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 through December.

Barbash

Booth

Tumbar

Vidyashankar

Daniel Barbash

Assistant professor, molecular biology and genetics
College: Agriculture and Life Sciences
Academic focus: Barbash's research focus is in the areas of evolutionary genetics and speciation. Specifically, his research seeks to understand the relationship between genomic change and the creation and divergence of species. He currently is using diverse approaches including developmental genetics, biochemistry, molecular evolution, population genetics and comparative genomics to investigate interspecific hybrid lethality in the fruit fly Drosophila.
Previous positions: Postdoctoral researcher, University of California-Davis, 2000-04; postdoctoral researcher, genetics, University of Cambridge, 1996-2000.
Academic background: B.S., biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1989; Ph.D., genetics, University of California-Berkeley, 1995.
Last book read: Diversity: The Invention of a Concept by Peter Wood.

James Booth

Professor, biological statistics and computational biology
College: Agriculture and Life Sciences
Academic focus: Categorical data analysis, cluster analysis, exact conditional inference, generalized linear mixed models, Monte Carlo methods, resampling and statistical genomics.
Previous positions: Professor, University of Florida, 2000-04; associate professor, University of Florida, 1993-2000; research fellow, Australian National University, 1990-92.
Academic background: B.Sc., mathematics, 1981, and M.Sc., statistics, 1982, both at the University of Leeds, England; M.S., 1984, and Ph.D., 1987, statistics, both at the University of Kentucky.
Last book read: H.M.S. Surprise by Patrick O'Brian.

Tudorita Tumbar

Assistant professor, molecular biology and genetics
College: Agriculture and Life Sciences
Academic focus: Tumbar is interested in understanding the function of epithelial skin stem cells. Specifically, she is interested in elucidating the basic cellular and molecular mechanisms implicated in cell fate choice and stem cell activity within tissues, using the mouse as a model.
Previous position: Postdoctoral fellow, Rockefeller University, 2002-04.
Academic background: B.S./M.S., biochemistry, University of Bucharest, Romania, 1993; Ph.D., cell biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2000.
Last book read: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.

Anand Vidyashankar

Associate professor, statistical science and social statistics
College: Industrial and Labor Relations
Academic focus: Vidyashankar's research interests are varied and interdisciplinary in nature. His interests in biostatistics are in the areas of clinical trials, veterinary and human parasitology and epidemiology. He also works in data confidentiality and has developed methodology for evaluating the risk of reidentification in health-care data. His other interests include modeling consumer behavior and studying its impact on public policy concerning gerontology.
Previous position: Associate professor and consulting co-director, Department of Statistics, University of Georgia.
Academic background: B.Sc., statistics, 1983, and M.Sc., statistics, 1985, University of Madras, India; Ph.D., statistics and mathematics, Iowa State University, 1994.
Last book read: A Simple Path by Mother Teresa.

November 18, 2004