CEC welcomes 16 new faculty

Casey-Canfield

Dr. Casey Canfield

Dr. Casey Canfield, assistant professor of engineering management and systems engineering, comes to Missouri S&T from the U.S. Department of Energy, where she was a Science and Technology Policy Fellow in the Solar Energy Technologies Office. Her areas of expertise and research are in human systems integration, risk analysis and energy systems. Canfield earned a Ph.D. in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University.

Anthony-Convertine

Dr. Anthony Convertine

Dr. Anthony Convertine, the Roberta and G. Robert Couch assistant professor of materials science and engineering, comes to S&T from the University of Washington in Seattle, where his research was focused on biomedical engineering and nanomedicine, polymer science, and nanoparticles. Convertine earned his Ph.D. in polymer science and engineering from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Islam-El-adaway

Dr. Islam El-adaway

Dr. Islam El-adaway, the Hurst/McCarthy Professor in Construction Engineering Management, comes to S&T from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. His research focuses on sustainable infrastructure and hazard management, modeling and simulation for construction, decision and risk management, and contractual and legal affairs in construction. El-adaway earned a Ph.D. in civil engineering from Iowa State University.

Michael-Gosnell

Michael Gosnell

Michael Gosnell, assistant teaching professor in computer science, earned his master of science degree at Missouri S&T. For several years, he has mentored and instructed S&T students as a lecturer in computer science. Gosnell co-founded Triplet Tech Corp., which offers new technology and software solutions to customers. He also worked for 21st Century Systems Inc. as a computer scientist assisting small businesses and government entities with technology projects. His teaching interests include software engineering, databases and parallel programming.

Benjamin-Kwasa

Dr. Benjamin Kwasa

Dr. Benjamin Kwasa, assistant professor of engineering management and systems engineering, comes to S&T from Iowa State University, where his research included organization design in the design of complex systems, unmanned aerial systems integration, value-driven design and multidisciplinary design optimization among other topics. Kwasa earned his Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from Iowa State.

Angela-Lueking

Dr. Angela Lueking

Dr. Angela Lueking joins Missouri S&T as associate dean of research in the College of Engineering and Computing and professor of chemical and biological engineering. Lueking served as the program director of the Molecular Separations Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 2016 to 2018, and continues as an expert for the NSF Chemical Process Systems cluster in the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems. Previously, she was a professor of energy and mineral engineering and chemical engineering at The Pennsylvania State University, where her research spanned chemical, environmental, mechanical and materials engineering. She earned her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan.

Phillip-Mulligan

Dr. Phillip Mulligan

Dr. Phillip Mulligan, research assistant professor in geosciences and geological engineering and petroleum engineering, earned his Ph.D. in explosives engineering from Missouri S&T. Mulligan founded his own explosives research company, Dagaz Technologies, which conducts research into energetic systems, weapons sciences and force protection. During the last year, he has guided graduate students at S&T as a post-doctoral fellow, helping them design experiments, write proposals and secure external research funding. He also worked for Corvid Technologies as an explosive engineer and computer analyst, investigating the performance of energetic events and testing explosive devices.

Venkata-Nadendla

Dr. Sid Nadendla

Dr. Sid Nadendla, assistant professor of computer science, comes to S&T from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where his research focused on the design and analysis of human-system interaction, security and deception in cyber-physical-human systems, and learning choice preferences with the aid of private signals. He earned his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Syracuse University.

Monday-Okoronkwo

Dr. Monday Okoronkwo

Dr. Monday Okoronkwo, assistant professor in the department of chemical and biochemical engineering, comes to S&T from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where his research included fundamental studies on the chemistry and structure of construction materials and their interactions at the submicroscopic and macroscopic levels. His present research focuses on developing advanced polymer and nanomaterials for sustainable infrastructure. He earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Aberdeen in the United Kingdom.

Guney-Olgun

Dr. Guney Olgun

Dr. Guney Olgun, assistant professor in civil, architectural and environmental engineering, comes to S&T from Virginia Tech, where he also earned his Ph.D. Olgun has performed research and taught courses in geotechnical engineering for more than 10 years. His main research focus areas are energy geotechnology, geotechnical earthquake engineering, and disaster resilience and risk management.

Taghi-Sherizadeh

Dr. Taghi Sherizadeh

Dr. Taghi Sherizadeh, assistant professor in mining and nuclear engineering, comes to S&T from Golder Associates Inc. in Portland, Oregon, where he modeled and studied the stability of copper mines, coal mines and diamond mines. Sherizadeh’s research covers the geomechanical aspects of mining, petroleum and civil engineering. He earned his Ph.D. in mining engineering at the University of Arizona, where he conducted stability analyses on underground coal mines.

Ryan-Smith

Dr. Ryan Smith

Dr. Ryan Smith, assistant professor in geosciences and geological and petroleum engineering, comes to S&T from Stanford University, where he earned his Ph.D. in geophysics. Smith’s research focuses on hydrogeophysics, groundwater extraction and groundwater storage. At Stanford, his research included using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data for groundwater evaluation and management.

Sanjay-Tewari

Dr. Sanjay Tewari

Dr. Sanjay Tewari, assistant teaching professor in civil, architectural and environmental engineering, comes to S&T from Louisiana Tech University, where his research focused on water quality, desalination and sustainable management of infrastructure in coastal regions. He earned his Ph.D. in civil engineering from Texas A&M.

Kelley-Wilkerson

Dr. Kelley Wilkerson

Dr. Kelley Wilkerson, assistant teaching professor in materials science and engineering, is returning to S&T after working at Allied Mineral Products Inc. in Columbus, Ohio, on research into industrial and light metals. She earned a Ph.D. in ceramic engineering from the materials science and engineering department at Missouri S&T in 2012.

Robert-Woodley

Dr. Robert Woodley

Dr. Robert Woodley, assistant teaching professor in electrical and computer engineering, earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Missouri S&T in 2004. Woodley returns to S&T after co-founding Triplet Tech Corp., which offers new technology and software solutions. He has also taught computer engineering and electrical engineering at S&T as an adjunct professor for the last three years. Previously, Woodley was the principal scientist and director of scientific research for 21st Century Systems Inc.

Jiangfan-Zhang

Dr. Jiangfan Zhang

Dr. Jiangfan Zhang, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, joins S&T from Columbia University in New York City. He earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. His current research interests are in the fields of cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things and sensor network systems with focus on cybersecurity and cyberattacks. Zhang’s research interests also include signal processing for sensor networking, smart grid, energy-efficient distributed signal processing, target localization and sonar processing.