Eighteen new engineering faculty begin fall semester

Calendar Icon Sep 15, 2015          RSS Feed  RSS Submit a Story

For the fall semester 2015, the College of Engineering continues its growth by adding 18 new faculty. Here is a look at each of the new faculty:

BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS ENGINEERING

Nicole Iverson
Assistant Professor

For the previous five years, Iverson was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Iverson’s research interests include delivery, monitoring and analysis of in vivo nanoparticles that act as biological sensors, DNA-wrapped single wall carbon nanotubes in alginate microparticles, modifying chemical structures of nanoparticles for use in non-invasive intravenous delivery. Iverson earned her Ph.D. and master’s degree in biomedical engineering from Rutgers University and bachelor’s in biomedical engineering from the University of Minnesota.

CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING

Vitaly Alexandrov mugVitaly Alexandrov
Assistant Professor

Alexandrov comes to UNL after three years as a research associate at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where he worked on modeling of coupled electron/ion transport dynamics through poly crystalline oxide networks, absorption phenomena and interfacial electron transfer and selecting oxidation of Ni-based alloys. Alexandrov earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from St. Petersburg State University in Russia and his Ph.D. from Max-Planck Institute for Solid State Research and University of Stuttgart in Germany and did postdoctoral work at University of California, Davis and the University of California, Berkeley.

Wei Niu
Associate Professor (Based in Omaha)

Niu was a research assistant professor at UNL since 2010 after having worked for Cargill and Genomatica Inc. Niu earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Tsinghua University in China and a Ph.D. in bioorganic chemistry from Michigan State University. She has conducted research into synthesis and metabolic engineering.

CIVIL ENGINEERING

Jiong Hu mugJiong Hu
Associate Professor (Based in Omaha)

Hu comes to UNL after seven years as assistant and associate professor at Texas State University. His research interests include sustainable transportation materials and construction, concrete with recycled materials, non-destructive evaluation of infrastructures, infrastructure construction and management, self-compacting concrete, fresh concrete properties, rheology of concrete and inductive teaching methods. Hu earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Southeast University in Nanjing, China and a Ph.D. in Geotechnical and Materials Engineering from Iowa State University.


Randy Peters mugRandy Peters
Associate Professor of Practice

Peters was chief executive officer of the Nebraska Department of Roads for nearly three years after having risen through the ranks after beginning work for NDOR in 1977. Peters was previously deputy director-engineering, planning and project development engineer, state traffic engineer and assistant roadway design engineer. Peters, who was also an adjunct professor of civil engineering at UNL in 2004, teaching “Traffic Control Systems Design,” earned bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from UNL in 1987. Peters has been member of Civil Engineering College Advisory Board since 2007.

John Sangster mugJohn Sangster
Assistant Professor

Sangster comes to UNL after five years as a graduate research assistant at Virginia Tech Transportation Institute with teaching and research focus on highway and traffic design. He earned a Ph.D. and master’s degree in civil engineering from Virginia Polytechnic and State University and bachelor’s degrees in both civil and architectural engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology.

Chungwook Sim mugChungwook Sim
Assistant Professor (Based in Omaha)

Sim was a postdoctoral research assistant at Purdue University’s Center for Earthquake Engineering and Disaster Data, working to develop disaster data repositories, platforms for data collection, management and curation and common ontologies to describe building properties and building damage. His research and teaching have focused on materials used in bridge deck construction and on wind turbines. Sim earned Ph.D. in civil engineering from Purdue University, master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Yonsei University in South Korea.

Chung Song mugChung Song
Associate Professor 

Song comes to UNL after six years as an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Mississippi. Before that, he was a professional in residence and postdoctoral research associate in civil engineering at Louisiana State University, where Song earned a Ph.D. in 1999. Song also earned a master’s degree in civil engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s at Yonsei University in South Korea. Song has taught classes in soil dynamics, soil mechanics and foundation engineering and has research that includes studies of flood walls and levees in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Justin Bradley mugJustin Bradley
Assistant Professor 

Bradley was a postdoctoral research fellow in aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan, with research interests in design of robotic systems with emphasis on aerospace systems and unmanned aircraft systems. He earned Ph.D. and master’s in aerospace engineering from Michigan and master’s in electrical engineering and a bachelor’s in computer engineering from Brigham Young University.

Sheng Wei mugSheng Wei
Assistant Professor

Wei comes to UNL after two years as a researcher for Adobe Systems Inc. His research interests include hardware security and trust, multimedia security and streaming, mobile computing, low power system design and large-scale networked systems. Wei earned Ph.D. and master’s in computer science from University of California, Los Angeles and a bachelor’s of computer science from Yanshan University in China.

Qiban Yan mugQiban Yan
Assistant Professor 

Yan’s research interests include wireless security and privacy, internet networking security, and detection of botnet, intrusion and anomaly. Yan earned a Ph.D. in computer science from Virginia Polytechnic and State University and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering from Fudan University in China.

ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING

Qing Hui mugQing Hui
Associate Professor 

Hui was previously an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Texas Tech University. His research interests include network robustness and vulnerability analysis, synchronization and control of network systems, threat detection, biomedical systems, hybrid systems and high-performance scientific computing. Hui earned Ph.D. in aerospace engineering and a master’s of applied mathematics from Georgia Institute of Technology, a master’s of automotive engineering from Tsinghua University in China and a bachelor’s of aerospace engineering from National University of Defense Technology in China.

Peter Sutter mugPeter Sutter
Professor

Sutter comes to UNL after 11 years at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, where he was a staff scientist, research group leader and facility leader. Sutter’s research interests include 2D materials, interfacial physics and chemistry, nanomaterials and advanced instrument and methods development. He was an associate and assistant professor in physics at the Colorado School of Mines and earned doctorate and bachelor’s degrees from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.


MECHANICAL AND MATERIALS ENGINEERING

Michael Sealy mugMichael Sealy
Assistant Professor 

Sealy was a postdoctoral scholar in the Consortium for Surface Integrity and Functionality at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, where he earned his Ph.D., master’s and bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering. Sealy’s research interests include medical device manufacturing, additive manufacturing and process sustainability.

Eli Sutter mugEli Sutter
Professor
 
Sutter comes to UNL after 11 years at Brookhaven National Laboratory, working as a scientist in the Center for Functional Nanomaterials. Her research interests include variable temperature electron microscopy studies of the properties of nanoscale objects, mechanisms of epitaxial growth and nanostructure formation, 2-D materials such as graphene and transmission electron microscopy in liquid environments. Sutter earned both a Ph.D. and a master’s degree in condensed matter physics from Sofia University in Bulgaria.

Jian Wang mugJian Wang
Associate Professor 

Wang spent the previous nine years at Los Alamos National Laboratory, with experience as a scientist and postdoctoral researcher. His research interests include multi-scale materials modeling, interface mechanics and engineering, fabrication and mechanics of nanostructured materials and nucleation, evolution and the role of defects in solids. Wang received a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and both a master’s in solid mechanics and bachelor’s in engineering mechanics from Jiaotong University in China.

Qin Zhou mugQin Zhou
Assistant Professor

Zhou was for the last three years a postdoctoral researcher in physics at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include developing novel platforms for synthesis, imaging, characterization and application of low-dimensional nanomaterials with emphasis on graphene-like two-dimensional materials and hetrostructures. Zhou earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from University of California, Berkeley and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in precision instruments from Tshinghua University in China.

DURHAM SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION

Jay Puckett mugJay Puckett
Professor and Director (Based in Omaha)

Puckett was the V.O. Smith Professor of Civil and Architectural Engineering at the University of Wyoming, where he had also served as professor, department head and associate dean. Puckett earned a Ph.D. and a master’s degree from Colorado State University and a bachelor’s from the University of Missouri. Puckett has done research in many areas, including bridge design, seismic load resistance and live load distribution and has taught courses, including bridge engineering, structural analysis and structural dynamics.


Submit a Story