Our Computing Community | PSU Institute for Computational and Data Sciences

ICDS Faculty Co-Hires

Timothy Brick

Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Human Development and Family Studies

Office: 231 HHD Building, University Park

Research Focuses: Human-environment interaction, interpersonal interaction, statistics to analyze these kinds of interactions, data collection and analysis

Website: Visit Timothy's Website

Dana Calacci

Assistant Professor
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Data Sciences

Office: E331 Westgate Building, University Park

Email: dvc5952@psu.edu

Enrico Casella

Assistant Professor of Data Science for Animal Systems
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Animal Science

Office: 109 AVBS Building, University Park

Email: ebc5564@psu.edu

Research Focuses: Artificial Intelligence; Computer Vision; Optimization Techniques; Precision Technology; Animal Growth and Development; Animal Health and Behavior

Website: Visit Enrico's Website

Guido Cervone

Professor of Geography and Meteorology and Atmospheric Science
Interim Director, Institute for Computational and Data Sciences
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Geography

Office: 205 Walker Building, University Park

Email: cervone@psu.edu

Phone: 814-863-0179

Research Focuses: Remote sensing, environmental hazards, geoinformatics, social media

Website: Visit Guido's Website

Keith Cheng

Distinguished Professor of Pathology, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Pharmacology
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Pathology

Office: Room C7866A, Penn State Hershey College of Medicine

Email: kcheng@psu.edu

Phone: 717-531-5635

Research Focuses: Cancer genetics, genomic instability, cell differentiation, genetics of human pigmentation, web-based zebrafish atlas, image informatics, SNP database analysis

Website: Visit Keith's Website

Bruce Desmarais

Professor of Political Science
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Political Science

Office: 230 Pond Lab, University Park

Email: bbd5087@psu.edu

Phone: 814-863-8859

Research Focuses: Development and application of statistical methods to study of social and political systems, interdependence and structural complexity, network analysis, international conflict and cooperation among countries, campaign finance and co-sponsorship networks in the US Congress, digital communication networks in local government, diffusion of public policies across the US states, the interconnectedness of scientific research and US regulatory policymaking

Website: Visit Bruce's Website

Tonya M. Evans

Full Professor of Law
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Penn State Dickinson Law

Email: tme5309@psu.edu

Phone: 717-241-3508

Research Focuses: Dr. Evans (aka @IPProfEvans) focuses her research on the legal, policy, and economic justice implications of new technologies and innovation; specifically, distributed ledger technologies, cryptocurrencies and other cryptographically secured digital assets including non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized finance (DeFi), and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Legal considerations include intellectual property, regulatory frameworks, and cross-border dispute resolution mechanisms.

Website: Visit Tonya M.'s Website

Zoltan Fodor

Professor of Physics
ICDS Co-Hire

Email: zxf5098@psu.edu

Research Focuses: Elementary particle and nuclear physics, fundamental quark and hadron properties, quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and QCD at non-vanishing temperatures and densities.

Eric Ford

Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Astronomy and Astrophysics

Office: 428A Davey Laboratory, University Park

Email: ebf11@psu.edu

Phone: 814-863-5558

Research Focuses: Extrasolar planetary systems, planet formation and orbital evolution, detection & characterization of exoplanets, astrobiology, astrostatistics, cyberscience & high-performance scientific computing

Melissa Gervais

Assistant Professor of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Meteorology and Atmospheric Science

Office: 505 Walker Building, University Park

Email: mmg62@psu.edu

Phone: 814-863-3920

Research Focuses: Climate simulation, ocean temperatures, sea ice cover, atmospheric impacts of climate change

Samuel Grauer

Assistant Professor
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Mechanical Engineering

Email: sjg6056@psu.edu

Research Focuses: Laser-based fluid flow and combustion diagnostics; 2D and 3D background-oriented schlieren (BOS); Sensor fusion; Data assimilation; Design-of-experiments; Statistical inverse analysis and uncertainty quantification

Website: Visit Samuel's Website

Helen Greatrex

Assistant Professor of Remote Sensing and Geostatistics
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Geography; Statistics

Email: hlg5155@psu.edu

Phone: 814-865-1596

Research Focuses: Interactions between humans and rainfall, impact of rainfall on livelihoods, the nature of rainfall and its measurements, and sparse data environments.

Steven Greybush

Associate Professor of Meteorology
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Meteorology and Atmospheric Science

Office: 618 Walker Building, University Park

Email: sjg213@psu.edu

Phone: 814-867-4926

Research Focuses: Data assimilation, numerical weather prediction, weather and climate of Mars, atmospheric modeling, ensemble forecasting predictability, statistical and artificial intelligence applications

Chad Hanna

Professor of Physics
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Physics

Office: 104 Davey Lab #253, University Park

Email: crh184@psu.edu

Phone: 814-865-2924

Research Focuses: Gravitational-wave astrophysics, multimessenger astrophysics, compact binary systems, black holes, neutron stars

Website: Visit Chad's Website

John Harlim

Professor of Mathematics and Meteorology
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Mathematics, Meteorology

Office: 214 McAllister Building, University Park

Email: jharlim@psu.edu

Phone: 814-863-9024

Research Focuses: Applied mathematics related to data-driven estimation and prediction problems; filtering multi-scale dynamical systems, stochastic parameterization, uncertainty quantification, diffusion maps, non-parametric modeling

Website: Visit John's Website

Vasant Honavar

Professor and Edward Frymoyer Chair of Information Sciences and Technology
Associate Director, Institute for Computational and Data Sciences
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Information Sciences and Technology

Office: 301A Westgate Building, University Park

Email: vuh14@psu.edu

Phone: 814-865-3141

Research Focuses: Artificial intelligence, machine learning, data mining, big data analytics, bioinformatics and computational molecular and systems biology, discovery informatics, knowledge representation and semantic web, applied information integration and informatics

Website: Visit Vasant's Website

David Hunter

Professor of Statistics
Associate Director, Institute for Computational and Data Sciences
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Statistics

Office: 310 Thomas Building

Email: drh20@psu.edu

Phone: 814-865-1348

Research Focuses: Statistical algorithms, particularly MM algorithms; statistical modeling of networks; and mixture models, particularly finite mixtures in which the component distributions are not parametrically specified

Website: Visit David's Website

Mahmut Kandemir

Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
Director of Graduate Affairs
Associate Director, Institute for Computational and Data Sciences
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Computer Science and Engineering

Office: 354C Information Science and Technology Building, University Park

Email: kandemir@cse.psu.edu

Phone: 814-863-4888

Research Focuses: Embedded systems, programming languages, compilers, power-aware computing, dependable computing, input/output systems

Website: Visit Mahmut's Website

Reuben Kraft

Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering

Office: 320 Leonhard Building, University Park

Email: reuben.kraft@psu.edu

Phone: 814-867-4570

Research Focuses: Mechanical sciences, biomechanics, bioengineering

Website: Visit Reuben's Website

Soundar Kumara

Allen E. Pearce and Allen M. Pearce Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Director, Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Industry (AIMI) Research Center
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering

Office: 222 Leonard Building, University Park

Email: skumara@psu.edu

Phone: 814-863-2359

Research Focuses: Intelligent systems, sensor data representation and fusion, process data monitoring and diagnostics; smart manufacturing; graph analytics; big data analytics

Website: Visit Soundar's Website

Joel Leja

Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Astronomy and Astrophysics

Office: 515 Davey Lab

Email: joel.leja@psu.edu

Phone: 814-863-6039

Research Focuses: Research interests include a focus on understanding the processes of galaxy formation across cosmic time and working with data to build models to interpret data from surveys of galaxies in the distant universe.

Laifang Li

Assistant Professor of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Meteorology and Atmospheric Science

Office: 505 Walker Building

Email: lfl5240@psu.edu

Phone: 814-867-4750

Research Focuses: Climate (Multidecadal climate variability, Subtropial high dynamics, Bayesian inference on extreme events); Oceanography (Salinity and the oceanic water cycle, Forcing mechanisms on North Atlantic SST variability)

Website: Visit Laifang's Website

Daryl Lim

H. Laddie Montague Jr. Chair in Law
Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, Penn State Dickinson Law; Founding Director, Intellectual Property Law and Innovation Initiative
ICDS Co-Hire

Email: dfl5478@psu.edu

Phone: 717-241-3537

Research Focuses: IP law, antitrust law, artificial intelligence, data security and privacy, the architecture of innovation

Website: Visit Daryl's Website

Xiao Liu

Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Biomedical Engineering

Office: 315 Hallowell Building, University Park

Email: xxl213@engr.psu.edu

Phone: 814-863-4419

Research Focuses: Multi-modal neuroimaging techniques, computational neuroscience, brain activity and consciousness, network dynamics of the brain, neural basis of resting-state fMRI connectivity

Xiaofeng Liu

Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering

Office: 223B Sackett, University Park

Email: xliu@engr.psu.edu

Phone: 814-863-2940

Research Focuses: Computational fluid dynamics (CFD), environmental fluid mechanics, sediment transport and erosion control, land surface process and morphodynamics, multiphase flow, water quality modeling

Website: Visit Xiaofeng's Website

Fenglong Ma

Assistant Professor of Information Sciences and Technology
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: College of Information Sciences and Technology

Email: ffm5105@psu.edu

Research Focuses: Data mining and machine learning, including healthcare data mining, deep learning, truth discovery, and probabilistic graphical models.

Website: Visit Fenglong's Website

Romit Maulik

Assistant Professor
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: IST

Email: rmm7011@psu.edu

Phone: 814-865-9180

Research Focuses: AI for Science, High-performance computing, Dynamic systems

Website: Visit Romit's Website

Jessica Menold

Director of Center for Immersive Experience
Associate Professor
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: SEDI School of Eng Design and Innovation

Office: 417B Engineering Design and Innovation Building

Email: jdm5407@psu.edu

Phone: 814-865-1345

Research Focuses: Engineering Design

Elia Merzari

Professor of Nuclear Engineering
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: ENG

Email: ebm5351@psu.edu

Phone: 814-863-7469

Edward O’Brien

Professor of Chemistry
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Chemistry

Office: 402 Chemistry Building, University Park

Email: epo2@psu.edu

Phone: 814-867-5100

Research Focuses: Ribosome-associated protein folding, macromolecular self-assembly and chaperone interactions in living cells

Website: Visit Edward's Website

Olumide Ogunmodimu

Assistant Professor of Energy and Mineral Engineering
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: EMS

Office: 207 Hosler Building

Email: ozo5101@psu.edu

Phone: 814-865-3437

Website: Visit Olumide's Website

Zita Oravecz

Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Human Development and Family Studies

Office: 216 Health and Human Development Building, University Park

Email: zita@psu.edu

Phone: 814-865-1546

Research Focuses: Individual differences, process modeling, state-of-the-art statistical approaches, emotion, cognition, Bayesian statistics

Website: Visit Zita's Website

Wes Reinhart

Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Materials Science and Engineering

Office: 303 Steidle Building

Email: reinhart@psu.edu

Research Focuses: Research interest includes engineered materials, statistical mechanics, and light-matter interactions, software prototyping and algorithm design for many computing architectures.

Website: Visit Wes's Website

Ashwin Renganathan

Assistant Professor Aerospace Engineering
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Aerospace Engineering

Email: akr6198@psu.edu

Phone: 814-863-8125

Research Focuses: Interested in developing scalable computational methods for the design of next-generation complex engineered systems, e.g., aircraft, spacecraft, and rotorcraft. Specifically, I am interested in developing simulation-based design methods, where the goal is to make system-level design decisions in the presence of uncertainty and high-dimensional design spaces, with computationally expensive models of the system.

Website: Visit Ashwin's Website

Marcos Rigol

Professor of Physics
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Physics

Office: 104 Davey Lab

Email: mrigol@phys.psu.edu

Phone: 814-865-6460

Research Focuses: Non-equilibrium quantum dynamics, strongly correlated systems, ultracold gases, magnetism, disorder, computational physics

Website: Visit Marcos's Website

Radu Roiban

Professor of Physics
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Physics

Office: 0104 Davey Laboratory, University Park

Email: rsr10@psu.edu

Phone: 814-863-5811

Website: Visit Radu's Website

Justin Silverman

Assistant Professor of Information Sciences and Technology
ICDS Co-Hire

Email: Justin.Silverman@psu.edu

Research Focuses: Justin's work focuses on longitudinal modeling and experimental design of host-associated microbiota surveys.

Website: Visit Justin's Website

Susan Sinnott

Department Head and Professor, Materials Science and Engineering and Chemistry
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Materials Science and Engineering

Office: 221A Steidle Building

Email: sinnott@matse.psu.edu

Phone: 814-863-3117

Research Focuses: Computational Materials

Website: Visit Susan's Website

Hyungsuk Tak

Assistant Professor of Statistics and Astronomy and Astrophysics
ICDS Co-Hire

Department: Statistics; Astronomy and Astrophysics

Email: tak@psu.edu

Research Focuses: Astronomical time series and imaging data, developing practically motivated data analytic tools, time delay cosmography for the Hubble constant estimation, statistical computation (data augmentation/missing data/Markov chain Monte Carlo), robust inference on pulsar timing array for detecting gravitational waves, and Bayesian hierarchical modeling with frequency coverage evaluation.

Website: Visit Hyungsuk's Website