008
Beginning in the fall, more than a dozen professors have joined our faculty, expanding the breadth of expertise in the College of Engineering, already one of the largest and most prestigious engineering institutions in the nation. The new faculty members, hired in 2007, join more than 420 colleagues that include a Nobel laureate and a winner of both the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology.
Aerospace Engineering
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Daniel Kuchma, Associate Professor
Dan Kuchma received his PhD from the University of Toronto in 1997. His primary area of research interest is in the design, modeling, and analysis of buildings and bridges that are constructed out of structural concrete. He has led a number of projects for federal highways and for the National Science Foundation that were aimed at improving the understanding of the behavior of regions in concrete structures that are subjected to complex states of stress and towards improving the tools and procedures available to practicing engineers. This has also been a recipient of an NSF Career Award and is a Fellow of the American Concrete Institute.
His areas of expertise include large-scale structural testing, the development of advanced measurements systems, visualization environments, and the creation of design and analysis tools. His teaching ambitions mirror his research ambitions.
“My career objective is to further the use of non-linear analysis methods in design practice by fostering the development and validation of computational tools with quantified reliability for predicting all aspects of a structures performance,” he said.
Selected Publications:
• Tjhin, T. N., and Kuchma, D.A., “Computer-Based Tools for Design by the Strut-and-Tie Method: Advances and Challenges,” ACI Structural Journal, Vol. 99 No. 5, pp. 586-594, September-October, 2002
• Lee, H. J. and Kuchma, D.A., “Seismic Overstrength of Shear Walls in Parking Structures with Flexible Diaphragmsm,” Journal of Earthquake Engineering, Vol. 1, Issue 11, pp. 86-109, January 2007
Dan Kuchma received his PhD from the University of Toronto in 1997. His primary area of research interest is in the design, modeling, and analysis of buildings and bridges that are constructed out of structural concrete. He has led a number of projects for federal highways and for the National Science Foundation that were aimed at improving the understanding of the behavior of regions in concrete structures that are subjected to complex states of stress and towards improving the tools and procedures available to practicing engineers. This has also been a recipient of an NSF Career Award and is a Fellow of the American Concrete Institute.
His areas of expertise include large-scale structural testing, the development of advanced measurements systems, visualization environments, and the creation of design and analysis tools. His teaching ambitions mirror his research ambitions.
“My career objective is to further the use of non-linear analysis methods in design practice by fostering the development and validation of computational tools with quantified reliability for predicting all aspects of a structures performance,” he said.
Selected Publications:
• Tjhin, T. N., and Kuchma, D.A., “Computer-Based Tools for Design by the Strut-and-Tie Method: Advances and Challenges,” ACI Structural Journal, Vol. 99 No. 5, pp. 586-594, September-October, 2002
• Lee, H. J. and Kuchma, D.A., “Seismic Overstrength of Shear Walls in Parking Structures with Flexible Diaphragmsm,” Journal of Earthquake Engineering, Vol. 1, Issue 11, pp. 86-109, January 2007
Computer Science
Julie Hockenmaier, Assistant Professor
“I chose the University of Illinois because it has one of the best computer science departments in the country, and because there are many opportunities for interdisciplinary research on campus," explained Professor Hockenmaier. “My main field of research is natural language processing, or computational linguistics."
After receiving a PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 2003 (where her dissertation was one of five runners-up for the British Computer Society's Distinguished Dissertation awards in 2004), she did postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania on an NSF ITR grant that aimed to explore methods that have been developed to identify the structure of natural language sentences can be applied to the analysis of biological molecules such as proteins and RNA.
“During my postdoc, I also spent a lot of time at the University of California at San Francisco. I explored how parsing algorithms that are used to find the grammatical structure of sentences can be applied to model and understand the process by which proteins fold into their native structure. Natural language processing has entered an exciting phase where statistical and machine-learning techniques are now being applied to recover rich linguistic structures that are necessary if we ever want to get computers to 'understand' language. I hope to continue to contribute to this development. I also want to continue my research on new algorithms for protein folding.”
Selected publications:
• J. Hockenmaier and M. Steedman (2007). CCGbank - a corpus of CCG derivations and dependency structures extracted from the Penn Treebank. Computational Linguistics 33(3), pp. 355-396.
• J. Hockenmaier, A.K. Joshi and K.A. Dill (2007). Routes are trees: the parsing perspective on protein folding, Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics, 66(1), pp. 1-15.
“I chose the University of Illinois because it has one of the best computer science departments in the country, and because there are many opportunities for interdisciplinary research on campus," explained Professor Hockenmaier. “My main field of research is natural language processing, or computational linguistics."
After receiving a PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 2003 (where her dissertation was one of five runners-up for the British Computer Society's Distinguished Dissertation awards in 2004), she did postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania on an NSF ITR grant that aimed to explore methods that have been developed to identify the structure of natural language sentences can be applied to the analysis of biological molecules such as proteins and RNA.
“During my postdoc, I also spent a lot of time at the University of California at San Francisco. I explored how parsing algorithms that are used to find the grammatical structure of sentences can be applied to model and understand the process by which proteins fold into their native structure. Natural language processing has entered an exciting phase where statistical and machine-learning techniques are now being applied to recover rich linguistic structures that are necessary if we ever want to get computers to 'understand' language. I hope to continue to contribute to this development. I also want to continue my research on new algorithms for protein folding.”
Selected publications:
• J. Hockenmaier and M. Steedman (2007). CCGbank - a corpus of CCG derivations and dependency structures extracted from the Penn Treebank. Computational Linguistics 33(3), pp. 355-396.
• J. Hockenmaier, A.K. Joshi and K.A. Dill (2007). Routes are trees: the parsing perspective on protein folding, Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics, 66(1), pp. 1-15.
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Lynford L. Goodard, Assistant Professor
“I am also very passionate about teaching and this was a key reason I chose academia over pure research at a national lab or product driven work in industry,” explained Lynford Goodard, who joined the Illinois faculty in August 2007. “The strength of the students and faculty at the University of Illinois along with the state of the art research facilities was the primary reason for me to come here.
“In the next five years, my professional goals are to develop the world’s leading research lab for chip-scale photonic systems, to graduate numerous highly skilled researchers, and, of course, to earn tenure.”
Goddard received a BS degree (with distinction) in math and physics, an MS degree in electrical engineering, and the PhD in physics from Stanford University. His undergraduate honors thesis covered linear differential operators. At Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, he characterized the gain of 400 nm InGaN lasers during life testing. His doctoral research focused on characterization and modeling of 1.5-micron GaInNAsSb/GaAs lasers. As a graduate teaching assistant, he received the 2003 Paul H. Kirkpatrick Award for excellence in the teaching of physics.
At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he conducted post doctoral research on photonic integrated circuits, photonics-based sensors, and all-optical data processing systems. Professor Goddard is author or co-author of over 40 publications. The central theme of his research is building high-speed chip-scale monolithic photonic systems.
Selected publications:
• L. Goddard, T. Bond, G. Cole, and E. Behymer, “Functionalized lateral surface coated lasers for chem.-bio detection,” IEEE Sensors Conference (Oct 2007).
• L. Goddard, J. Kallman, and T. Bond, “Rapidly reconfigurable all-optical universal logic gates,” Proc. SPIE 6368, pp. 63680H-1-13 (Oct 2006).
• L. Goddard, S. Bank, M. Wistey, H. Yuen, Z. Rao, and J.S. Harris Jr., “Recombination, gain, band structure, efficiency, and reliability of 1.5-m GaInNAsSb/GaAs lasers,” J. Appl. Phys. 97, pp. 083101-1-15 (Apr 2005).
“I am also very passionate about teaching and this was a key reason I chose academia over pure research at a national lab or product driven work in industry,” explained Lynford Goodard, who joined the Illinois faculty in August 2007. “The strength of the students and faculty at the University of Illinois along with the state of the art research facilities was the primary reason for me to come here.
“In the next five years, my professional goals are to develop the world’s leading research lab for chip-scale photonic systems, to graduate numerous highly skilled researchers, and, of course, to earn tenure.”
Goddard received a BS degree (with distinction) in math and physics, an MS degree in electrical engineering, and the PhD in physics from Stanford University. His undergraduate honors thesis covered linear differential operators. At Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, he characterized the gain of 400 nm InGaN lasers during life testing. His doctoral research focused on characterization and modeling of 1.5-micron GaInNAsSb/GaAs lasers. As a graduate teaching assistant, he received the 2003 Paul H. Kirkpatrick Award for excellence in the teaching of physics.
At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he conducted post doctoral research on photonic integrated circuits, photonics-based sensors, and all-optical data processing systems. Professor Goddard is author or co-author of over 40 publications. The central theme of his research is building high-speed chip-scale monolithic photonic systems.
Selected publications:
• L. Goddard, T. Bond, G. Cole, and E. Behymer, “Functionalized lateral surface coated lasers for chem.-bio detection,” IEEE Sensors Conference (Oct 2007).
• L. Goddard, J. Kallman, and T. Bond, “Rapidly reconfigurable all-optical universal logic gates,” Proc. SPIE 6368, pp. 63680H-1-13 (Oct 2006).
• L. Goddard, S. Bank, M. Wistey, H. Yuen, Z. Rao, and J.S. Harris Jr., “Recombination, gain, band structure, efficiency, and reliability of 1.5-m GaInNAsSb/GaAs lasers,” J. Appl. Phys. 97, pp. 083101-1-15 (Apr 2005).
Olgica Milenkovic, Assistant Professor
Describing what attracted her to Illinois, Olgica Milenkovic said, “I saw really great students graduating from here. If you don’t have good students, very ambitious research projects don’t take off. So here, I figured I can be very ambitious and the students can follow easily.”
Prior to joining the electrical and computer engineering faculty, Milenkovic was a faculty member at the University of Colorado, Boulder, but it was the chance to have the type of students that Illinois prepares that made the decision to come here an easy one.
Milenkovic’s received her PhD from the University of Michigan in 2002. Her research interests are in signal processing information theory and coding applied to problems in bioengineering and bioinformatics.
This semester, she is teaching ECE 556: Coding Theory this semester. She will teach other courses in the areas of communication and signal processing, and she would like to develop a course on the theory of bioinformatics.
Describing what attracted her to Illinois, Olgica Milenkovic said, “I saw really great students graduating from here. If you don’t have good students, very ambitious research projects don’t take off. So here, I figured I can be very ambitious and the students can follow easily.”
Prior to joining the electrical and computer engineering faculty, Milenkovic was a faculty member at the University of Colorado, Boulder, but it was the chance to have the type of students that Illinois prepares that made the decision to come here an easy one.
Milenkovic’s received her PhD from the University of Michigan in 2002. Her research interests are in signal processing information theory and coding applied to problems in bioengineering and bioinformatics.
This semester, she is teaching ECE 556: Coding Theory this semester. She will teach other courses in the areas of communication and signal processing, and she would like to develop a course on the theory of bioinformatics.
Gabriel Popescu, Assistant Professor
Professor Popescu earned his BS (1995) and BS (1996) in Physics from University of Bucharest, Romania, and his MS (1999) and PhD (2002) in Optics from College of Optics and Photonics (CREOL), University of Central Florida. Before joining Illinois, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher in the G. R. Harrison Spectroscopy Laboratory at MIT.
The Quantitative Light Imaging Laboratory (QLI) at Illinois, directed by Professor Popescu, is focused on developing novel optical methods based on light scattering, interferometry and microscopy to quantify structure and dynamics of cells and tissues. Hosted by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, the QLI Lab is performing highly interdisciplinary research at the interface between technology development, basic biological studies and clinical applications.
In the next five years or so, Professor Popescu aims to answer basic questions related to stochastic and determinist nanoscale motions in live cells.
Selected publications:
• G. Popescu, Y. K. Park, R. R. Dasari, K. Badizadegan, and M. S. Feld, “Coherence properties of red blood cell membrane motions”, Phys. Rev. E, 76, 021902 (2007).
• G. Popescu, T. Ikeda, K. Goda, C. A. Best-Popescu, M. L. Laposata, S. Manley, R. R. Dasari, K. Badizadegan, and M. S. Feld, “Optical measurement of cell membrane tension”, Phys. Rev. Lett., 97, 218101 (2006).
• G. Popescu, T. Ikeda, R. R. Dasari, and M. S. Feld, “Diffraction phase microscopy for quantifying cell structure and dynamics”, Opt. Lett., 31, 775 (2006).
Professor Popescu earned his BS (1995) and BS (1996) in Physics from University of Bucharest, Romania, and his MS (1999) and PhD (2002) in Optics from College of Optics and Photonics (CREOL), University of Central Florida. Before joining Illinois, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher in the G. R. Harrison Spectroscopy Laboratory at MIT.
The Quantitative Light Imaging Laboratory (QLI) at Illinois, directed by Professor Popescu, is focused on developing novel optical methods based on light scattering, interferometry and microscopy to quantify structure and dynamics of cells and tissues. Hosted by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, the QLI Lab is performing highly interdisciplinary research at the interface between technology development, basic biological studies and clinical applications.
In the next five years or so, Professor Popescu aims to answer basic questions related to stochastic and determinist nanoscale motions in live cells.
Selected publications:
• G. Popescu, Y. K. Park, R. R. Dasari, K. Badizadegan, and M. S. Feld, “Coherence properties of red blood cell membrane motions”, Phys. Rev. E, 76, 021902 (2007).
• G. Popescu, T. Ikeda, K. Goda, C. A. Best-Popescu, M. L. Laposata, S. Manley, R. R. Dasari, K. Badizadegan, and M. S. Feld, “Optical measurement of cell membrane tension”, Phys. Rev. Lett., 97, 218101 (2006).
• G. Popescu, T. Ikeda, R. R. Dasari, and M. S. Feld, “Diffraction phase microscopy for quantifying cell structure and dynamics”, Opt. Lett., 31, 775 (2006).
Industrial & Enterprise Systems Engineering
Jong-Shi Pang, Caterpillar Professor and Department Head
Professor Pang comes to Illinois from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he served as the Margaret A. Darrin Distinguished Professor in Applied Mathematics and Professor of Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems. Prior to that, he was a professor of mathematical sciences at The Johns Hopkins University. Professor Pang also served both as a full-time and part-time program director of Applied Mathematics and Computations Mathematics in the National Science Foundation. His research includes the broad areas of equilibrium modeling and optimization, ranging from basic mathematical formulations and their properties, to computation and algorithm analysis, including applications in engineering and economics.
He was a winner of the 2003 George B. Dantzig Prize awarded jointly by the Mathematical Programming Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics for his work on finite-dimensional variational inequalities, and a co-winner of the 1994 Frederick W. Lanchester Prize awarded by the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science. Two of his publications have received best paper awards.
Professor Pang is an ISI Highly Cited Researcher in the Mathematics Category between 1980-1999; he has published three widely cited monographs and more than 100 scholarly journals in top peer reviewed journals. He earned his PhD in operations research and his master’s degree in statistics, both from Stanford University. He received his BS in mathematics from National Taiwan University.
Professor Pang comes to Illinois from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he served as the Margaret A. Darrin Distinguished Professor in Applied Mathematics and Professor of Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems. Prior to that, he was a professor of mathematical sciences at The Johns Hopkins University. Professor Pang also served both as a full-time and part-time program director of Applied Mathematics and Computations Mathematics in the National Science Foundation. His research includes the broad areas of equilibrium modeling and optimization, ranging from basic mathematical formulations and their properties, to computation and algorithm analysis, including applications in engineering and economics.
He was a winner of the 2003 George B. Dantzig Prize awarded jointly by the Mathematical Programming Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics for his work on finite-dimensional variational inequalities, and a co-winner of the 1994 Frederick W. Lanchester Prize awarded by the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science. Two of his publications have received best paper awards.
Professor Pang is an ISI Highly Cited Researcher in the Mathematics Category between 1980-1999; he has published three widely cited monographs and more than 100 scholarly journals in top peer reviewed journals. He earned his PhD in operations research and his master’s degree in statistics, both from Stanford University. He received his BS in mathematics from National Taiwan University.
Mechanical Science and Engineering
David Saintillan, Assistant Professor
David Saintillan received his bachelor’s degree in engineering from Ecole Polytechnique in France. He earned a master’s degree and a PhD in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. In 2007, he was awarded the Andreas Acrivos Dissertation Award in Fluid Dynamics by the American Physical Society. Before joining the University of Illinois, he worked for two years as an associate research scientist at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University.
Saintillan’s research focuses on the development and application of efficient theoretical and computational tools to model microscale transport phenomena and fluid flow problems relevant to biophysical and engineering systems. In his recent work, he has developed large-scale simulation techniques to understand the dynamics and behavior of complex fluids such as particulate suspensions and polymer solutions. The long-term objectives of his research are to enhance the basic understanding of physical and biophysical fluid phenomena, while providing efficient and reliable design tools for engineering applications.
Selected publications:
D. Saintillan and M. J. Shelley, “Orientational order and instabilities in suspensions of self-locomoting rods,” Physical Review Letters, 99, 058102 (2007).
D. Saintillan, E. Darve and E. S. G. Shaqfeh, “Hydrodynamic interactions in the induced-charge electrophoresis of colloidal rod dispersions,” Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 563, 223-259 (2006).
D. Saintillan, E. S. G. Shaqfeh and E. Darve, “The growth of concentration fluctuations in dilute dispersions of orientable and deformable particles under sedimentation,” Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 553, 347-388 (2006).
David Saintillan received his bachelor’s degree in engineering from Ecole Polytechnique in France. He earned a master’s degree and a PhD in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. In 2007, he was awarded the Andreas Acrivos Dissertation Award in Fluid Dynamics by the American Physical Society. Before joining the University of Illinois, he worked for two years as an associate research scientist at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University.
Saintillan’s research focuses on the development and application of efficient theoretical and computational tools to model microscale transport phenomena and fluid flow problems relevant to biophysical and engineering systems. In his recent work, he has developed large-scale simulation techniques to understand the dynamics and behavior of complex fluids such as particulate suspensions and polymer solutions. The long-term objectives of his research are to enhance the basic understanding of physical and biophysical fluid phenomena, while providing efficient and reliable design tools for engineering applications.
Selected publications:
D. Saintillan and M. J. Shelley, “Orientational order and instabilities in suspensions of self-locomoting rods,” Physical Review Letters, 99, 058102 (2007).
D. Saintillan, E. Darve and E. S. G. Shaqfeh, “Hydrodynamic interactions in the induced-charge electrophoresis of colloidal rod dispersions,” Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 563, 223-259 (2006).
D. Saintillan, E. S. G. Shaqfeh and E. Darve, “The growth of concentration fluctuations in dilute dispersions of orientable and deformable particles under sedimentation,” Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 553, 347-388 (2006).
Kimani C. Toussaint, Jr., Assistant Professor
"I chose Illinois because the university provides a uniquely collaborative research environment, particularly between engineering and the sciences. This greatly facilitates interdisciplinary research endeavors. Five years from now, the optical tools that I am developing will help shed light on the properties of various structures at the nanoscale, and contribute to improved noninvasive optical imaging techniques for biomedical applications."
Kimani Toussaint, Jr. received his PhD in electrical engineering from Boston University in 2004. His dissertation work focused on using polarization-entangled photons to probe the optical properties of materials. Prior to starting at Illinois, Toussaint was an NSF Minority Postdoctoral Fellow in Biology at the University of Chicago, where he worked on interference microscopy, exotic polarization states, and optical trapping. In 2006, he was one of 100 top American scientists in the United States (under 45) to be selected for the National Academy of Science's 18th Annual Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium.
Professor Toussaint pursues interdisciplinary research in optical physics and engineering that has applications in many disciplines, including chemistry, biology, physics and engineering. Currently, he is developing an advanced optical microscopy platform for characterizing and manipulating both nano- and biological systems.
Selected publications:
• K. C. Toussaint, Jr., M. Liu, M. Pelton, J. Pesic, P. Guyot-Sionnest, and N. F. Scherer, “Plasmon Resonance-based Optical Trapping of Single and Multiple Au Nanoparticles,” Optics Express, 15, 12017-12029, 2007.
• A. F. Abouraddy and K. C. Toussaint, Jr., “Three-dimensional Polarization Control in Microscopy,” Physical Review Letters, 96, 153901, 2006.
• K. C. Toussaint, Jr., S. Park, J. E. Jureller, and N. F. Scherer, “Generation of Optical Vector Beams with a Diffractive Optical Element Interferometer,” Optics Letters, 30, 2846-2848, 2005.
"I chose Illinois because the university provides a uniquely collaborative research environment, particularly between engineering and the sciences. This greatly facilitates interdisciplinary research endeavors. Five years from now, the optical tools that I am developing will help shed light on the properties of various structures at the nanoscale, and contribute to improved noninvasive optical imaging techniques for biomedical applications."
Kimani Toussaint, Jr. received his PhD in electrical engineering from Boston University in 2004. His dissertation work focused on using polarization-entangled photons to probe the optical properties of materials. Prior to starting at Illinois, Toussaint was an NSF Minority Postdoctoral Fellow in Biology at the University of Chicago, where he worked on interference microscopy, exotic polarization states, and optical trapping. In 2006, he was one of 100 top American scientists in the United States (under 45) to be selected for the National Academy of Science's 18th Annual Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium.
Professor Toussaint pursues interdisciplinary research in optical physics and engineering that has applications in many disciplines, including chemistry, biology, physics and engineering. Currently, he is developing an advanced optical microscopy platform for characterizing and manipulating both nano- and biological systems.
Selected publications:
• K. C. Toussaint, Jr., M. Liu, M. Pelton, J. Pesic, P. Guyot-Sionnest, and N. F. Scherer, “Plasmon Resonance-based Optical Trapping of Single and Multiple Au Nanoparticles,” Optics Express, 15, 12017-12029, 2007.
• A. F. Abouraddy and K. C. Toussaint, Jr., “Three-dimensional Polarization Control in Microscopy,” Physical Review Letters, 96, 153901, 2006.
• K. C. Toussaint, Jr., S. Park, J. E. Jureller, and N. F. Scherer, “Generation of Optical Vector Beams with a Diffractive Optical Element Interferometer,” Optics Letters, 30, 2846-2848, 2005.
Matthew West, Assistant Professor
Before coming to Illinois in January 2008, Matthew West was an assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University, West completed his PhD in control and dynamical systems at the California Institute of Technology in 2002. His research interests include asynchronous and structure-preserving integrators, stochastic simulation and uncertainty quantification, and multi-scale and multi-physics simulations. He has investigated the use of computers to simulate problems with fluids and boundaries, such as droplets in an engine injector system or the inflation of gas inside an airbag. His work has the potential to make a significant impact on both energy efficiency and clean combustion in automobiles, as well as transportation safety. In 2004, he was named a Terman Fellow in the School of Engineering at Stanford, an honor that is conferred on promising faculty.
Before coming to Illinois in January 2008, Matthew West was an assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University, West completed his PhD in control and dynamical systems at the California Institute of Technology in 2002. His research interests include asynchronous and structure-preserving integrators, stochastic simulation and uncertainty quantification, and multi-scale and multi-physics simulations. He has investigated the use of computers to simulate problems with fluids and boundaries, such as droplets in an engine injector system or the inflation of gas inside an airbag. His work has the potential to make a significant impact on both energy efficiency and clean combustion in automobiles, as well as transportation safety. In 2004, he was named a Terman Fellow in the School of Engineering at Stanford, an honor that is conferred on promising faculty.
Physics
Mark Neubauer, Assistant Professor
As an experimental physicist, Mark Neubauer’s research has spanned a diverse set of topics in the study of elementary particles and their interactions. The ultimate goal of this pursuit is to gain a deeper understanding of Nature at its most fundamental level and to elucidate the physics that lies beyond the standard model.
His research began as a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania working on the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) experiment, which was designed to resolve the long-standing deficit of solar e observed in previous experiments. As a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later at the University of California, San Diego, he conducted research at the current energy frontier provided by proton-antiproton collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron. As member of the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) experiment, he made important contributions to heavy flavor and high-pt physics, including searches for the Higgs boson and new physics. In 2007, he and colleagues provided the first evidence for ZZ production at a hadron collider and the most stringent limits on Higgs boson production to date (in decay to W boson pairs).
Professor Neubauer received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania after obtaining a bachelor's degree in physics from Kutztown University. After receiving his PhD, he worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the MIT and UCSD. He joined the Illinois faculty in Fall 2007.
Selected publications:
• T. Aaltonen et al., (CDF Collaboration) "Search for Chargino-Neutralino Production in ppbar Collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV," hep-ex/0707.2362, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. (2007).
• A. Abulencia et al., (CDF Collaboration) "Inclusive Search for New Physics with Like-Sign Dilepton Events in ppbar Collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV," Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 221803 (2007).
• A. Abulencia et al., (CDF Collaboration) "Observation of WZ Production," Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 161801 (2007).
• A. Abulencia et al., (CDF Collaboration) "Measurement of the Lb Lifetime in Lb → J/yL0 in ppbar Collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV," Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 122001 (2007).
• B. Aharmim et al., (SNO Collaboration) "Measurement of the ne and Total 8B Solar Neutrino Fluxes with the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Phase I Data Set," Phys. Rev. C 75, 045502 (2007)
As an experimental physicist, Mark Neubauer’s research has spanned a diverse set of topics in the study of elementary particles and their interactions. The ultimate goal of this pursuit is to gain a deeper understanding of Nature at its most fundamental level and to elucidate the physics that lies beyond the standard model.
His research began as a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania working on the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) experiment, which was designed to resolve the long-standing deficit of solar e observed in previous experiments. As a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later at the University of California, San Diego, he conducted research at the current energy frontier provided by proton-antiproton collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron. As member of the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) experiment, he made important contributions to heavy flavor and high-pt physics, including searches for the Higgs boson and new physics. In 2007, he and colleagues provided the first evidence for ZZ production at a hadron collider and the most stringent limits on Higgs boson production to date (in decay to W boson pairs).
Professor Neubauer received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania after obtaining a bachelor's degree in physics from Kutztown University. After receiving his PhD, he worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the MIT and UCSD. He joined the Illinois faculty in Fall 2007.
Selected publications:
• T. Aaltonen et al., (CDF Collaboration) "Search for Chargino-Neutralino Production in ppbar Collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV," hep-ex/0707.2362, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. (2007).
• A. Abulencia et al., (CDF Collaboration) "Inclusive Search for New Physics with Like-Sign Dilepton Events in ppbar Collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV," Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 221803 (2007).
• A. Abulencia et al., (CDF Collaboration) "Observation of WZ Production," Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 161801 (2007).
• A. Abulencia et al., (CDF Collaboration) "Measurement of the Lb Lifetime in Lb → J/yL0 in ppbar Collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV," Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 122001 (2007).
• B. Aharmim et al., (SNO Collaboration) "Measurement of the ne and Total 8B Solar Neutrino Fluxes with the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Phase I Data Set," Phys. Rev. C 75, 045502 (2007)
© 2008 The Board of Trustees at the University of Illinois