Introducing New Members of the Faculty

To help introduce to the Cornell community the new members of the university's faculty, the Cornell Chronicle is publishing brief, new-faculty profiles each week during the semester.

Kavita Bala

Assistant professor, computer science and computer graphics
College: Faculty of Computing and Information Science, Engineering
Academic focus: Rendering the appearance of light and shadow in interactive computer graphics.
Previous position: Postdoctoral research associate, Cornell Program of Computer Graphics.
Academic background: B.S., Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, 1992; M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1995; Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1999, all in computer science.

Rachel Dunifon

Assistant professor, policy analysis and management
College: Human Ecology
Academic focus: Dunifon's research is in the area of child and family policy. Specifically she is interested in examining the impact of maternal work and welfare programs on low-income children, the effects of single-parenthood and cohabitation on children, and the transmission of attitudes and characteristics from parents to children.
Previous position: Postdoctoral research fellow, Program on Poverty and Social Welfare Policy, University of Michigan, 1999-2001; research assistant, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, 1997-1999.
Academic background: B.A., psychology, Davidson College, 1994; Ph.D., human development and social policy, Northwestern University, 1999.

Jeffrey Harrison

Fred H. Peelen Professor of Global Hospitality Strategy
College: School of Hotel Administration
Academic focus: Research interests are in strategic management, organizational alliances, diversification and stakeholder value in the hospitality industry. Teaching interests are competitive strategies for the hospitality industry, strategic management, organization theory and behavior, and management decision analysis. Harrison is the author of several books, most recently Strategic Management of Resources and Relationships (Wiley, 2003).
Previous positions: Professor of management, University of Central Florida; associate professor, Clemson University.
Academic background: B.S., finance, Brigham Young University, 1982; MBA, University of Utah, 1983; Ph.D., strategic management/management information systems, University of Utah, 1985.

Burke A. Hendrix

Assistant professor, government and ethics and public life.
College: Arts and Sciences.
Academic focus: Ethical evaluation of state territorial conflicts, including questions of property rights, political obligation, national self-determination and international law, with particular attention to Native American sovereignty claims in the United States.
Previous position: Doctoral student and University Fellow, University of Colorado at Boulder.
Academic background: B.A., political science and history, Linfield College, 1992; and M.A.,1999, and Ph.D., 2002, both in political science from the University of Colorado-Boulder.

Aija E. Leiponen

Assistant professor, applied economics and management
College: Agriculture and Life Sciences
Academic focus: Examines technological change in the economy, while trying to understand how the organization of firms' activities affect their innovation performance. Most recently she has examined the creation and transfer of knowledge between business service firms and their clients. Ongoing research projects also include a study of firms' strategies in the creation of technological standards in wireless telecommunications.
Previous position: Research scholar, Research Institute of the Finnish Economy; research fellow, University of California-Berkeley.
Academic background: M.S., 1993, and Ph.D., 2000, Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration.

September 26, 2002