The School of Engineering and Applied Science Endowed Faculty Fellows program was initiated this year to recognize the exceptional achievements of rising young faculty in the school. "The future and vitality of our school is dependent on the successes of our bright young faculty," said Dean Richard W. Miksad. "They are the future leaders of our school."

The nine faculty members appointed as Faculty Fellows have proven their sustaining value through the tenure process and are involved in new and exciting educational and research initiatives, often in collaboration with colleagues in other disciplines. "In many cases, these scholars are leading the creative breakthroughs that will define the future directions of their disciplines and their careers," Miksad said.

Faculty Fellows receive a $2,000 discretionary stipend and may use "School of Engineering and Applied Science Faculty Fellow" as part of their title. They keep their appointment for a fixed term or until they are promoted to full professor, whichever comes first. Funding for the program comes from existing endowments and from alumni Annual Fund donations received by the Virginia Engineering Foundation (VEF).

Nine fellows have been appointed to date: Scott T. Acton, Electrical and Computer Engineering; Erik J. Fernandez, Chemical Engineering; Andrew C. Hillier, Chemical Engineering; Michael B. Lawrence, Biomedical Engineering; Jorg Liebeherr, Computer Science; Kathryn A. Neeley, Technology, Culture and Communication; Pamela M. Norris, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Kevin J. Sullivan, Computer Science; and, Giovanni Zangari, Materials Science and Engineering.

Eventually there will be Faculty Fellowships established in each department in the school, as part of the Engineering School's ongoing effort to recruit and retain faculty who combine talent and character with high expectations and vision.

School of Engineering Faculty Fellows 2003:

Scott T. Acton, Munster Research Professor, and Faculty Fellow in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Acton's areas of research include signal, image and video processing. His theoretical interests include multiscale image representations, diffusion algorithms, active contours, image morphology, and image correspondence problems. Applications include biomedical image processing, cell tracking, military tracking, classification/segmentation of multispectral imagery, and multimedia content-based retrieval. [Website]

Erik J. Fernandez, Meminger Faculty Fellow in Chemical Engineering. Fernandez's research interests include purification of biological molecules, protein structure, magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy. His honors and awards include a National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Young Faculty Development award, a University of Virginia Teaching Fellow award and a Rodman Scholars Award for Excellence in Teaching. [Website]

Andrew C. Hillier, Adoloitte Faculty Fellow in Chemical Engineering. Hillier's research interests include interfacial engineering, materials chemistry, electrochemistry and scanning probe microscopy. His honors and awards include an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award, a U.Va. Teaching Fellow award, an NSF Career Young Faculty Development award, a Young Scanning Probe Microscopist award, and a Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty award. [Website]

Michael B. Lawrence, VEF Faculty Fellow in Biomedical Engineering. Lawrence's laboratory works on developing applications of molecular mechanics to apply to the challenges of targeted drug and gene delivery. [Website]

Jorg Liebeherr, VEF Faculty Fellow in Computer Science. Liebeherr's research interests include multimedia networks, quality-of-service, scalable multicast communications and real-time and multimedia systems. He received an NSF Research Initiation Award, a U.Va Teaching and Technology fellowship, and an NSF Career award in 1996. He is the founding director of the VINTLab, an innovative teaching laboratory for applied computer networking. [Website]

Kathryn A. Neeley, VEF Faculty Fellow in Technology, Culture and Communication. Neeley's research interests are cultural and literary history of science and technology, history and practice of technical communication, and gender and science studies. [Website]

Pamela M. Norris, VEF Faculty Fellow in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Norris's research interests include: sensors for biological warfare detection, optical measurement techniques, microscale heat transfer, thin- film thermophysical properties, integration of sol-gel materials into microanalytical devices and advancement of aerogel technology. Dr. Norris is the founder and director of the U.Va Microscale Heat Transfer Laboratory and the Aerogel Research Lab. [Website]

Kevin J. Sullivan, VEF Faculty Fellow in Computer Science. Sullivan's areas of interest are software systems in general, specializing in software engineering, with a research focus on modular software architectures, survivability, and evolution, tied together under the theme of integration. He has an NSF Career Award, the first ACM Computer Science Professor of the Year award from undergraduate students, and a University Teaching Fellowship. [Website]

Giovanni Zangari, Wilsdorf Research Professor, and Faculty Fellow in Materials Science and Engineering. Zangari's research interests include the electrodeposition of metals and alloys for applications in magnetic recording and microelectronics and developing methods for the investigation and control of nucleation and growth processes in thin films. [Website]