The College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters would like to welcome 15 new full-time, tenure track faculty members, who joined the University this fall:
Mahesh Agarwal, assistant professor of mathematics and statistics, earned a bachelor’s degree at St. Stephen’s College in India, a master’s degree at the Indian Institute of Technology in India and a doctoral degree at U-M Ann Arbor. Agarwal previously taught at McMaster University, U-M and Delhi University in India. Agarwal’s research interests include special values of automorphic L-functions, p-adic L functions, automorphic forms, Iwasawa theory and Langlands program. Agarwal has presented research at professional meetings across the country and internationally. Agarwal also received U-M’s Outstanding Graduate Instructor Award for the years 2006 and 2007.
Arlo Clark-Foos, assistant professor of psychology, earned a bachelor’s degree at North Carolina State University, and master’s and doctoral degrees at the University of Georgia, where he previously taught and served as a graduate researcher. He also served as a research assistant at North Carolina State. Clark-Foos’ research interests include the mental representations and cognitive processes that underlie many forms of human learning and memory such as prospective memory, the residual effects of valence on both attention and memory, source monitoring, and theoretical issues in basic memory phenomena such as metacognition, recognition and free recall. His work has been published in a number of publications, including American Journal of Psychology, Memory, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review and Memory and Cognition.
Natalia Czap, assistant professor of economics, earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees at Moscow State University in Russia, as well as a doctoral degree at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She previously taught at St. Lawrence University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Moscow State. Her primary research interests include behavioral economics, experimental economics and environmental economics, yet she also studies urban economics and industrial organization. Her research has appeared in publications like Modeling of Economic Processes, Current Issues in Mathematical Economics and Journal of Socio Economics.
Francine Dolins, assistant professor of psychology, earned a bachelor’s degree at University of Sussex in England, and a doctoral degree at University of Stirling in Scotland. She previously taught at University of Winchester, Polytechnic University, Centre College, Seton Hall University and the University of Stirling. Dolins’ research has been published in a number of publications, including her work on “Animal Welfare Perspectives on Pain and Distress Management in Research and Testing” in the Journal of Laboratory Animals. Dolins also has presented her research at professional meetings across the country and internationally, including “Using Virtual Reality to Investigate the Spatial Cognitive Abilities of Chimpanzees and Humans” at the International Primatological Society’s Symposium on Spatial Cognition in Scotland.
Thomas Fiore, assistant professor of mathematics and statistics, earned bachelor’s degrees at University of Pittsburgh and a doctoral degree at U-M Ann Arbor. Previously, he taught at the University of Chicago and U-M. His research interests include higher category theory and its applications, algebraic topology, and mathematical music theory. His work has been published in a number of publications, including Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society, Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra, Journal of Homotopy and Related Structures, and American Mathematical Monthly.
Ivy Forsythe-Brown, assistant professor of sociology, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Eastern Michigan University, and a doctoral degree at University of Maryland. Forsythe-Brown previously served as a postdoctoral research fellow for the Program for Research on Black Americans at U-M’s Institute for Social Research, and taught at Delta College, Central Michigan University and Eastern. Forsythe-Brown’s research interests include migration/immigration, race/ethnicity, stratification/social inequality, and gender and family. Her work on “Age Cohort, Ancestry and Immigrant Generation Influences in Family Relations and Psychological Well-being among Black Caribbean Family Members” was published in the Journal of Social Issues.
Sally Howell, assistant professor of history, earned a bachelor’s degree at Davidson College and her master’s and doctoral degrees at U-M Ann Arbor. She previously served as a graduate student instructor and research associate at U-M, as well as consultant and cultural arts director for the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services. Her research interests include the history of the Muslim communities of Detroit, the Arab American and Chaldean communities of Detroit, and how Arab and Muslim Americans responded to the post 9/11 backlash. Howell has presented her research at professional meetings across the country and internationally, as well as publishing in journals and books, including the recent Citizenship and Crisis: Arab Detroit after 9/11.
Yangjin Kim, assistant professor of mathematics and statistics, earned a bachelor’s degree at Korea University and his master’s and doctoral degrees at the University of Minnesota. He previously taught at Korea University and The Ohio State University, where he also served as a postdoctoral researcher. Kim served as a teaching and research assistant at University of Minnesota, as well. His research interests focus on ‘mathematical biology’ or the mathematical modeling of tumor growth (cancer progression) and asthma. Kim has presented his research at professional meetings across the country and internationally, including co-organizing a workshop on “A Mathematical Model of Brain Tumor” for Young Researchers in Mathematical Biology at The Ohio State University, and organizing a minisymposium on “Tumor Microenvironment: Influence on Cancer Progression” for the Fields Institute’s 2008 Society for Mathematical Biology conference in Toronto.
Megan Moore, assistant professor of anthropology, earned a bachelor’s degree at The Ohio State University, a master’s degree at University of Oregon and her doctoral degree at the University of Tennessee. She previously taught at Dickinson College, University of Tennessee, Pellissippi State Community College and Columbus State Community College. Moore served as coordinator for computed tomographic (CT) scanning of modern skeletal collections at University of Tennessee and University of New Mexico, with more than 600 individuals scanned. She also served as a forensic anthropologist for the Physicians for Human Rights Cyprus Project under the direction of William Haglund. Her research has been published in a number of publications, including her work on “3D Statistical Shape Models of Patella for Sex Classification” in Forensic Science International and “The Case of Boss Tweed: Identification by Caricature” in Journal of Forensic Identification.
Andrea Olive, assistant professor of political science, earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Calgary, a master’s degree at Dalhouse University and a doctoral degree at Purdue University. She previously taught at Purdue and Dalhouse, and served as a research assistant for the American Council on Education. Since 2006, Olive served as a research assistant examining state chemical policies in regard to brominated flame retardants, under a multi-disciplinary National Science Foundation grant. Her research interests include environmental policy, particularly the intersection of science and policy as well as the role of normative beliefs in environmental politics. Other research interests include the Endangered Species Act, gendered perceptions of wildlife, and USCAN environmental relations. Her research on “Discourse, Rhetoric and the Regulation of Environmental Risk” has been published in Polity and “Protecting Biodiversity on Private Property: Insights from Indiana” in Society and Natural Resources.
Nehal Patel, assistant professor of criminal justice, earned a bachelor’s degree at the University o f Wisconsin-Madison, master’s and doctoral degrees at Northwestern University, and a juris doctorate at Wisconsin Law School. Patel previously taught at Northwestern. His research interests include sociology of law, environmental sociology, sociology of religion, social psychology of collective behavior, social movements, consciousness studies and mixed-methods research. Patel’s research on “The State’s Perpetual Protection of Adultery: Examining Koestler v. Pollard and Wisconsin’s Faded Adultery Torts” has been published in the Wisconsin Law Review. He also has presented his research at professional meetings across the country.
Nadja Rottner, assistant professor of art history, earned degrees equivalent to bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Bundesrealgymnasium and Karl-Franzens Universitat in Austria, as well as two master’s degrees and a doctoral degree at Columbia University. Rottner previously taught at Columbia, the California College of the Arts, The New School and Hunter College of the City University of New York. Rottner’s research interests include American art after 1945; Latin American art, 1940s to present; art and film, video, expanded cinema; and art and performance. Rottner served as curator for “Small World: Contemporary Practices of Staging in Photography” at the *67 Gallery in Brooklyn, and “Thinking the Line: Ruth Vollmer and Gego,” which Rottner co-curated with Peter Weibel in Kraichtal, Germany.
Michael Twiner, assistant professor of biology, earned bachelor’s and doctoral degrees at the University of Western Ontario. Twiner previously served as a National Research Council Fellow and associate research scientist at the Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. His research interests include the pharmacological characterization of algal toxins produced by harmful algal bloom species and the impacts of these toxins on aquatic organisms and humans. His work has been published in number of publications, including Toxicon, Harmful Algae, Genomics, Analytical Biochemistry, Journal of Plankton Research, Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, Environmental Toxicology, Limnology and Oceanography, and Marine Ecology and Progress Series.
Jin Wang, assistant professor of physics, earned a bachelor’s degree at Yangzhou University in China, a master’s degree at Suzhou University, and a doctoral degree at the University of Queensland in Australia. Wang previously taught at the University of Tennessee, and served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Nebraska, the University of Utah and them University of Rochester. Wang’s research interests are in the field of quantum optics, particularly using quantum measurement and feedback to control a quantum system. Other interests include atomic molecular physics, statistical physics, condensed matter, laser spectroscopy and cavity quantum electro-dynamics. Wang’s research has been published in a number of publications, including the Journal of Physics, the European Physical Journal, Physical Review, Chemical Physics and Physics Letters.
Alan Wiggins, assistant professor of mathematics and statistics, earned a bachelor’s degree at Indiana University and a doctoral degree at Texas A&M University. He previously taught at Vanderbilt University, Texas A&M and the University of Texas. Wiggins’ research interests focus on von Neumann algebras. In particular, he studies factors, or those algebras with trivial multiplicative center, including the n × n matrices as well as the bounded linear operators on a Hilbert space but also additional objects known as type II1 factors. His research has been published in the Illinois Journal of Mathematics, the International Journal of Mathematics and the Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications.
The College would also like to welcome four new full-time lecturers:
Samia Al-Qaisi, Lecturer III in Chemistry, Department of Natural Sciences;
Patricia Hartshorn, Lecturer III in Natural Sciences/MEL Lab Coordinator, Department of Natural Sciences;
Montaha Macany, Lecturer III in Mathematics, Department of Mathematics & Statistics;
Michael Shelly, Lecturer III in Mathematics, Department of Mathematics & Statistics.