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.

Wendi Lyn Adair

Assistant professor, organizational behavior
College: Johnson Graduate School of Management
Academic focus: Research investigates the role of culture and communication in the behavior of individuals and groups in organizations. She has examined transactional negotiations in over eight national cultures. Other areas of research include emotion, reputation and the effects of electronic media in negotiations. Her teaching interests include negotiations and cross-cultural negotiations.
Previous position: Doctoral student, Northwestern University.
Academic background: B.S., Russian language and business, Georgetown University, 1991; and an M.S., 1997, and a Ph.D., 2000, both in organization behavior, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University.

Kathleen O'Neill

Assistant professor, government
College: Arts and Sciences
Academic focus: Comparative study of political institutional change, particularly in Latin America. Current work focuses on political and fiscal decentralization (and possible recentralization) in the Andean countries of Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela and Ecuador. A separate project investigates how decentralized institutions affect indigenous participation in the formal political arena; collaboration with an anthropologist (Harvard graduate student Bret Gustafson) also examines how formal participation and opportunity affects the traditional structure of indigenous communities.
Previous position: Research fellow, Harvard University, 1996-2000.
Academic background: B.A., Claremont McKenna College, politics, philosophy and economics (PPE) and economics, 1993; Ph.D., political economy and government, Harvard University, 1999.

Jocelyn Rose

Assistant professor, plant biology
College: Agriculture and Life Sciences
Academic focus: Researching plant cell walls using functional genomics and new technologies associated with proteomics; trying to understand the contribution of the plant cell wall to growth and development, including the regulation of cell expansion, fruit softening and the molecular signaling that leads to cell wall changes. He is teaching plant biochemistry at the undergraduate level and is developing graduate-level courses.
Previous position: Postdoctoral research associate, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, 1998-2000.
Academic background: B.Sc., biology, University of Manchester, England, 1991; Ph.D., plant biology, University of California-Davis, 1998.

Janice E. Thies

Associate Professor, crop and soil sciences
College: Agriculture and Life Sciences
Academic focus: Soil microbial population genetics, particularly the mechanisms of population diversification; the influence of management practices on soil microbial diversity and activity; and the development of bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides for use in low-input agriculture. This spring she will teach an undergraduate course titled "The Soil Ecosystem."
Previous position: Senior lecturer, soil biology and soil management, University of Western Sydney-Hawkesbury, New South Wales, Australia, 1995-2000.
Academic background: B.S., botany (mycology), University of Washington, 1976; and an M.S., 1986, and a Ph.D., 1990, both in microbiology (microbial ecology) from the University of Hawaii.

Rachel Zhang

Assistant professor, operations management
College: Johnson Graduate School of Management
Academic focus: Research interests are in production and inventory control; supply-chain management; coordination of operations, finance and marketing; and bidding strategies in competitive exchange markets. She received an honorable mention in the INFORMS Nicholson Paper Competition in 1994 and an early-career award from the National Science Foundation in 1995.
Previous position: Assistant professor, Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan.
Academic background: B.S., applied mathematics, Zhenghou Institute of Technology, China, 1983; M.S., industrial engineering and management sciences, Zhejiang University, China, 1989; M.S., industrial engineering and management sciences, 1992, and Ph.D., 1994, both from Northwestern University.

October 26, 2000