Welcome New Faculty!
Seven instructional and tenure track faculty joined the College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics for the 2019–2020 academic year. Please welcome our new colleagues.
Department of Biology & Biochemistry
Jenifer Leming, Instructional Assistant Professor
Dr. Leming graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a Ph.D. in biological sciences. Under the direction of Dr. Reginald Hill, she worked on addressing chemoresistance to gemcitabine-based therapies in PDAC. In 2017, she joined the Newman University faculty in Wichita, Kansas, as an Assistant Professor and later relocated to Houston. Her goal is to develop strong curriculum with effective instructional methods, in order to form students who engage critically with science, both inside and outside the classroom. For Fall 2019, she is teaching General Biology, Intro to Biological Science, and the Cellular Biology Lab.
Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
Lorenzo Colli, Assistant Professor
Dr. Colli studies the dynamics of the solid Earth from the perspective of global geophysics. He uses physics-based analytical and numerical models to link theoretical expectations with geological and geophysical observations. His current focus is in reconstructing the past history of solid-state flow in the Earth’s mantle using the tools of data assimilation and inverse theory.
Magdalena Curry, Assistant Professor
Dr. Curry’s research interests include tectonics, geomorphology, and sedimentary basins. She completed her Ph.D. at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Texas at Austin and the Universite Grenoble Alpes in France.
Department of Mathematics
Loic Cappanera, Assistant Professor
Dr. Cappanera’s research interests include computational fluid dynamics, scientific computing, numerical analysis and finite element method. These areas have applications to multiphase flows, porous media and magnetohydrodynamics.
Casey Douglas, Instructional Assistant Professor
Dr. Douglas holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from Rice University. His research interests include topics in differential geometry and complex analysis like minimal surfaces and catadioptric sensor design. He is especially interested in topics that inspire and involve undergraduate researchers (if this sounds like it could be you, send him an e-mail!). In Fall 2019, he will be teaching Introduction to Mathematical Reasoning, Calculus For Business/Life Sciences and Pre-Calculus.
Wenshuang “Wendy” Wang, Instructional Assistant Professor
Dr. Wang holds a Ph.D. in mathematical sciences with a concentration in statistics from Mississippi State University. She also completed a B.S. in economics at China Agricultural University and an M.S. in statistics at Washington State University. In Fall 2019, she will teach the following courses – MATH6357 Linear Models and Design of Experiment, MATH4322 Introduction to Data Science and Machine Learning, and MATH3339 Statistics for the Sciences.
Department of Physics
Byron Freelon, Assistant Professor
Dr. Freelon received his Ph.D. from University of Minnesota. His main research focus is on strongly correlated electrons systems and low-dimensional materials. These are classes of solid materials that manifest many interesting physical phases by virtue of an interplay between the electric charge (C), electronic spin (S), atomic orbital (O), and atomic lattice (L) degrees of freedom. His group uses x-ray and neutron scattering techniques to determine how delicate changes in CSOL quantum parameters drive phase transitions to new, fascinating states of matter such as high-temperature superconductivity and quantum topological states.