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1999-2000

WPI Announces New Faculty Members

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE/September 14, 1999
Contact: Arlie Corday, WPI Media & Community Relations

WORCESTER, Mass. - The following new faculty members will be on campus at Worcester Polytechnic Institute this year:

  • Maria T. Bezubic of Rutland, Mass., professor and head of the military science department, also serves as commander of the Bay State ROTC Battalion that provides U.S. Army officer training with schools, colleges and universities in central Massachusetts. A lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, she earned a B.S. degree in business administration from LaSalle University and an M.S. degree in management from the University of Central Texas. She is also a graduate of the Army's Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Ks., and a native of Philadelphia, Pa.

  • Bogdan D. Doytchinov of Worcester, Mass., assistant professor of mathematical sciences, has most recently been a postdoctoral associate at Carnegie Mellon University. He has earned a 1997 Ph.D. in mathematics from Carnegie Mellon and a 1987 M.S. in mathematics from Moscow State University.

  • Michelle K. Ephraim of Brookline, Mass., assistant professor in the humanities and arts department, has earned a 1998 Ph.D. degree in 16th-Century British Literature and a 1993 M.A. degree in English literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a 1991 magna cum laude B.A. degree in English and history from Tufts University. She most recently has been a lecturer in English literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she also has taught creative writing.

  • Richard K. Jordan of Worcester, Mass., assistant professor of mathematical sciences, most recently has been a National Science Foundation postdoctoral research fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He also has been a postdoctoral associate with the Center for Nonlinear Analysis at Carnegie Mellon University and an NSF research fellow and assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. He has earned a 1994 Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and 1990 M.S. and 1988 B.S. degrees in mathematics from Northeastern University.

  • Christopher J. Larsen of Boxborough, Mass., assistant professor of mathematical sciences, most recently has been a visiting assistant professor at WPI. He has earned 1996 Ph.D. and 1994 M.S. degrees in mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University, a 1992 J.D. degree from the University of Maryland School of Law and a 1989 B.S. in physics from Carnegie Mellon.

  • Jamshed J. Mistry of Belmont, Mass., assistant professor of management, most recently has been an instructor at Boston University's School of Management. He has earned a 1999 D.B.A. degree from BU, a 1984 M.B.A. degree in finance and management from the University of Utah, a 1983 B.S. degree in management from Purdue University and a 1976 bachelor's degree in accounting from Poona (India) University.

  • Jeanine D. Plummer of Sturbridge, Mass., assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, has received a 1999 Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering at the University of Massachusetts, where she also earned a 1995 M.S. degree in environmental engineering. She has earned a 1993 B.S. degree in civil and environmental engineering at Cornell University. She has been a lecturer in a number of graduate and undergraduate courses.

  • Soraya Rana of Worcester, Mass., assistant professor of computer science, has earned a 1999 Ph.D., 1995 M.S. in computer science from Colorado State University and a B.S. degree in computer science from the University of Southwestern Louisiana. She has been an instructor, teaching assistant and research assistant in her field.

  • Mark R. Stevens of Worcester, Mass., assistant professor of computer science, has earned 1999 Ph.D. and 1995 M.S. degrees in computer science from Colorado State University and a 1993 B.S. degree in computer science from the University of Maine at Orono. He has been a research assistant, instructor and teaching assistant at Colorado State. He is a native of Easton, Mass.

  • Jeffrey A. Tyler of Worcester, Mass., assistant professor of biology and biotechnology, has earned a 1991 Ph.D. in ecology and animal behavior from the State University of New York at Albany and a 1984 B.S. in biology from Davidson College. He has been an assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystems Research and the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.

  • Nathaniel A. Whitmal III of Westborough, Mass., assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, has earned 1997 Ph.D. and 1993 M.S. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from Northwestern University, a 1990 M.S. degree in engineering management from the Gordon Institute of Tufts University and a 1986 B.S. degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has recently been assistant professor at the DePaul University School of CTI.

  • Z. Amy Zeng of Shrewsbury, Mass., assistant professor of management, has earned a 1996 Ph.D. degree in business administration from Pennsylvania State University, a 1992 M.S. degree in engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle, and a 1990 B.S. in engineering from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in China. She most recently has been assistant professor of operations management at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where she has taught for the last three years.

New professors to begin in January:

  • John Bergendahl of Franklin, Conn., assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, will begin his duties in January. He has recently been a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin and received a 1999 Ph.D. in chemical engineering, a 1996 M.S. in environmental engineering and a 1985 B.S. in mechanical engineering, all from the University of Connecticut.

  • Matthew C. Bromberg of San Jose, Calif., assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, will begin his duties in January. He most recently has been a systems engineer at Radix Technologies in Mountain View, Calif. He has earned a 1990 Ph.D. and a 1988 M.S. in electrical engineering from the University of California at Davis and a 1986 M.A. in mathematics and a 1983 B.S. in engineering math from the University of California at Berkeley.

  • Nancy A. Burnham of Lausanne, Switzerland, associate professor of physics, will join the faculty in January. She earned a 1987 Ph.D. degree in physics and a 1985 M.S. in physics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a 1980 B.A. in physics from Colgate University. She most recently taught in the Department of Physics at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland.

Visiting professors:

  • Olayele Adelakun of Worcester, Mass., visiting instructor in management, has most recently been a teacher of mathematics and physics at the Government Girls Secondary School in Katsina, Nigeria. He will complete a Ph.D. in information systems this fall at the Turku School of Economics and Business Administration and has earned a 1995 M.S. degree in information processing science from the University of Oulu in Finland and a 1991 B.S. in computer science from the University of Lagos in Nigeria.

  • Mijung Kim of Worcester, Mass.., visiting assistant professor of mathematical sciences, has been an assistant professor of mathematics from 1996-98 at the University of Southern Maine and a visiting assistant professor in the biometry department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Kim earned a 1996 Ph.D. in statistics, a 1994 M.S. degree in biostatistics from the University of Illinois at Chicago and 1987 M.S. and 1985 B.S. degrees in mathematics from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea.

  • Julia S. Krushkal of Amherst, Mass., visiting assistant professor of biology and biotechnology, will begin her duties in January. She has been an assistant professor at the Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases at the University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center. She earned a 1996 Ph.D. in genetics at the University of Texas-Houston and a 1990 M.S. with distinction in cytology and genetics with a concentration in mathematical biology from the Novosibirsk (Russia) State University.

  • Brian McKenzie of Holden, Mass., and Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a visiting instructor in management, is an experienced entrepreneur and a member of the University of Victoria's award-winning entrepreneurship teaching team. He is working on a Ph.D. after earning a 1997 M.B.A. in entrepreneurship. He also has a 1974 B.A. in English literature from the University of British Columbia and a trade certificate in boat building.

Visiting scholars:

  • Akira Uchino of Shrewsbury, Mass., and Yokohama, Japan, has joined the visiting scholars program in the Social Science and Policy Studies Department. On a sabbatical leave from Senshu University where he is professor of management science in the School of Commerce, he will spend a year at WPI working with faculty to develop curricula for teaching system dynamics in Japan. He earned 1981 master's and 1979 bachelor's degrees in business administration from the Graduate School of Business Administration at Yokohama National University. Among other goals, Uchino plans to write a book on management systems.

  • Alan Wright of Worcester, Mass., is a visiting scholar with the WPI Center for Educational Development from September to December. On leave from his position as executive director of the Office of Instructional Development and Technology at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia, he will work with WPI faculty to develop their teaching portfolios. He is co-author of the publication "Recording Teaching Accomplishment: A Dalhousie Guide to the Teaching Dossier."

Research assistant professors:

  • Gordon C. Brown of Worcester, Mass., is a research assistant professor in mechanical engineering. He has been a research assistant at WPI's Center for Holographic Studies and Laser micro-mechaTronics. He earned 1999 Ph.D. and 1994 M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from WPI and a 1983 B.S. in applied geophysics from Michigan Technological University.

  • Cosme Furlong of Worcester, Mass., is a research assistant professor in mechanical engineering. He earned 1999 Ph.D. and 1992 M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from WPI and a 1989 B.E. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of the Américas - México. He has been a research assistant at WPI's Center for Holographic Studies and Laser micro-mechaTronics and will begin his appointment in October.

WPI, founded in 1865, is renowned for its project-based curriculum. Under the WPI Plan, students integrate classroom studies with research projects conducted on campus and around the world.

Related Releases

More information about the WPI faculty can be found in the Directory of Faculty Teaching, Research, and Project Advising Interests.