College Announces Six
New Faculty Appointments

For the second year in a row, six new faculty members are joining the College of Engineering. The group includes four women and two men. They represent four of the College’s five departments, with three in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and one each in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. One comes in as a full professor, while the other five are just beginning their careers as assistant professors.

“All of these new faculty members have excellent credentials, and we’re excited about their potential to make significant contributions to research, teaching, and service in the College,” said Dean Eric Kaler. “We’re also looking forward to two more new faculty joining us in the Department of Chemical Engineering next June.”

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Prior to joining the UD Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Sue McNeil was Director of the Urban Transportation Center and Professor in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She was previously a member of the faculty at Carnegie-Mellon University.

Sue holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University. A native of Australia, she earned her bachelor’s degree in mathematics at the University of Newcastle in New South Wales.

“We were delighted when Sue accepted a position in our department,” said Chair Michael Chajes, “as she came highly recommended by her colleagues, based on not only her many accomplishments in the areas of teaching, research, and service but also on her leadership qualities, her energy, and her diplomacy.”

McNeil is one of the most prominent individuals in the United States in the area of asset management. Her work also encompasses life-cycle costing, application of advanced technologies, economic analysis, condition assessment and deterioration modeling, and decision support.

In 2003, she was selected to serve as the first Chair of the Transportation Research Board’s new committee on asset management. In recent years, she has applied her expertise in asset management to the area of brownfield development, an effort focused on transforming abandoned industrial properties to productive uses.

As an educator, Sue has supervised 60 master’s students and 24 doctorates, many of whom have gone on to achieve prominence of their own, including named professorships and other high-level positions within academia, government, and industry. According to one colleague, she has mentored more female Ph.D. candidates than any other faculty member in the transportation field. In addition to graduate advisement, she has supervised more than 40 undergraduate research projects.

“Sue has clearly made a mark educating, nurturing, and mentoring a significant number of transportation professionals,” said Chajes, “and we look forward to working with her as she continues her career here at Delaware.”

Jamie MacMahan joined the faculty in the Department’s coastal engineering group after a two-year appointment as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Florida in Coastal Engineering and his M.S. at the University of South Carolina in Geological Sciences.

His areas of research interest include surf zone processes, rip current dynamics, in-situ field observations, and surf zone instrumentation. He has carried out field experiments in locations throughout the world, including Brazil, Malaysia, Australia, and Ghana.

MacMahan already has some 30 publications to his credit, including eight papers published in or accepted by refereed journals. He has also delivered three invited presentations.

“Jamie will add field measurement capabilities to the coastal program and will allow us to apply for grants in research topics that require both numerical and observational capabilities,” said Prof. Nobu Kobayashi. “He is also teaching Introduction to Coastal Engineering and increases the visibility of the coastal program to undergraduate students.”

Dr. Jennifer Righman, who earned her Ph.D. at West Virginia University, will be affiliated with the Department’s Center for Innovative Bridge Engineering. Her Ph.D. dissertation focused on rotation-based moment redistribution design and rating specifications for highway bridges. She also holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from WVU, with her master’s thesis focusing on the development of an innovative connection for fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bridge decks to steel girders.

Dr. Righman has published several papers on her work and given a number of presentations at conferences and symposia. She is currently at work on two chapters for a book she is co-authoring with Karl Barth, her doctoral advisor.

“I was particularly attracted to the opportunities available for working with the Center for Innovative Bridge Engineering and the Center for Composite Materials at UD,” says Righman. “I’m excited to begin establishing a research program that complements the current efforts of these centers and contributes towards furthering the state of the art of bridge engineering. I also look forward to enhancing the education of both graduate and undergraduate students in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.”

“We’re very happy to have Jennifer join us,” said Bridge Center Director Dennis Mertz. “Her expertise complements that of our other faculty members, and she will strengthen our research and education programs in bridge engineering.”

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Takashi Buma earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University. He went on to complete a master’s in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in applied physics, both at the University of Michigan. Buma then spent three years as a postdoctoral research fellow at Michigan’s Center for Ultrafast Optical Science.

According to ECE Chair Gonzalo Arce, Buma brings unique theoretical and experimental capabilities in ultrafast optics and biomedical ultrasonics. His doctoral work at Michigan focused on high-frequency wave systems for microfluidics and acoustic “tweezers,” which use ultrasound waves to gently manipulate cells.

“Acoustic tweezers use pulsed laser light that is transduced into high-frequency vibrations capable of isolating and moving a cell in any direction,” Arce explains. “An advantage of this technique over other cell manipulation methods is that the process can be reversed and an isolated cell returned to its place in the cell culture. This technology may become very valuable in tissue culture and drug discovery assays where researchers could quickly isolate cells, treat them, and return them to their cultures to see if they suffer any toxic effects.”

Buma’s postdoctoral work at Michigan focused on 3-D terahertz (THz) imaging and spectroscopy, work with the potential to have a significant impact on biomedical diagnostics. Notably, the tools developed in THz imaging can be adapted to sensing in the millimeter wave (MMW) regime, a research area of particular strength at the University of Delaware.

“Due to its ‘see-through’ characteristics,” says Arce, “MMW imaging is rapidly emerging as a technological need for numerous civilian and homeland security applications that are critical to the nation. Prof. Buma brings unique scientific capabilities to UD, which will naturally lead to collaborations across campus and will open new research opportunities in our department.”

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Xinqiao Jia earned her Ph.D. in the Polymer Science and Engineering Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and then completed postdoctoral research at MIT. She is interested in the design, synthesis, and characterization of biomimetic materials with controlled architectures and functionalities. “We will evaluate these novel macromolecular systems for their applications in soft tissue engineering and targeted drug delivery,” she says. “Another aspect of our research involves the application of a surface engineering methodology to create functional biointerfaces.”

While Jia’s focus during the past few years has been primarily on her research, she is equally excited about the teaching aspects of being a faculty member. “The University of Delaware offers an exceptional environment because it provides a very broad range of teaching opportunities,” she says. Jia is currently teaching an introductory graduate-level course on the science and engineering of polymer systems. “I would also like to introduce a special course that focuses on tissue engineering and expose students to the frontiers in this exciting field,” she says.

Jia received several faculty position offers but says that she chose the University of Delaware for several reasons, including the advanced state of the research ongoing in materials science and engineering, the department’s collegiality and the many opportunities for collaboration on campus, and the University’s location.

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Liyun Wang joined the University of Delaware after earning a Ph.D. at City University of New York and doing postdoctoral work at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. She also served as an Instructor in the Department of Orthopedics at Mt. Sinai for a year.

Dr. Wang’s work focuses on solute transport in connective tissues (bone and cartilage), which plays an important role in cell function and tissue remodeling. Specifically, she is investigating how mechanically induced fluid flow enhances transport of nutrient and signaling molecules within bone using non-invasive imaging techniques and mathematical modeling.

“This research will not only provide information about tissue metabolism in normal and diseased conditions,” she says, “but also help develop engineered tissues in the future. I’m excited about the opportunities for collaborating with faculty in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Biological Sciences, and Physical Therapy. My goal is to establish a well-funded biomechanics research program and to promote biomedical engineering education for undergraduate and graduate students.”

“Dr. Wang will play a critical role in building ties with the Department of Biological Sciences,” said ME Chair Thomas Buchanan. “We are very pleased to have her join us. Her work on bone is an excellent fit with our center grant on osteoarthritis and will strengthen our efforts in tissue engineering.”

by Diane Kukich