New faculty appointed

Nicholas Dembsey has been appointed assistant professor of fire protection engineering. Dembsey received his B.S.E. in civil engineering from the University of Michigan, and his M.S. in civil engineering and Ph.D. in fire safety engineering science from the University of California at Berkeley. His research interests currently focus on modeling and full-scale experimental evaluation of compartment fire phenomena, such as fire entrainment processes and wall-lining fire growth. Dembsey is a registered professional engineer with five years of private consulting experience. He is a member of the Society of Fire Prevention Engineers, the National Fire Protection Association, the International Association of Fire Safety Science, and the Combustion Institute.

James Carl Hermanson was appointed assistant professor of mechanical engineering. Hermanson is a native of Seattle, Washington, who was a research assistant at United Technologies Research Center in East Hartford, Connecticut, before joining the WPI faculty on March 13. He earned his B.S. at the University of Washington and his M.S. and Ph.D. at the California Institute of Technology. His research and teaching interests focus on fluid mechanics, including aerodynamics, turbulent mixing, compressible and multiphase flow, and on combustion, including flame structure and stability and exhaust emissions. Hermanson is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Combustion Institute and the National Space Society.

Jeffrey D. McWhirter was appointed assistant professor of computer science. McWhirter earned a bachelor's degree in computer science at Oakland University, and a master's and doctorate in computer science at the University of Colorado. His research interests are in software systems, user-interface development environments, visual languages and visualization.

Christof Paar joined the WPI faculty in January as assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. A native of Cologne, Germany, Paar holds degrees in electrical engineering from the Technical College of Cologne, the University of Siegen and the Institute for Experimental Mathematics at the University of Essen. His research focuses on cryptography, computer arithmetic and coding aspects in communication systems. He is a member of the IEEE Computer, Communications, Education, and Signal Processing Society.

Stephen W. Pierson will join the faculty as an assistant professor of physics on Jan. 1, 1996. He is currently completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Electronic Materials Branch of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. Pierson holds a B.A. in physics, math and Spanish from Concordia College and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Minnesota. His research interests are in the physics of various systems in reduced dimensions, including the properties of electrons and photons in semiconductor nanostructures, and the properties of fluctuations and electronic transport characteristics in high-temperature superconductors.

Kathryn A. Sullivan will join the faculty as an assistant professor of management on October 25. Sullivan is currently completing her Ph.D. in accounting at the George Washington University, where she is an instructor. Her thesis investigated the economic effect of hospital mergers. Sullivan earned a B.A. in economics at Macalester College, a B.S. in accounting at Winona State University, and M.B.A at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse.

Kristin Nelson Wobbe of Lexington, Mass., was appointed assistant professor of chemistry. She completed her B.A. in chemistry at St. Olaf College and her Ph.D. in biochemistry at Harvard University. Her research interests are in the field of plant disease resistance, focusing on the molecular mechanisms of pathogen recognition and viral movement.