Introducing New Members of the Faculty

To help introduce to the Cornell community the new members of the university's faculty, the Cornell Chronicle will be publishing brief, new-faculty profiles through December.

Talia Bar

Assistant professor, economics
College: Arts and Sciences
Academic focus: Microeconomic theory, game theory and industrial organization, patent races and disclosure.
Previous position: Doctoral student, Yale University, 1997-2003.
Academic background: B.A., mathematics, 1992, and M.A., economics, 1996, both at The Hebrew University, Jerusalem; Ph.D., economics, 2003, Yale University.
Last book read: Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman!, by Richard P. Feynman.

Antje Berndt

Assistant professor, operations research and industrial engineering
College: Engineering
Academic focus: Credit risk modeling, including the valuation of corporate bonds and credit derivatives. She is interested in computational finance, including simulation-based option pricing, empirical asset pricing and market and credit risk management for financial institutions. Recently she also became involved in statistical data mining.
Previous position: Doctoral candidate, Stanford University, 1999-2003.
Academic background: B.S., economics, 1997, and M.S., mathematics, 1998, both at the University of Kiel, Germany; M.A., mathematics of finance, Columbia University, 1999; Ph.D., statistics, Stanford, 2003.
Last book read: Trading Up, by Candace Bushnell.

David R. Harris

Professor, sociology
College: Arts and Sciences
Academic focus: Racial and ethnic identification, race relations, social stratification, social policy and, particularly, mixed-race identity and interracial relationships.
Previous position: Assistant professor, University of Michigan, 1996-2003.
Academic background: B.S., human development and social policy, Northwestern University, 1991; Ph.D., sociology, Northwestern University, 1997.
Last book read: Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone, by Martin Dugard.

Carmen I. Moraru

Assistant professor, food science
College: Agriculture and Life Science
Academic focus: The physical properties of dairy-processing systems and their impact on the structure, texture and shelf-life of dairy foods and ingredients; she wants to understand how dairy systems work at the molecular level. Her broad goal is to combine processing techniques and to deliver high-quality, safe and nutritious dairy products.
Previous position: Assistant research professor, Department of Food Science, Rutgers University, 2001-03.
Academic background: B.Sc., food technology, University of Galati, Romania, 1989; Ph.D., food engineering and equipment, University of Galati, 1999.
Last book read: The Testament, by John Grisham.

Jon Parmenter

Assistant professor, history
College: Arts and Sciences
Academic Focus: Early America, Native Americans, the Iroquois, Great Lakes Algonquians, indigenous governance, cross-cultural contacts and treaty rights.
Previous position: Assistant professor, St. Lawrence University, 1999-2003.
Academic background: B.A., history, 1992; M.A., history, 1993, both from the University of Western Ontario; Ph.D., history, University of Michigan, 1999.
Last book read: Straight Man, by Richard Russo.

September 25, 2003