We are delighted to welcome new faculty members with primary appointments in the College of Science, including those with upcoming start dates in January 2025.
Pablo Boixeda Alvarez, PhD
Assistant Professor, Mathematics | Boston, MA
Dr. Pablo Boixeda Alvarez earned the PhD in Pure Mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Boixeda Alvarez’s research interests lie in representation theory and particularly geometric representation theory, the small quantum group and its relations to the geometry of affine Springer fibers.
Lital Davidi, PhD
Assistant Professor, Biology (joint appointment in Bioengineering) | Boston, MA
Dr. Lital Davidi earned the PhD in Biological Chemistry from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. Dr. Davidi specializes in phyto-molecular biotechnology, with a focus on biofuels, natural products, and extreme environment adaptation. Her interests lie in micro farming, renewables, bioenergy, sustainability, ecology, and environmental conservation.
Ivana Dimitrova, PhD
Assistant Professor, Physics (joint appointment in Electrical and Computer Engineering) | Boston, MA
Dr. Ivana Dimitrova earned the PhD in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Dimitrova’s research interests include Quantum state engineering, Quantum Optics, Quantum simulation, Quantum computing, Ultracold atoms, Cavity QED, Optical lattices, Rydberg atom arrays, Non-equilibrium Dynamics, Many-body states, Quantum Networking, and Photonics.
Chengfei He, PhD
Assistant Professor, Marine and Environmental Sciences | Boston, MA
Dr. Chengfei He earned the PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from The Ohio State University. Dr. He uses an interdisciplinary research approach that combines a hierarchy of climate models, isotope-enabled modeling, statistical and machine learning techniques, and observations/paleoclimate proxies, aiming toward a better understanding of the physical principles that govern climate dynamics in the past and future.
Emily Moore, PhD
Assistant Professor, Biology | Boston, MA
Dr. Emily Moore earned the PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University. Dr. Moore researches cell mechanotransduction and associated signaling pathways to identify novel treatments to regenerate and maintain bone tissue. She aims to study bone cell signaling and behavior at multiple length scales and ages.
Brie Reid, PhD
Assistant Professor, Psychology (joint appointment in Health Sciences) | Boston, MA
Dr. Reid received the PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Reid’s research focuses on how social experiences during critical developmental periods shape health and behavior, and the physiological mechanisms that may mediate these effects.
Eugene Tang, PhD
Assistant Professor, Mathematics (joint appointment in Physics) | Boston, MA
Dr. Eugene Tang earned the PhD in Physics from the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Tang’s research focuses on quantum information, specifically the theory of quantum error-correction. He is also interested in quantum algorithms for combinatorial optimization, both for practical applications and for understanding their consequences for computational complexity theory.
Jordan Theriault, PhD
Assistant Professor, Psychology (joint appointment in Biology) | Boston, MA
Dr. Jordan Theriault earned the PhD in Psychology from Boston College. Dr. Theriault’s research focuses on how neural and biological principles can help us understand social cognition and behavior, and in particular moral and normative motivation.
Lianyong Wang, PhD
Assistant Professor, Biology | Boston, MA
Dr. Lianyong Wang earned the PhD in Applied Molecular Microbiology in from Kyoto University in Japan. Dr. Wang’s research focuses on the dynamic changes in subcellular localization of thousands of fluorescently tagged chloroplast-associated proteins in response to environmental stresses, uncovering the formation mechanism of novel chloroplast biomolecular condensates, and bioengineering active nitrogenases into the pyrenoid of Chlamydomonas.
Grace Ferris, PhD
Associate Teaching Professor, Chemistry and Chemical Biology | Boston, MA
Dr. Grace Ferris earned the PhD in Organic Chemistry from Boston College. Dr. Ferris has diverse experience in teaching, developing curriculum, and administrating courses in general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry. She is also passionate about mentoring novice teachers and advising pre-medical and first-generation students.
Melinda Fowler, PhD
Associate Teaching Professor, Biology | Oakland, CA
Dr. Melinda Fowler earned the PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her current research includes development of haemoglobin in songbird fledglings and oxidative stress and aerobic capacity in breeding seabirds. In addition to teaching development, she has been engaged in social justice and community assistance work.
Robert Pluta, PhD
Associate Teaching Professor, Mathematics | Oakland, CA
Dr. Robert Pluta earned the PhD in Mathematics from University of Dublin – Trinity College in Ireland. Dr. Pluta’s research interests are in the field of mathematical and functional analysis with a focus on operator algebras, operator spaces, and ternary rings of operators.
Sudhakaran Prabakaran, PhD
Associate Teaching Professor, Chemistry and Chemical Biology | Boston, MA
Dr. Sudhakaran Prabakaran earned the PhD in Systems Neuroscience from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. His research applies machine learning and AI to drug discovery, explores the “dark genome” for novel therapeutics, and investigates novel open reading frames in diseases. He teaches courses like biotechnology innovation leadership, biostatistics, and biotech enterprise, emphasizing practical applications and preparing students for industry leadership.
John Adams, PhD
Assistant Teaching Professor, Psychology | Boston, MA
Dr. John Adams earned the PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Alabama. Dr. Adam’s research has been published in a range of international journals specializing in behavioral science. He applies creative problem-solving methods to seek out cost-effective methods for data collection and analysis and to help students understand complex concepts.
Ahmed Atef, PhD
Assistant Teaching Professor, Physics | Boston, MA
Dr. Ahmed Atef earned the PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the Institute of Molecular Biology of Academia Sinica in Taiwan. His research expertise includes nanomedicine, drug delivery, translational medicine, and molecular cell biology. He works towards his teaching goals through experiential learning, team-based learning, hybrid learning, and classroom engagement techniques.
Oyeronke Ayansola, PhD
Assistant Teaching Professor, Biology | Toronto, ON
Dr. Oyeronke Ayansola earned the PhD in Bioinformatics and Experimental Evolution from the Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom. She has worked as a senior bioinformatics analyst responsible for analyzing omics data, including single-cell and integrative multi-omics approaches of hospital patients. Her research has included microorganisms, genomics, genetics, evolution, cancer biology and bioinformatics.
Kristopher Bradley, PhD
Assistant Teaching Professor, Psychology | Boston, MA
Dr. Kristopher Bradley earned the PhD in Experimental/Lifespan Developmental Psychology from Oklahoma State University. Dr. Bradley has taught courses at the undergraduate and graduate in psychology, quantitative methods, statistics, communication, and research design. Previously, he was a lab manager and a fellow of the National Science Foundation.
Jennelle Kariotis-Rice, PhD
Assistant Teaching Professor, Psychology | Boston, MA
Dr. Jennelle Kariotis-Rice earned the PhD in Psychology from Northeastern University. Dr. Kariotis-Rice teaches a variety of courses including Foundations in Psychology, Cognition, Personality, and a Lab in Social Psychology. She actively supports and engages with the LGBTQIA+ community within and outside of Northeastern.
Vy Nguyen, PhD
Assistant Teaching Professor, Mathematics | Oakland, CA
Dr. Vy Nguyen earned the PhD in Mathematics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Dr. Nguyen’s research includes power residues of Fourier coefficients of product of two elliptic curves. She has extensive experience teaching lower and upper-level mathematics courses including calculus I and II, differential equations, and statistics.
David Richters, PhD
Assistant Teaching Professor, Psychology | Boston, MA
Dr. David Richters earned the PhD in Psychology from Northeastern University. His training is mostly in low level detection and discrimination mechanisms for color vision and the impact of eye movements on perception.
Terri Scott, PhD
Assistant Teaching Professor, Psychology | Oakland, CA
Dr. Terri Scott earned the PhD in Neuroscience from Boston University. Dr. Scott’s interests lie in the representations and computations that support high-level cognitive abilities, such as language and working memory and employs experimental and computational techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, electrocorticography, computational modeling, and machine learning.
Carla Staton, PhD
Assistant Teaching Professor, Chemistry and Chemical Biology | Boston, MA
Dr. Carla Staton earned the PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Staton is passionate about teaching and mentoring and is actively involved in STEM outreach. As an educator she focuses on creating an open and inclusive learning environment while employing research-backed teaching methods.
Xiangyun Tang, PhD
Assistant Teaching Professor, Psychology | Oakland, CA
Dr. Xiangyun Tang earned the PhD in Educational Psychology with a side concentration in Data Analytic Methods from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Dr. Tang’s research interests include ethnic and racial identity development, the impact of social media on under-represented young people’s identity development and user perceptions regarding machine learning in social media applications.
Jaap Munneke, PhD
Assistant Research Professor, Psychology | Boston, MA
Dr. Jaap Munneke earned the PhD in Cognitive Science from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Dr. Munneke’s research interests include the behavioral and neural correlates visual attention and perception, selection history including the role of reward and prioritization, Psychopathy as an information-processing deficit, and social-cognitive approaches to optimizing task-performance.
Guillaume St-Onge, PhD
Assistant Research Professor, Physics | Portland, ME
Dr. Guillaume St-Onge earned the PhD in Physics from Université Laval in Quebec City. Dr. St-Onge’s academic interests include stochastic processes, dynamical systems, human dynamics, complex networks, Bayesian statistics and computation. He develops mathematical and computational methods to model the spatial dynamics of infectious diseases, focusing on epidemic forecasts, pandemic preparedness, and global biosurveillance.
Kasey Kidder
Assistant Co-op Coordinator | Boston, MA
Kasey Kidder earned a master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Denver. She is passionate about connecting people to meaningful education and career opportunities and focuses on promoting mental health and wellness, closing the opportunity divide, and providing career coaching to help individuals achieve their aspirations.
Anthony Padrazo, M.Ed.
Assistant Co-op Coordinator | Boston, MA
Anthony Padrazo earned an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from Northeastern University. He has developed curricula in health and wellness, pre-school and student life. He has experience in special education, early childhood education, culturally responsive teaching, musical immersion, and psychological development.
