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 a series of brief, new-faculty profiles each week during the semester.

John Cawley

Assistant professor, policy analysis and management
College: Human Ecology
Academic focus: Research is primarily in the areas of health and labor economics. Specific recent topics include: the labor market impact of obesity, Medicare managed care policy and the substitution of capital for labor in nursing homes.
Previous position: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholar in Health Policy Research, University of Michigan, 1999-2001.
Academic background: A.B., economics, Harvard University, 1993; Ph.D., economics, University of Chicago, 1999.

Shane Henderson

Assistant professor, operations research and industrial engineering
College: Engineering
Academic focus: His overall goal is to contribute to research and learning in the theory and application of stochastic simulation and applied probability, with emphasis on the interface between these areas and optimization. Primarily, his research interests lie in discrete-event simulation, from input to output analysis. An emerging theme in his work is the interplay between optimization and simulation. More generally, he is interested in identifying effective operating policies in multiclass networks, which play a pivotal role in modeling manufacturing, communication and service systems.
Previous position: Industrial and Operations Engineering Department, University of Michigan, 1999-2001.
Academic background: B.Sc.(Hons), mathematics, University of Auckland, New Zealand, 1992; M.S., statistics, 1996, and Ph.D., operations research, 1997, both at Stanford University.

Johannes Lehmann

Assistant professor, crop and soils science
College: Agriculture and Life Sciences
Academic focus: Research focuses on developing the environmental management of agricultural areas. A large part of his work is aimed at understanding tropical ecosystems, where he studies the replenishment of soil fertility and combating soil degradation. He will teach nutrient management in agro-ecosystems in the spring.
Previous position: Coordinator of an interdisciplinary research project on nutrient management in the Central Amazon for the German Federal Research Institution of Forestry and the University of Bayreuth, Germany.
Academic background: Diploma, geo-ecology, 1993, and Ph.D., soil science, both from the University of Bayreuth, 1997.

Michal Lipson

Assistant professor, electrical and computer engineering
College: Engineering
Academic focus: Her research group's interests lie in the field of nanophotonics, including optical nanostructures for short and long interconnect distances. Optics on chips offer a low-cost, scalable alternative with high bandwidth and reduced power dissipation. The goal is to develop nano-optically active devices, such as optical amplifiers, emitters, modulators, routers and switches, by using strong light-conning structures, including microcavities, optical fibers, optical wires and photonic band gap materials.
Previous position: Postdoctoral associate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998-2001.
Academic background: B.A., physics, 1992; M.S., physics, 1993; Ph.D., physics, 1998, all at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

November 15, 2001