Fall '07/Winter '08: Recognition: New Department Leadership

Shekhar Garde has become the new head of the Howard P. Isermann Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. Garde, whose uses molecular theory, modeling, and simulation to advance a fundamental understanding of biological and nanoscopic systems, is among the first wave of researchers to work with Rensselaer’s new 100-teraflop supercomputing center.

A winner of the National Science Foundation’s CAREER award, Garde was named the Elaine S. and Jack S. Parker Career Development Chaired Professor in Engineering just last year. He has published more than 50 academic papers on research funded by the NSF, the National Institutes of Health, and the American Chemical Society’s Petroleum Research Fund. His core research focuses on understanding and modeling how biological molecules self-assemble in water-based solutions.

Together with Professors Linda Schadler and Richard Siegel in Materials Science and Engineering, Garde is a driving force behind Rensselaer’s NSF-funded Molecularium project, which aims to energize children to think and learn more about atoms and molecules.

Charles Malmborg was named the new head of the university’s Department of Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems (DSES). Renowned throughout the field for his expertise in industrial engineering, he has taught at Rensselaer for 22 years.

Over the course of his career, Malmborg has published more than 100 peer-reviewed technical articles in leading international journals. The principal investigator or co-principal investigator on several major projects, he has also served as decision sciences editor for Applied Mathematical Modeling and associate editor of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics.

In his research, Malmborg applies analytical and simulation models to problems in material flow logistics, warehouse automation, facilities planning and design, and decision analysis.

World-renowned expert Robert Hull will join Rensselaer in early 2008 to head the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

In academia and industry, Hull is best known for his research into the fundamental growth mechanisms of semiconductor films and nanostructures—and how they might be applied to future nanoelectronic devices. He comes to Rensselaer from the University of Virginia, where he directed the Institute for Nanoscale and Quantum Science as well as its Materials Research Science and Engineering Center.

A fellow of the American Physical Society, Hull received his doctorate in materials science from Oxford in 1983. For 10 years thereafter, he engaged in research at AT&T Bell Laboratories and Hewlett Packard Laboratories. He has chaired the Gordon Research Conference on Thin Films and the Committee of Visitors for the National Science Foundation’s Division of Materials Research.

Professor Kim Boyer has joined the faculty of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of as head of the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering.

A computer vision expert with research interests ranging from heart imaging and human eye modeling to eye-in-the-sky satellites, Boyer intends to grow the size and stature of the department while boosting Rensselaer’s reputation as a leader in computer and machine vision.

Boyer joins Rensselaer from Ohio State University, where he was a professor of electrical and computer engineering, and director of the school’s Signal Analysis and Machine Perception Laboratory. Boyer earned his master’s degree and doctorate in electrical engineering from Purdue University.

A prolific author, Boyer has written two text books, edited three other books, and published more than 200 papers and conference presentations. He also currently sits on the editorial board of the journals Computer Image and Understanding and Machine Vision and Applications. He is a fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, as well as the International Association for Pattern Recognition.