Diverse backgrounds, interests distinguish new faculty on campus

Editor's note: This is one in an occasional series highlighting the scholarly interests of new Stanford faculty. The list does not include every new faculty member because some have not responded to requests for information. Please note that news about faculty members at the School of Medicine is handled separately by the School of Medicine Office of Communication and Public Affairs and is included in the Medical Center Report section of Stanford Report.

School of Humanities and Sciences

Cécile Alduy, assistant professor of French, earned her doctorate at the University of Reims, France, in 2003. Her interests include French poetry, poetics, French Renaissance literature and concepts of the self and nation.

Jeremy Bailenson, assistant professor of communication, previously was at the University of California-Santa Barbara. His main area of interest is the phenomenon of digital human representation, especially in the context of immersive virtual reality.  

Gordon Brotherston, professor of Spanish and Portuguese, earned his doctorate at the University of Cambridge in 1965. His interests include the cumulative history of the American continent; tropical American culture from earliest times; the Mexican codices and the intellectual interface between the Old and New Worlds; and poetry and narrative in Latin America.

Benjamin Brubaker, Szegö assistant professor of mathematics, was formerly an instructor and graduate student at Brown University, where he completed his doctorate in 2003. He works in analytic number theory.  

Margaret Cohen, professor of French, came to Stanford from New York University, where she was a professor of comparative literature. She earned her doctorate from Yale University, and her interests include the history of the novel, with a particular interest in forgotten literature; what the novel owes to the history of open-ocean seafaring; women writers; and sentimental fiction and the novel.

Robert Crews, assistant professor of history, came from the Library of Congress, the Kennan Institute and American University in Washington, D.C. His areas of expertise are the history and politics of Central Asia and the Muslim regions of the former Soviet Union.

David DeGusta, assistant professor in anthropological sciences (subject to Ph.D.), came from the University of California-Berkeley. He studies human evolution by looking at the fossil record.

Razvan Fetecau, Szegö assistant professor of mathematics, comes to Stanford from the California Institute of Technology. An applied mathematician, he models multiscale phenomena (especially fluid dynamics) and studies vortex methods, geometric mechanics, collisions, free boundary problems, shock waves and more.  

James Fishkin, the Janet M. Peck Professor in International Communication, came from the University of Texas-Austin and works on the theory and practice of deliberative democracy as well as on theories of distributive justice.  

Shelley Fisher Fishkin, professor of English and director of the American Studies Program, came to Stanford from the University of Texas-Austin. She earned her doctorate at Yale University, and her interests include American literary history, Mark Twain, race and American literature, 19th- and 20th-century American literature, and gender issues.  

Brian Munson, Szegö assistant professor of mathematics, received his doctorate in mathematics in 2003 from Brown University. He studies manifolds using the techniques of algebraic and geometric topology.  

Bruce Owen, senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, previously was a visiting professor of economics at Stanford in Washington and co-founder and CEO of Economists Inc., a consulting firm. His main areas of expertise include antitrust policy, media regulation, telecommunications policy and Internet policy.

Mihran Papikian, Szegö assistant professor of mathematics, received his doctorate from the University of Michigan in 2003. He conducts research in the area of arithmetic algebraic geometry.

Mark J. Schnitzer, assistant professor of biological sciences and of applied physics, focuses on the design and application of micro-optical imaging techniques for studying the biophysical dynamics of neurons.

Peter Stone, assistant professor of political science, came from the University of Rochester. His main areas of expertise lie in democratic theory, theories of justice, theories of rationality and the philosophy of social science.

Michèle Tertilt, assistant professor of economics, came from the University of Minnesota. Her major fields of interest include macroeconomics, family economics, and growth and development.

Anthony Wagner, assistant professor of psychology, came from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His main areas of expertise lie in understanding how the mind and brain support the ability to form memories and later remember everyday experiences, and how these mechanisms change over the lifespan.

School of Earth Sciences

Karen C. Seto, assistant professor of geological and environmental sciences and fellow at the Center for Environmental Science and Policy, uses satellite remote sensing and other technologies to study human-environment interactions, land use and land-cover change in China, Vietnam and other countries.

School of Engineering  

Alex Aiken, professor of computer science, was on the electrical engineering and computer science faculty at the University of California-Berkeley from 1993 to 2003. He is known primarily for work in software reliability, plagiarism detection and programming languages.

Oliver Fringer, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, comes to Stanford after teaching computer science and mathematics for a year at the University of the Western Cape as part of a Stanford African Studies teaching fellowship. He conducts research and teaches in the area of computer modeling of environmental flows.

Joseph Kahn, professor of electrical engineering, has expertise in optical fiber communications, free-space optical communications and micromechanical systems for optical communications. He was on the electrical engineering and computer science faculty at the University of California-Berkeley from 1990 to 2003. Since 2000, he has been co-founder and chief scientist of StrataLight Communications Inc. of Campbell.

Adrian Lew, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, comes to Stanford from the California Institute of Technology, and conducts research in computational solid mechanics.  

Nicholas Melosh, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, recently arrived from the University of California-Los Angeles. He studies the behavior of molecular and biological materials at the nanometer-length scale and is a member of the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials.  

Boris Murmann, assistant professor of electrical engineering, came to Stanford from the University of California-Berkeley, where he received his doctorate in 2003. He conducts research in integrated circuits and systems, with emphasis on analog-digital interfaces and analog-digital co-design.

Peter Peumans, assistant professor of electrical engineering, obtained his doctorate from Princeton University. His research and teaching activities focus on opto-electronic components and systems built from organic materials of synthetic and biological origin.  

Heinz Pitsch, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is interested in computational energy sciences. His research focuses on combustion theory and modeling with applications to propulsion and energy systems, and the computational and experimental investigation of the chemistry in fuel cells.

Beth Pruitt, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, holds a doctorate from Stanford. Her research and teaching interests are in the areas of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), manufacturing and microscale mechanical measurements.

Sebastian Thrun, associate professor of computer science and director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, worked at Carnegie Mellon University from 1995 to 2003. He builds "intelligent" robots that can perceive and make decisions in the physical world for exploration of subterranean spaces; for flying, driving and diving; and for assisting elderly people in nursing homes.  

Thomas Weber, assistant professor of management science and engineering, is an expert in the economics of information systems, decision making under uncertainty, and games and economic behavior.

Tsachy Weissman, assistant professor of electrical engineering at the Information Systems Laboratory, received his doctorate from the Technion -- Israel Institute of Technology. He conducts research and teaches in the general areas of information theory and statistical signal processing.

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC)  

Roger Blandford, professor at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and the Pehong and Adele Chen Professor of Physics, directs the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. His research focuses on galaxies, cosmic rays, neutron stars, white dwarfs and black holes.  

Steven M. Kahn, professor in the Physics Department and at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is deputy director of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology and assistant director of research at SLAC. He investigates topics in high-energy astrophysics and experimental cosmology.  

School of Education

Bryan Hilton-Brown, assistant professor in the School of Education, came from Michigan State University. His research explores the relationship between student identity, discourse, classroom culture and academic achievement in science education.

David Labaree, professor in the School of Education, previously taught at Michigan State University. His areas of interest include the history of American education, educational policy, and the characteristics and consequences of educational reform.

Debra Meyerson, associate professor in the School of Education, previously was a visiting professor of organizational behavior at Stanford's School of Engineering. Her areas of expertise include organizational change and women; dispersed leadership in organizations; diversity and the workplace; and women and work.

Graduate School of Business  

Manuel Amador, assistant professor of economics in the Graduate School of Business, came from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His expertise is in macroeconomics, political economy and international economics.

Jerker Denrell, assistant professor of organizational behavior in the Graduate School of Business, previously was at the Stockholm School of Economics. His research interests are in organizational learning and evolution; competition and strategy; and formal models of adaptive behavior.

Kenneth Shotts, associate professor of political economy in the Graduate School of Business, previously was an assistant professor of political science at Northwestern University and a visiting research scholar at Princeton University. His research interests include electoral institutions, political economy, political leadership and statistical analysis of voting patterns.

Mark Soliman, assistant professor in accounting in the Graduate School of Business, came from the University of Michigan. Soliman's areas of expertise are in firm valuation and fundamental analysis.

School of Law

Allen Weiner, associate professor (teaching) in the School of Law and the Warren Christopher Professor of the Practice of International Law and Diplomacy, previously served as an attorney in the Department of State, most recently as counselor for legal affairs at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague. His main areas of expertise lie in international law, international courts and international dispute resolution, and the conduct of U.S. foreign policy.