More than a dozen talented and diverse scholars will join the faculty of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences this academic year. Their research interests cover human history and evolution; social systems and policy; machine learning; astrophysics; and the environment, from oceans to climates.
The cohort of tenure-track faculty includes two new endowed chairholders: Sergio Luzzatto, who will join the Department of History as the Emiliana Pasca Noether Chair in Modern Italian History; and Avinoam Patt, who has been named the Doris and Simon Konover Family Foundation Chair of Judaic Studies, and will serve as director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life.
Get to know the new CLAS professors below and click through to read their full interviews.
Hind Ahmed Zaki
Assistant Professor of Political Science and Literatures, Cultures, and Languages
“I am very excited about teaching students from all walks of life and getting them interested in the politics of the world around them. I am also especially excited about instructing courses that teach students about the modern societies, politics, and cultures of the Middle East—a region that is often misunderstood in the West for a complex set of historical and contemporary reasons.”
Daniel Anglés-Alcázar
Assistant Professor of Physics
“I am a theoretical astrophysicist with broad interests in galaxy evolution, from the formation of stars and the impact of supernova explosions to the co-evolution of supermassive black holes and galaxies and the growth of large-scale structure in the Universe. I have been fascinated with the mysteries of the universe since I was a kid. I used to read astronomy magazines and explore the night sky with a small telescope in the backyard. Pursuing a BS in physics was the most natural choice for me to satisfy my curiosity of how the universe works.”
Xiang Chen
Assistant Professor of Geography
“My interests are focused on GIS, transportation, food access, and community health. I was drawn to UConn because of its global reputation in higher education and research. Specifically, the health research cluster InCHIP provides many opportunities for me as a geographer to collaborate with health research scientists.”
Ran Feng
Assistant Professor of Geosciences
“My interests include cloud and precipitation processes during greenhouse climates. I am excited to join the recently launched Department of Geosciences at UConn. Within the Department, there are rising stars in geochemistry, geomorphology, and geochronology, as well as well-established paleontologists, geologists, geophysicists, and hydrologists. It is a highly productive environment with plenty of potential for collaboration.”
Yusun Kim
Associate Professor of Public Policy
“UConn’s Department of Public Policy has a strong research program with wonderful line of dedicated faculty. UConn DPP also has placed emphasis on training in the field of public financial management, which I am interested in. Many MPA and MPP alumni have found successful careers both in academia and in practice, some of whom I met while I was a graduate student, and they really impressed me.”
Sergio Luzzatto
Emiliana Pasca Noether Chair in Modern Italian History
“My current project deals with the history of terrorism in Italy, from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. Having spent most of my career in Italy, I am now keen to start a new chapter of my professional life in the U.S. I am motivated to take this lifechanging step by the prestige of the Emiliana Pasca Noether Chair in Modern Italian history, and the opportunity to teach at an outstanding public university.”
Chiara Mingarelli
Assistant Professor of Physics
Chiara Mingarelli is a gravitational-wave astrophysicist who is looking to understand how supermassive black holes in the centers of massive galaxies merge, and if they merge at all. She does this by predicting their nanohertz gravitational-wave signatures, which will soon be detected by pulsar timing array experiments.
Avinoam Patt
Doris and Simon Konover Family Foundation Chair of Judaic Studies
“My scholarship adds broadly to the field of Jewish Studies, with contributions in Holocaust studies, Modern European and American Jewish history, Israel studies, Jewish literature, and Jewish humor. I have always loved history. As an undergrad at Emory University, I had the privilege of working with amazing professors in Jewish studies, who showed me it was possible to turn my passion into a career.”
Cesar B. Rocha
Assistant Professor of Marine Sciences
“As an ocean dynamicist, I study the causes and consequences of the ocean circulation. What interests me most are mesoscale and submesoscale eddies–strong swirly currents also known as the ‘ocean weather.’ I use observations, computer simulations, and mathematical analysis to unravel what drives these eddies and how they affect climate.”
Fumilayo Showers
Assistant Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies
“My current central research project examines African immigrants as direct care workers in U.S. health care institutions. I am also interested in migration aspirations among young college students. My interest in migration comes from my background. I moved to the U.S. when I was 18. My interest in immigrant labor and health care was sparked by observing the struggles of members of my family.”
Adrian Stegovec
Assistant Professor of Linguistics
“I am interested in the problem of what are possible and impossible human languages. I study this by comparing large numbers of languages to identify the abstract patterns that govern their grammars. I was drawn to it because it approaches language as an object of study by using the same scientific method that is used in the natural sciences.”
Christian Tryon
Professor of Anthropology
“In my opinion, the Department of Anthropology here, particularly for those interested in archaeology, is one of the best in the country, and the new Department of Geosciences is really taking off in exciting ways. This leads to the potential for new and exciting collaborations. For me, the best, most interesting, and most fun kind of research is always collaborative.”
