Among the newcomers to the Urbana campus are more than 6,700 freshmen and about 106 tenure/tenure track faculty members whose appointments began this summer or fall.
On Aug. 22, while new and returning students checked out Quad Day, inside the Illini Union new faculty and staff members were welcomed by Provost Linda Katehi at the annual Faculty/Academic Staff Orientation.
“Year after year, we have been able to recruit people of extraordinary talent and dedication,” Katehi said at the orientation. “This ability is vital to our mission of sustaining excellence in all that we do. Your presence here today demonstrates our continued ability to bring to campus those people who will enable us to sustain our reputation for excellence and meet new, even more ambitious goals.”
The event, sponsored by Academic Human Resources, included sessions on tenure and promotion, campus resources that support research and teaching, career building, information on balancing work/life issues and a luncheon, during which Chancellor Richard Herman spoke. Many departments and colleges on campus also offered orientations or events to help new faculty members.
Inside Illinois continues its tradition of introducing some of the new faculty members on campus and will feature at least two new colleagues in each fall issue.
NEW faces 2006
JOSE ANTONIO CHEIBUB associate professor of political science and Boeschenstein Scholar of Political Economy and Public Policy, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Education: Ph.D. (political science), University of Chicago; M.A. (political science), Institute of Academic Research, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; B.A. (history), Fluminense University, Rio de Janeiro.
Teaching at Illinois: During the upcoming academic year, Cheibub will teach PoliSci 355, "Democratization," and PoliSci 549, "Topics in Comparative Politics."
Research: "Cheibub's body of scholarly work has developed steadily by consistently addressing big questions central to the subfield of comparative politics," wrote Paul Diehl, interim department head of political science. "The hallmark of his work is engaging the assumptions and arguments of existing literature with a meticulous, systematic, and often elegant testing of its broad and sometimes loosely argued propositions." Cheibub's research interests comprise the relationship between democracy and economic development, and appropriate institutional choice in the construction of sustainable democracy. Cheibub is the author of numerous articles, book chapters and the books "Presidentialism, Parliamentarism and Democracy," (Cambridge University Press, due November 2006) and "Democracy and Development," (Cambridge University Press, 2000), which is "a 'must-read' for social scientists seeking to understand the connections between governmental structures, economic performance and the sustainability of democracy," Diehl wrote. The book won the American Political Science Association's 2001 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for the best book published in the U.S. on government, politics or international affairs.
JAN ERKERT professor and head of dance College of Fine and Applied Arts
Education: B.F.A. (dance), The University of Utah, Salt Lake City.
Teaching at Illinois: Fall 2006, Erkert will teach "Beginning Modern Dance Technique for Majors" and will be a guest in improvisation and composition courses for both undergraduate majors and for candidates for the master's of fine arts degree.
Research: Erkert's primary research interest is in making dances. She is a well known choreographer who led a successful Chicago-based dance company for many years. She also is interested in pedagogy and has written a book on the teaching of technique, "Harnessing the Wind," (Human Kinetics, 2003). She has been invited to give lectures and workshops about teaching dance throughout the world.
Among other honors, Erkert received a Fulbright Award 2005 for a four-month teaching and research residency in Mexico at the Universidad de Sonora in Hermosillo and Universidad de las Americas in Puebla.
Robert Graves, interim dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts, wrote: "Jan Erkert's arrival and appointment as head ends five years of transitional leadership in the department of dance. She brings great vigor and skill as both an artist and administrator to our department. Her vision includes creative ideas regarding development, production, interdisciplinary projects and community engagement. I feel she will be an inspiring leader with a collaborative, no-nonsense style who will help us secure the visibility we deserve." Erkert's community/outreach activities have included volunteering at the Marjorie Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture in Chicago, mentoring and producing works by numerous young Chicago choreographers and conducting classes for seniors and at-risk teens.
GERALD "JEFF" ERICKSEN assistant professor in the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations
Education: Ph.D. and M.S. (human resource studies), Cornell University; M.B.A, Cornell University; B.A. (psychology), St. Olaf College.
Teaching at Illinois: LIR 568, “Firm Performance and Human Resource Management.” Research: “Professor Ericksen brings to ILIR considerable expertise in how corporations implement new methods to perform work that will enable them to achieve marketplace success and how these work methods can be changed as corporate goals change,” said Peter Feuille, director of ILIR. “He is an excellent instructor who is particularly adept at explaining complex material in interesting and understandable ways. He recently completed an appointment as a lecturer at the Yale Divinity School. He will strengthen ILIR’s research and teaching portfolios, particularly on the emerging-issues-in-the-workplace dimension.”
CHRISTOPHER M. GRINDROD assistant professor of speech and hearing science College of Applied Health Sciences
Education: Ph.D. (communication sciences and disorders) and M.A. (linguistics), McGill University in Montreal; B.A (French, anthropology) University of Western Ontario.
Teaching at Illinois: SHS 570 “Quantitative Reasoning Speech and Hearing Science.”
Research: Grindrod comes to the UI from the department of cognitive and linguistic sciences at Brown University where he had been a postdoctoral research associate since 2004. His teaching interests are in the areas of acquired language disorders and language processing. His research focuses on the neural basis of language comprehension, with a specific interest in the role of the left and right cerebral hemispheres in integrating word meanings into higher-level sentence and discourse contexts.
JODI FLAWS associate professor in veterinary biosciences College of Veterinary Medicine
Education: Ph.D. (physiology), University of Arizona; M.S. (biology), Loyola University; B.S. (biology) St. Xavier University.
Research: “Jodi’s research is a very good fit with the existing strengths at the college in reproductive biology, environmental toxicology, infectious disease and epidemiology,” said Herb Whiteley, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine. “She’ll be working with a large group of faculty members whose expertise spans the comparative biomedical sciences – from the clinical, applied side working out of our teaching hospital, to the basic laboratory side. Her cadre of postdocs and graduate students will augment our reputation as the place for graduate studies in translational biomedical research, which bridges the gap between biological discoveries and health applications for people and animals. Jodi also increases our hybrid vigor, offering fresh perspectives for persistent research questions.” This fall, Flaws is overseeing the Histology Lab.
RACHEL J. WHITAKER assistant professor of microbiology College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Education: Ph.D. (microbiology), University of California, Berkeley; B.A. (biology, science in society) Wesleyan University, Connecticut.
Teaching at Illinois: Whitaker will develop a course, “Molecular Approaches to Microbial Ecology,” which she will teach fall 2007.
Research: Her research focuses on microbial ecology at the molecular level. “Rachel Whitaker is a brilliant young microbial ecologist who has the unusual ability to bridge the gulf between evolutionary population genetics and prokaryotic molecular biology,” said John Cronan, head and professor of microbiology. “In her doctoral work she presented the strongest evidence to date demonstrating that geographical isolation plays a role in structuring natural populations of microbes (this was counter to the prevailing opinion). She has since developed approaches to study population dynamics at a detailed genomic level and will apply these tools to the study of populations of microbes found in extreme environments.”
YOUFU (FRANK) ZHAO professor of phytobacteriology in the department of crop sciences College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
Education: Ph.D. (plant pathology), Oklahoma State University; M.S. (plant pathology) and B.S. (plant protection), Zhejiang (Agricultural) University.
Teaching at Illinois: Zhao will teach a course on the molecular biology of host-pathogen interactions and another in phytobacteriology.
Research: “Dr. Zhao’s research will focus on the genetics of host-pathogen interactions and host resistance, with an emphasis on diseases of importance in Illinois,” said Robert G. Hoeft, head and professor of crop sciences. “He is especially interested in identifying potential new virulence factors which contribute to pathogenesis during interactions with the host plant.”
ANGELIA NEDIC assistant professor of industrial and enterprise systems engineering, College of Engineering
Education: Ph.D. (mathematics and mathematical physics), Moscow State University; Ph.D. (electrical engineering and computer science), Massachusetts Institute of Technology; M.S. (mathematics), University of Belgrade; B.S. (mathematics), University of Montenegro.
Teaching at Illinois: Nedic will teach Senior Design (GE 494/495) and courses in control systems.
Research: “Angelia has an excellent track record and two Ph.D.s plus several years of real-world experience working with defense and homeland security,” said Deborah L. Thurston, interim head of the department of industrial and enterprise systems engineering. “She has a deep and broad grasp of how things fit together, especially of how we can build our new department.” Nedic’s research interests include linear and nonlinear optimization, convex and nonconvex optimization, stochastic dynamic programming and approximations, large scale decision systems, duality theory and applications, and parallel and distributed algorithms.
MICHELLE NELSON professor of advertising College of Communications
Education: Ph.D. (advertising), UI; M.A. (journalism and mass communication) and B.S. (English literature), University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Teaching at Illinois: Advertising 483, “Audience Analysis.”
Research: Gender and cross-cultural communication and consumption, consumption rituals, entertainment media, product placement, consumer decision-making, strategic market communications, citizen-consumer, ethnography and persuasion.
“Professor Nelson’s work exhibits a mastery of a variety of methodological, quantitative, qualitative and interpretive approaches,” said Norman Denzin, College of Communications Scholar and research professor of sociology and of communications who was interim head of advertising at the time Nelson was hired. “Professor Nelson has established a strong national and international presence. In addition, she has professional experience in the field of advertising and marketing, and she will bring those experiences into the classroom and envelop them in her research. Dr. Nelson fills a critical need in the department of advertising’s undergraduate professional curriculum and in advertising’s professional master’s track program, and she will bring stability and balance to advertising’s newly developing doctoral program.”
WILLIAM C. OLIVERO professor of surgery College of Medicine
Education: M.D. and B.S., UI.
Teaching at Illinois: Olivero will assist in the delivery of the basic science curriculum to first-year medical students and contribute to the clinical component of the medical curriculum, including the Internal Medicine Residency Program. He also will be a contributing lecturer in the bioengineering and neuroscience programs. Olivero will work with UI and Carle Clinic to provide clinical care as a neurosurgeon and to collaborate with the UI neuroscience program.
Research: Olivero’s main areas of research have been in brain tumor, hydrocephalus and brain cooling. His new appointment with Carle Clinic Association and UI will allow him to explore a new area of interest, functional magnetic resonance imaging of pain. “Dr. Olivero brings hands-on experience with neurologic function and disease to all stages of our medical and graduate curricula,” said Brad Schwartz, regional dean of the College of Medicine. “With his expert guidance, students will more clearly understand the connection of basic cellular and molecular mechanisms to human health and disease.” Olivero also will work to establish a research presence at Carle Foundation Hospital.
CHRISTINE HURT associate professor of law College of Law
Education: J.D., University of Texas School of Law; B.A. (English), Texas Tech University.
Teaching at Illinois: Hurt is currently teaching Business Associations and Torts. In the future she will teach business ethics, corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions
Research: “Christine Hurt captures the lively and ambitious spirit of Illinois,” said Heidi M. Hurt, dean of the College of Law. “She is sharp as a whip, charismatic, confident and witty. And her scholarship on cleverly-defined and important topics in business and finance exemplifies these personal virtues. She takes on pithy issues, such as online securities trading and Internet gambling, with intellectual vigor, and she follows arguments to their logical conclusions with integrity and curiosity. I am delighted that we were able to recruit a scholar of such present promise and future stature.”
BRUCE LEVINE J.G Randall Professor of History College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Education: Ph.D. and M.A. (history), University of Rochester; B.A. (history) University of Michigan.
Teaching at Illinois: This fall Levine is teaching HIST 498, “The Civil War Era in the U.S., 1820-1880,” and HIST 572, “Core Readings in American History.” In spring 2007, he will teach HIST 200, “Introduction to Historical Interpretation,” and HIST 374, “Civil War and Reconstruction.”
Research: “Bruce Levine is one of the most distinguished historians of the Civil War in the U.S. today. He has research and teaching interests which revolve around questions of nation, labor, emancipation and the Confederacy,” said Antoinette Burton, professor and chair of history, the Catherine C. and the Bruce A. Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies. “His career suggests how unnecessary the divide between popular and academic history is, and how powerfully histories of the Civil War in particular can serve public interest as well shape the development of genuinely new intellectual directions in 19th century U.S. history,” Burton said.
TIMOTHY C. JOHNSON associate professor of finance College of Business
Education: Ph.D. (finance), University of Chicago; M.B.A. (international business) and M.S. (operations research), Columbia University; S.B. (mathematics) Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Teaching at Illinois: FIN 512, ”Financial Derivatives.”
Research: “Tim’s research agenda, which is aimed at better understanding the economic factors that affect asset prices and how that relates to theory, is remarkable,” said David Ikenberry, interim associate dean and director of the Executive MBA Program and chair of the department of finance. “His views have forced a newly emerging paradigm on behavioral finance to take more care in developing and advancing its theoretical foundation. He has been lauded as among the most influential scholars in financial economics in recent years and we look forward to the impact he will have,” Ikenberry said.
DAVID M. RICHMAN associate professor of special education College of Education
Education: Ph.D. (social psychology) and B.A. (psychology and political science), University of Iowa.
Teaching at Illinois: SPED 471, “Learning Environments II” and SPED 591, “Field Study and Thesis Seminar.”
Research: Richman studies the science of links between basic behavioral operations and processes to adaptive and aberrant behavior exhibited by children with special needs. “Dr. Richman’s research on the most challenging problem behaviors of children is of extreme importance,” said Adelle Renzaglia, head of special education. “His recent program of study that focuses on the emergence of severe problem behaviors has brought the field to a new point of understanding. He has been successful at securing external funding in very competitive competitions to support his research and development activities.”