The promotions of 16 tenured faculty members to full professor were approved by the Executive Committee of the MIT Corporation. All the promotions take effect July 1.
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
Cynthia Barnhart of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Barnhart is one of the foremost experts in applying the theories of operations research to air transportation problems. She has focused on algorithms designed to exploit problem structure and solve models containing billions of variables. She also works on modeling approaches that result in dramatically reduced computational requirements. The impact is both improved profitability for carriers and improved utilization of constrained resources.
Barnhart's leadership is demonstrated by simultaneously serving as codirector of MIT's Center for Transportation Studies and the Operations Research Center. She has served on numerous national panels on air transportation and on editorial boards of publications including the Journal of Operations Research.
Barnhart received a bachelor of science degree from the University of Vermont in 1981, and the S.M. and Ph.D. from MIT in 1985 and 1988. She joined the MIT faculty in 1992.
Linda G. Griffith of the Department of Chemical Engineering.
Griffith is internationally recognized as a pioneer in tissue engineering. The field focuses on the synthesis or regeneration of living, physiological, three-dimensional tissues and organs by applying principles from disciplines such as molecular biology, polymer chemistry and chemical engineering. She is well known for her novel developments of scaffolds for therapeutic applications, her fundamental understanding and development of materials for controlling cell behavior, and the creation of physiological models of tissue.
Griffith played major roles in the creation of the biomedical engineering minor at MIT, the Center for Biomedical Engineering and the Biological Engineering Division.
Griffith received a bachelor of science degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1982, and the Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1988. She joined MIT as a postdoctoral associate in 1988.
Qing Hu of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Hu's research interests are high-frequency and high-speed devices and systems. Most of his work is in the THz domain, a severely underdeveloped frequency range between the technologically well-developed microwave and optical frequencies.
The THz frequency range is important for potential applications in broadband communications, ultrahigh-frequency and high-speed signal processing, remote sensing and imaging, pollution monitoring and spectroscopy. Hu's research combines experimental work with theory and simulation. He is working on both conventional devices such as heterostructure bipolar transistors, and novel quantum devices such as quantum-cascade THz lasers. His group built an on-chip transceiver system with THz bandwidths, which may be used to characterize ultrahigh-frequency devices and perform on-chip THz sensing of biological and chemical species.
Hu received the B.S. from Lanzhow University in 1982, and the M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard in 1983 and 1987.
Seth Lloyd of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Lloyd studies how physical systems process information. His work has had a profound impact on quantum computing, quantum communication and quantum mechanical engineering.
He proposed the first technologically feasible design for a quantum computer and created the designs and algorithms that led to the experimental realization of the first quantum logic gates and computations. He also has shown how quantum mechanical effects could significantly enhance the accuracy of GPS and clock synchronization.
Lloyd runs the department's flexible degree program in which students design a large part of their own curriculum. In 2001 he won the Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award for distinction in research, teaching and service to the MIT community.
Lloyd received the B.A. from Harvard (1982), the C.Math. and M.Phil. from Cambridge University (1983 and 1984), and the Ph.D. from Rockefeller University (1988). He joined the MIT faculty in 1994.
Gregory W. Wornell of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Wornell works at the boundaries between signal processing, digital communication and information theory. There his interests lie in developing the mathematical structure of efficient solutions to the problems of representation, transmission and processing of signals and information in systems.
Some of his most important contributions have been in the areas of wireless and high-speed communication techniques, algorithms for multimedia data security, and the analysis and application of fractal geometry and nonlinear dynamics. Wornell played a leading role in the creation of MIT's emerging Center for Wireless Networking, which aims to foster a more closely knit community among MIT researchers in wireless networks, systems and technologies.
Wornell received a bachelor of applied science degree from the University of British Columbia in 1985, and the S.M. and Ph.D. from MIT in 1987 and 1991. He joined the faculty in 1991.
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING
Lawrence John Vale of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning.
Vale is a leading scholar in the politics and history of urban design who has recently published two books and a series of award-winning articles on the evolution of the policies, forms, occupancy and transformation of public housing in the United States. An outstanding advisor and teacher of graduate and undergraduate students, he was awarded a MacVicar Fellowship in 1999.
Vale came to MIT in 1988 as a lecturer in the Department of Architecture. He was promoted to assistant professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning in 1990. He has held the Linde Career Development Assistant Professorship (1990-1993) and the Mitsui Career Development Assistant Professorship (1993-1996). He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1997.
Vale received the B.A. degree in American studies in 1981 from Amherst College, the D.Phil. degree in international relations from Oxford University in 1985 and the S.M. degree in architecture from MIT in 1988. He studied at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1985-1986.
SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES, ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Thomas J. Christensen of the Department of Political Science.
Christensen studies issues of east Asian security, focusing particularly on China. He is author of "Useful Adversaries, Grand Strategy, Domestic Mobilization, and Sino-American Conflict, 1947-1958," an innovative study of United States-China relations during the Cold War.
Christensen came to MIT in 1998 as associate professor of political science. Before that he worked as assistant professor of government (1993-1997) and as associate professor of government (1997-1998) at Cornell University. Christensen also has worked at Harvard University and at Columbia University. He has been an Olin National Security Fellow at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs and a Social Science Research Council/MacArthur Foundation Fellow in International Peace and Security.
Christensen received the B.A. degree from Haverford College in 1984; the M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1987 and the Ph.D. degree from Columbia University in 1993, all in political science.
Stephen Van Evera of the Department of Political Science.
Van Evera is a leading figure in the field of international relations whose teaching and research focus on United States' foreign policy and on the causes and prevention of war.
Van Evera sustained a leadership role in the MIT community in the weeks following the terrorist attacks in New York City and in Washington D.C. on Sept. 11. He organized and participated in a series of teach-ins to inform others and to debate among experts issues related to the attacks and their aftermath.
Van Evera received three degrees in political science: the B.A. from Harvard College in 1970 and both the M.A. and the Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1984.
He came to MIT in 1990 as an assistant professor and was promoted in 1995 to associate professor. Van Evera also has taught at Tufts University and Princeton University.
SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
Richard Michael Locke in the Sloan School of Management.
Locke's recent work focuses on globalization and its impacts on both advanced industrial and developing societies. This research is being used to inform the United Nation's Global Compact Initiative.
Locke's publications include "Remaking the Italian Economy," "Employment Relations in a Changing World Economy," and, most recently, "Working in America," co-auhored with MIT faculty colleagues.
Since earning tenure in 1996, Locke has taught in both the Department of Political Science and the Sloan School. He has served as faculty research associate at the Center for European Studies at Harvard since 1989 and has been director of the MIT-Italy Program since 1999.
Locke received the B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1981, the M.A. in education from the University of Chicago in 1990 and the Ph.D. from MIT in 1989.
He joined the faculty in 1989 as an assistant professor of management, was promoted to associate professor without tenure in 1993, and to associate professor with tenure in 1996.
Locke was awarded the Alvin J. Siteman Chair in Entrepreneurship in 2000 and the Bosch Public Policy Fellowship from the American Academy of Berlin in 2001.
SCHOOL OF SCIENCE
Tania Baker in the Department of Biology.
Baker, an international leader in DNA replication and transposition, focuses on the mechanism and regulation of two classes of proteins. DNA transposition is the process by which a special segment of DNA embedded in a chromosome is excised from one site and inserted in a new location. Baker, who joined MIT as an assistant professor in 1992, has received a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, as well as associate head of the biology department.
She earned a bachelor of science in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin in 1983 and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Stanford in 1988.
Chris Kaiser in the Department of Biology.
Kaiser, a world leader in protein secretion and intracellular protein folding transport, focuses his research on a genetic analysis of secretion using yeast as a model. One of his principal interests is to understand how secretory proteins fold into their correct three-dimensional shape. Kaiser also looks at regulated sorting of membrane proteins.
He earned a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Harvard in 1980 and a Ph.D. in biology from MIT in 1987. Kaiser joined MIT as an assistant professor in 1991.
Earl K. Miller , a professor of neuroscience in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.
Miller is director of graduate studies for the department and associate director of the MIT Center for Learning and Memory.
A leader in prefrontal cortex function and its role in cognition, Miller has made several major discoveries in cognitive neuroscience since coming to MIT. He has demonstrated the role of the prefrontal cortex in directing attention, in recalling stored memories and in integrating diverse information to construct internal representations of the "rules" used to guide thought and action. This may provide the necessary foundation for the complex behavior of primates, in whom the prefrontal is most elaborate.
He has received the Troland Research Award from the National Academy of Sciences and the Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award.
Miller earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Kent State University, and master's and Ph.D. degrees in psychology and neuroscience from Princeton University in 1987 and 1990, respectively. He joined MIT as an assistant professor in 1995.
Bonnie Berger , a professor of applied mathematics in the Department of Mathematics and head of the computation and biology group of the Laboratory for Computer Science.
Berger focuses on applying computational and mathematical techniques to problems in biology and, more specifically, to problems in protein folding and genomics. She works on mathematical models of virus shell assembly and protein motif recognition, which has lead to several programs for predicting the behavior of proteins and viruses.
Her group's focus in genomics is on gene recognition and sequencing, coming up with a new analytical approach to gene recognition based on comparing human and mouse gene structure. In addition, they mathematically and computationally analyze new sequencing approaches to sequencing a large genome.
Berger has received the Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award of the Biophysical Society and a TR100 award for 100 Top Young Innovators from Technology Review magazine. She joined MIT in 1992 as an assistant professor of applied mathematics and a member of the Laboratory for Computer Sciences.
She earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from Brandeis University in 1983, and master's and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from MIT in 1986 and 1990, respectively.
Alan Edelman , a professor of applied mathematics in the Department of Mathematics.
Edelman, a leading numerical analyst who has made significant contributions to numerical methods, linear algebra and scientific computing, researches approximation theory, random matrices, the fast Fourier transform and the geometry of eigenvalues.
Edelman has served as senior research scientist for Akamai Technologies, a consultant for Pixar Corporation and has worked at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. He joined MIT as an assistant professor in 1993. He shared the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Activity Group on Linear Algebra Prize in 2000 and the SIAM Outstanding Paper Prize with two co-authors in 2001.
He earned bachelor's and master's degree in mathematics from Yale University in 1984 and a Ph.D. degree in applied mathematics from MIT in 1989.
Michel Goemans , a professor of applied mathematics in the Department of Mathematics.
Goemans, the leading figure in combinatorial optimization and approximation algorithms, conducts research on major structural and algorithmic advances for optimization problems. He is best known for his novel use of convex optimization techniques to derive approximation algorithms, and this has stirred much interest in the area of semidefinite optimization. His work has been applied to solving optimization problems, such as network design, routing and load balancing, in the telecommunication industry.
Goemans joined MIT as an instructor in applied mathematics in 1990. He is an affiliated faculty member to the Operations Research Center and the Laboratory for Computer Science. He received the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Activity Group on Optimization Prize in 1996 and 1999, and the Delbert Ray Fulkerson Prize in 2000 awarded by the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Programming Society for outstanding paper in discrete mathematics.
He earned bachelor of science and master of science degrees in applied mathematics from the Universite Catholique de Louvain in 1987 and a Ph.D. in operations research from MIT in 1990.
Boleslaw Wyslouch in the Department of Physics.
Wyslouch studies the interactions between subatomic particles by looking at the violent collisions of heavy ions in an effort to observe the creation of a new state of nuclear matter: the quark gluon plasma. He works on the Phobos Detector of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory. In the collider, gold nuclei are smashed together at high enough energies to create a small region of space hotter than any since those predicted by the big-bang theory.
He completed his undergraduate education in physics at the University of Warsaw in 1981 and earned a Ph.D. in physics from MIT in 1987. He joined MIT as an assistant professor in 1991, after being an MIT postdoctoral fellow and research associate at CERN.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on May 1, 2002.
