Search Committee
Mr. Dan Bailey
Professor of Visual Arts and Director
Imaging Research Center
Dan Bailey’s films and animations have received numerous national and international awards and have been included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, France. His work has been screened at the Kennedy Center, Whitney Museum, and Museum of Modern Art, and has been broadcast on HBO and PBS. He is currently working on a major research project of visualizing Washington, D.C. just before the British destroyed much of the city during the War of 1812. Bailey received his M.F.A. degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Dr. Rachel Brewster
Associate Professor
Biological Sciences
Rachel Brewster’s work focuses on understanding the cellular mechanisms underlying the formation of the neural tube, the precursor of the brain and spinal chord. By developing tools for imaging cell shape and behaviors in the brain at high resolution, her lab was able to propose one of the first models for how neurulation is orchestrated in the zebrafish embryo. She has received funding from the American Heart Association, NSF and NIH. In 2006, she was one of three NSF-funded scientists to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientist and Engineers (PECASE) that recognizes leadership qualities in new faculty.
Dr. Carlo DiClemente
Professor
Psychology
Dr. Scott Farrow
Professor
Economics
Scott Farrow’s research focuses on the economics and risk-based evaluation of government programs. He has published in journals including The Journal of Political Economy, The Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Land Economics, Risk Analysis, the Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, and the Journal of Economics and Development. He has received funding from sources such as the EPA Star grants program and the MacArthur Foundation. Since receiving his Ph.D. in economics from Washington State, Farrow has also served on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University and the Pennsylvania State University as well as twice in the Executive Office of the President and the Department of the Interior.
Dr. Aryya Gangopadhyay
Professor and Chair
Information Systems
Aryya Gangopadhyay is a Professor and the Chair of the department of Information Systems. His current research interest is in the area of data mining, particularly in finding solutions for problems related to health informatics and privacy preserving data mining. Dr. Gangopadhyay has edited/co-authored five books and over ninety peer-reviewed articles. His research has been supported by grants from agencies such as NSF, NIST, Department of Education, and Maryland Department of Transportation. Gangopadhyay has been the Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Computational Models and Algorithms in Medicine since 2009.
Dr. Ian George
Associate Professor and Director
Center for Space Science and Technology
Ian George’s primary research interest is the circumnuclear regions of “Active Galactic Nuclei” (AGN). AGN are thought to be the result of matter falling onto a “supermassive” black hole (with a mass millions to billion times that of the sun). He received a BS in Physics with Astrophysics from the Univ. Birmingham (UK) in 1984, and a Ph.D. in X-ray Astronomy from the Univ. Leicester (UK) in 1988. Since 2006 he has also served as the Director for Center for Space Science & Technology.
Dr. Kathleen Hoffman
Professor
Mathematics and Statistics
Kathleen Hoffman’s current research projects include a neuromechanical model of lamprey swimming, modeling DNA using an elastic rod model, modeling food chains using the Lotka-Volterra predator prey equations, modeling the phototransduction cascade of melanopsin in the visual system of vertebrates, and using epidemiological models to understand the effects of the secretly homosexual male population on the spread of STDs in the female population. Hoffman received her Ph.D. in applied mathematics from UMCP in 1997 and spent two years at the Institute for Math. and its Applications, an NSF funded institute for applied math, at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis as a postdoctoral associate.
Dr. Anupam Joshi
Professor
Computer Science and Electric Engineering (Committee Chair)
Anupam Joshi is the Oros Family Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). His research interests are in the broad area of networked computing and intelligent systems. Joshi’s primary research focus has been on data management and security/privacy in mobile/pervasive computing environments. He is also interested in Semantic Web and Text and Graph Analytics, especially as applied to Social Media, and Healthcare IT. Joshi is the director of the new cybersecurity center at UMBC. He received a B. Tech degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi in 1989, and a Masters and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue University in 1991 and 1993 respectively.
Dr. Craig Saper
Professor and Director
Language, Literacy and Culture
Craig Saper’s research is in digital humanities, precursors to networked social media, and digital literacies. He is the author of Intimate Bureaucracies (2012), Networked Art (2001), Artificial Mythologies (1997) and has co-edited multiple volumes including on Imaging Place (2009), and Media Drifts (2007). He has curated exhibits on books as artworks and including the online folkvine.org. He has edited critical editions of works by an inventor of a reading machine, Words (2010) and Readies (2009) — both published in electronic and print editions, he built a simulation of the machine: http://www.readies.org, and has completed a biography of the inventor’s adventures.
Ms. Lynne Schaefer
Vice President
Administration and Finance
Lynne Schaefer serves as chief business officer at UMBC and is responsible for financial management, reporting and control for annual operations exceeding $370 million. She also leads facilities planning, construction and operations, human resources, environmental safety and health, dining services and the bookstore, campus police, and general business services. She holds an MBA in Finance from Wayne State University, and a BA from Michigan State University.
Dr. Anna Shields
Associate Professor
Modern Languages, Linguistics and Intercultural Communication
Anna Shields is a scholar of medieval China who focuses on the literary history of the Tang and Five Dynasties eras (618-976). Her first book, Crafting a Collection:The Cultural Contexts and Poetic Practice of the Collection From Among the Flowers (Huajian ji)(Harvard University Asia Center, 2006) traces the emergence of the song lyric genre in the late ninth and early tenth centuries. Her research interests include the intersections of social, cultural, and literary history, the formation of literary genres in medieval China, and gender and voice in Chinese poetry. She is currently completing a book manuscript on friendship and literary culture in the mid-Tang era, research that was initially funded by a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities (2005-2006.)
Mr. Greg Simmons
Vice President
Institutional Advancement
Greg Simmons serves as Vice President for Institutional Advancement at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), where he provides leadership for UMBC’s fundraising, marketing and public relations activities, and its economic development efforts. He leads a division of 45 professional staff with a budget of more than $5 million, and has played a key leadership role in helping UMBC complete its successful $100 million Exceptional by Example Campaign. Simmons has facilitated and grown many of UMBC’s multi-level corporate and foundation relationships, including partnerships with Wyeth, Northrop Grumman, IBM, and GE. He has a master’s degree in Public Policy from UMBC and a bachelor’s degree in English/Writing from Loyola College in Maryland.
Dr. Michael Summers
Professor
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Michael Summers’ research focuses on NMR studies of proteins and macromolecular interactions, with a major emphasis on the structural proteins that comprise the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1.) Summers received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of West Florida in 1980 and his Ph.D. degree in 1984 from Emory University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the NIH from 1984-1987. Summers joined the faculty at the University of Maryland Baltimore County as an Assistant Professor in 1987, and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1991 and to Full Professor in 1996. In 1994 he was appointed as an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is the recipient of two NIH MERIT Awards.
Dr. Timmie Topoleski
Professor
Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Renetta Tull
Associate Vice Provost for Graduate Student Development and Postdoctoral Affairs
Graduate School
Renetta Tull is Associate Vice Provost for Graduate Student Development and Postdoctoral Affairs at UMBC, and Director of NSF’s PROMISE: Maryland’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) for the state of Maryland. Tull’s degrees are in electrical engineering and speech science. Her research interests include quality of life technologies for people with disabilities. Tull is the co-author of the book chapter Successful PhD Pathways to Advanced STEM Careers for Black Women (2011), an article on A Formula for Success (2012), and other publications that highlight both her STEM research and higher education activities.
Dr. Claire Welty
Professor and Director
Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education