NEW FACULTY
The latest academic talent on campus: Introducing four new members of the university's faculty
Natalie Bazarova See larger image
Natalie Bazarova
Assistant professor, communication
College: Agriculture and Life Sciences
Academic focus: The intersection of interpersonal communication, social cognition and new technologies. Research interests focus on the psychological dynamics of computer-mediated communication in the context of group collaboration and personal relationships. Recent projects are concerned with cross-cultural groups, social behavior explanation and relationship development in online interactions.
Previous position: Postdoctoral associate, Department of Communication, Cornell, 2009-10.
Academic background: B.S., linguistics and English philology, Far Eastern National University, Vladivostok, Russia, 2000; and M.S., 2005 and Ph.D., 2009, communication, Cornell.
Last book read: "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out" by Richard Feynman.
In her own time: "Traveling, leisure time with my family and friends, reading, hiking."
Nate Foster
Nate Foster See larger image
Assistant professor, computer science
College: Engineering
Academic focus: Programming language design and implementation, especially semantics and type systems for data-processing languages.
Previous position: Postdoctoral research associate, Princeton University, 2009-10.
Academic background: B.A., computer science, Williams College, 2001; M.Phil., history and philosophy of science, University of Cambridge, 2008; Ph.D., computer and information science, University of Pennsylvania, 2009.
Last book read: "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides.
In his own time: Cycling, hiking and cooking.
Christopher Hernandez
Christopher Hernandez See larger image
Assistant professor, mechanical and aerospace engineering and biomedical engineering
College: Engineering
Academic focus: The material properties of bone and how the bone remodeling process modulates material properties.
Previous positions: Assistant professor, Case Western Reserve University; postdoctoral fellow, University of California-Berkeley; postdoctoral fellow, Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Academic background: B.S., engineering sciences, Harvard University, 1996; M.S., 1997, and Ph.D., 2001, both in mechanical engineering, Stanford University.
Last book read: "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins.
In his own time: Playing with his toddler and infant, improving his homemade Poblano mole sauce.
Wendy Wolford See larger image
Wendy Wolford
Associate professor, development sociology
College: Agriculture and Life Sciences
Academic focus: Political economies of development, social movements and resistance, agrarian societies, political ecology, land use, land reform and critical ethnography, all with a regional concentration in Latin America, particularly Brazil.
Previous positions: Director of graduate studies, 2008-09, associate professor and associate chair, 2007-08, assistant professor, 2001-07, all in the Department of Geography, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; postdoctoral fellow, Program in Agrarian Studies, Yale University, 2004-05.
Academic background: B.A., economics and international development, McGill University, 1994; M.S., 1997, and Ph.D., 2001, both in geography, University of California-Berkeley.
Last book read: "Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home" by Rhoda Janzen
In her own time: "I like to run, hike and travel; my goal this year is to take my kids to as many county fairs as possible."