Clark School Faculty Promotions Announced

The University of Maryland A. James Clark School of Engineering has announced the promotion of 13 faculty members.

Those promoted to Full Professor are listed below:

Gang Qu, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), joined the Clark School faculty in 2000 and has a joint appointment with the Institute for Systems Research (ISR). In addition, he is the director of the Maryland Embedded Systems and Hardware Security Lab (MeshSec) and also leads the Wireless Sensor Laboratory. Qu’s primary research interests are in the area of embedded systems and VLSI Computer Aided Design with focus on low power system design and hardware related security and trust. His promotion will be effective July 1, 2014.

Ankur Srivastava, ECE, joined the Clark School faculty in 2002 and has held a joint appointment with ISR since 2008. He currently serves as the Associate Chair of Graduate Studies and Research in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Srivastava’s primary research interests lie in the field of high performance, low power electronic systems, and applications such as computer vision, data and storage centers, and sensor networks. His promotion will be effective July 1, 2014.

Jonathan Simon, ECE, joined the ECE faculty in 2001. Simon is also a faculty member of UMD’s Department of Biology and has a joint appointment with the University of Maryland Institute for Systems Research (ISR). Simon's research focuses on neural processing in the brain's auditory system, from specialized processing found only in humans (used in speech processing) to generalized processing found in most mammals, including sound localization. In addition to his work with ISR and as a professor, Simon is co-director of the Computational Sensorimotor Systems Laboratory (CSSL). His promotion will be effective July 1, 2014.

Ahmet Aydilek, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), joined the University of Maryland in 2001. His research interests include geotechnical engineering, geoenvironmental engineering, and geosynthetics, currently focusing on the sustainability in geotechnical infrastructure design, studying the mechanical and environmental behavior of recycled concrete aggregate, fly ash-stabilized unpaved road materials and soft soils for their possible reuse in highway construction, and development of design methodologies for various base materials considering their hydraulic and mechanical properties. His promotion will be effective August 23, 2014.

Patrick McCluskey, Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME), joined the Clark School in 1997. His research focuses on high temperature and high power electronics packaging, materials, and reliability. McCluskey is also the Assistant Director for Component Research at the CALCE Electronic Products and Systems Center. He is the principal investigator for topics related to computer aided risk assessment of microelectronics, electronic packaging design for high temperature and high power applications, and the insertion of commercial components into high reliability applications. His promotion will be effective July 1, 2014.

Yunfeng Zhang, CEE, joined the University of Maryland in 2008. His research interests lie in sensor technology, smart materials, passive seismic response modification device for seismic hazard mitigation and performance based design of self-centering structural systems, system identification of nonlinear structures, shake-table test, and large-scale structural testing. His promotion will be effective August 23, 2014.

Arnaud Trouvé, Department of Fire Protection Engineering (FPE), joined the Clark School in 2001. Trouvé is the Director of Graduate Studies for the department and also works as an affilate professor for the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Aerospace Engineering. His research interests include fire modeling, cyber-infrastructure, application of data assimilation to fire and combustion, physical modeling of fire-related phenomena, turbulent combustion, soot formation and oxidation, combustion-generated toxic products, flash fires, fireballs, and explosions and wildfire propagation. His promotion will be effective August 23, 2014.

Those promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure are listed below:

Qingbin Cui, CEE, joined the University of Maryland in 2005. His research interests include infrastructure finance and sustainability, project delivery, contract engineering, project complexity, and global project administration. In addition to his role as professor, Cui also works with the University of Maryland Energy Research Center and the Project Management Center. His promotion will be effective August 23, 2014.

Yu Chen, Fischell Department of Bioengineering (BioE), joined the Clark School of Engineering faculty in 2007. His research involves biomedical optical imaging, optical coherence tomography (OCT), multi-photon Microsopy (MPM), diffuse optical spectroscopy and imaging, molecular imaging, early cancer diagnosis, neuroimaging. In addition to his role as a BioE professor, Chen is the Principal Investigator for the Biophotonic Imaging Laboratory and is an American Society of Lasers in Medicine and Surgery Fellow. His promotion will be effective July 1, 2014.

Sarah Bergbreiter, ME, joined the University of Maryland in 2008 with a joint appointment in Mechanical Engineering and ISR. She is also the director of the Microrobotics Laboratory. Her research bridges work in systems and control with microsystems and fabrication. Her specific interests are in microrobotics, micro-electro-mechanical systems, microactuators, soft robotics, robot locomotion, networked centimeter-scale robots, and millimeter-scale power systems. Her promotion will be effective August 23, 2014.

Ian White, BioE, joined the University of Maryland faculty in 2008. His research interests focus on disease detection, optical biosensors, ring resonators, SERS, and lab-on-a-chip technology. In addition to his role as BioE professor, he leads the White Research Group, which develops integrated microsystems for the diagnosis and study of disease at the cellular and molecular level. His promotion will be effective July 1, 2014.

Jeffery Klauda, ChBE, joined the Clark School Faculty in 2007. Professor Klauda's research interests encompass thermodynamic modeling and molecular simulations with applications in energy, gas separation, and biomolecular systems. In addition to his work as a professor, Klauda also serves as the Principal Investigator for the Laboratory of Molecular and Thermodynamic modeling. His promotion will be effective July 1, 2014.

Ganesh Sriram, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE), joined the Clark School in 2008. Sriram is also an affiliate professor for the Department of Bioengineering and Plant Biology graduate programs. His research involves systems biology and metabolic engineering (metabolic networks, regulatory networks, fuel production from biorenewable resources) and genetically inherited metabolic disorders. His promotion will be effective August 23, 2014.