Dean of Engineering Mun Y. Choi announced a number of appointments and reappointments for the coming year. Dr. Amvrossios “Ross” Bagtzoglou was appointed Head of Civil & Environmental Engineering; Dr. Rajeev Bansal was appointed Head of Electrical & Computer Engineering; Dr. Baki Cetegen was reappointed Head of Mechanical Engineering; and Dr. Donald R. Peterson was appointed Director of Graduate Studies for the Biomedical Engineering (BME) program.
Dr. Bagtzoglou, who joined UConn in 2002, will commence his duties as Head of CEE in May 2009, at the conclusion of Dr. Mike Accorsi’s term. Dr. Bagtzoglou served as Associate Department Head during the last year, and oversaw the undergraduate and graduate Environmental Engineering programs as Director since 2005. He is environmental engineering Topical Editor for the Encyclopedia of Earth, Associate Editor for the Journal of Inverse Problems in Science and Engineering, and an Editorial Board member for Stochastic Environmental Research & Risk Assessment and Environmental Forensics. Dr. Bagtzoglou has published more than 50 refereed journal papers and garnered over $975,000 in research funding since coming to UConn. With expertise in water resources and hydrology, geoenvironmental engineering and modeling, he is internationally recognized for his pioneering work on inverse methods for groundwater pollution source identification. Prior to joining UConn, Dr. Bagtzoglou was an assistant professor at Columbia University, where he established the Heffner Laboratory for Hydrologic Research, an instructional laboratory. He earned his Ph.D. in water resources and environmental engineering from the University of California, Irvine (1990).
Dr. Bansal, who joined UConn in 1981, will begin his term as Head of ECE in July 2009. He succeeds Dr. Peter Luh, with whom he has served as Associate Department Head since 2006. Prior to joining the University of Connecticut in 1981, he conducted research at the Gordon McKay Laboratory at Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. in applied physics in 1981. His areas of expertise include applied electromagnetics (EM), antenna design, and biomedical applications of EM waves. Dr. Bansal is an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, a senior member of IEEE, and a Fellow of The Electromagnetics Academy. He is a co-inventor on two U.S. patents, and he has edited three handbooks and authored several book chapters as well as more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings. At the University level, Dr. Bansal has served as an elected member of the University Senate since 1999. He is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Microwave Magazine and the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, and serves on the editorial boards of the online journal Progress in Electromagnetic Research(PIER) and the International Journal of RF & Microwave Computer-Aided Engineering.
Dr. Cetegen, who has served as Department Head of ME since September 2006, joined the department in 1987. He received his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1982 and, following graduation, worked as a research scientist and group leader at Energy and Environmental Research Corporation in Irvine, CA and later as a research fellow at the University of California, Irvine. His academic experience also encompasses research interludes at the Center for Laser Diagnostics at Yale University (1994) and the Laboratoire Energetique Moleculaire et Macroscopique Combustion at Ecole Centrale de Paris (2002). Among his recent research projects, Dr. Cetegen has explored the dynamic behavior of turbulent premixed flames, heat transfer and phase change in rotating flows, thermal spray process characterization by non-intrusive optical measurements and modeling, and optical diagnostics for PEM fuel cells. He is a co-inventor on two U.S. patents and has published more than 130 scholarly journal publications and conference proceedings. He has served as treasurer and a member of the Executive Board of the Eastern Section of the Combustion Institute and currently is its Vice Chair and Chair-Elect. He is also a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME); and an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Science & Engineering.
As Director of Graduate Studies for the Biomedical Engineering (BME) program, Dr. Peterson will interact with Dr. John Enderle, BME Program Director, and the interdisciplinary BME faculty to advance the graduate program curriculum, admissions process, faculty participation and research and training programs. Dr. Peterson received his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering and his M.S. in mechanical engineering — both at the University of Connecticut. He has been an active member of the BME faculty since 1999 offering courses in biomechanics, biodynamics, biofluid mechanics and ergonomics and — during the past year — has served as BME Graduate Program Committee chair. He is an assistant professor in the School of Medicine, where he is the Director of the Biodynamics Laboratory and the Bioengineering Center at the UConn Health Center. His research involves the modeling of human interactions with existing and developmental devices such as powered and non-powered tools, dental instruments, computer input devices, musical instruments, sports equipment, and spacesuit and spacetool development for NASA. Dr. Peterson has over 45 scholarly publications appearing in journals and textbooks, and he was recently named co-Editor-in-Chief, with Dr. Joseph D. Bronzino, of the 4th edition ofThe Biomedical Engineering Handbook.
