Date: Friday, December 16, 2005
Time: 5:00PM to 6:00PM
Place: 25 West 43rd Street, 19th Floor
between 5th & 6th Avenues, Manhattan
Dr. Brenda Malone, CUNY Vice Chancellor for Faculty Relations, and the Hon. Trustee Wellington Z. Chen, member of the CUNY Board of Trustees will join members of the AAARI board to welcome new Asian faculty and staff to the CUNY family. Later in the evening, Trustee Chen will also dialog with those present about the vision of CUNY for the Asian American community.
We would like to have the new faculty and staff as active participants in our many intellectually stimulating programs, and offer our institute as an opportunity for them to network with other colleagues. We appreciate the time that these faculty and staff have taken to make the CUNY family a more pleasant and supportive environment.
CUNY Asian Faculty & Staff Biographies
Zhao Chen is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at New York City College of Technology, CUNY. Dr. Chen received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the Graduate Center, CUNY. He has served as the chair of Student Development Committee of Title V, and has taught at the City University of New York for a long time and has published many research papers in mathematics.
Niloufar Haque is an Assistant Professor of Physical and Biological Sciences at New York City College of Technology, CUNY. Dr. Haque received her Ph.D. in neurochemistry from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. She has previously worked at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, and at the Department of Pharmacology at Georgetown University, before moving to the Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Diseases in Staten Island.
Dr. Haque’s research interest is in Neurodegenerative Diseases and Related Disorders, with a special focus on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases. She also mentors women at the Neuroscience Society in Washington, DC; initiated a Student’s Summer Research Program at NYC College of Technology; and initiated collaborative research on the Gowanus Canal, which received coverage in the New York Times.
Andrea Li is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Queens College, CUNY. Professor Li is interested in the perceptual and neural mechanisms of visual processing, with a particular interest in understanding the perception of 3D shapes and objects from 2D images. She received her B.S. in Brain and Cognitive Science from MIT (1990) where her research interests focused on cognitive aspects of language processing and visual perception. She then received her Masters degree in Psychology (1993) and her Ph.D. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the University of Rochester (1996). Her dissertation examined the perceptual roles of color and brightness in the segmentation of textured surfaces. She then received a post-doctoral NRSA award from NIH to work at SUNY College of Optometry, examining the roles of spatial frequency and orientation in 3D shape perception from images of textured surfaces. Subsequently, she has continued her collaborations at SUNY on an R01 from NIH to further study the neural basis of 3D shape perception from textural cues.
Hong Li is an Assistant Professor of Computer Systems Technology at New York City College of Technology, CUNY. Dr. Li received her Ph.D. degree in Mathematics from the University of Oklahoma. She worked as a software developer and system analyst in numeric modeling for 5 years in different companies such as Goldman Sachs, Inc. and Conoco, Inc. She taught as an Assistant Professor in Eastern Washington University and in Kean University before she joined the Department of Computer Systems Technology at NYCCT in 2002. She brought her expertise and years of experience. Currently, her research interests are mathematical modeling, system identification by Neural Networks and software applications. She is working on a granted project that investigates the estimation of oil saturation using neural networks.
Lihong (Connie) Li is an Assistant Professor of Engineering Science and Physics at College of Staten Island, CUNY. Dr. Li received her Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook in 2002. Her research interests include signal/image processing, medical informatics, pattern recognition, and computer vision. Her research work has been continuously funded by National Institute of Health (NIH), National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and the Research Foundation of CUNY.
Dr. Li has published extensively and served as referee in major journals. She has organized and given a number of presentations in the international professional societies. One of her developed technologies on Virtual Colonoscopy has been successfully adopted by Viatronix, Inc. and got approved by US Food and Drug Administration for industry marketing. She holds one patent in the area of medical imaging. Dr. Li has won many awards, including CSI Dean’s Award for Summer Research. Currently, she is serving as the Doctoral faculty of the CUNY Ph.D. Program of Electrical Engineering, CSI curriculum committee member, as well as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Branch Advisor.
Rifat Salam is currently completing her PhD in Sociology at New York University. Her doctoral dissertation, entitled Second Generation South Asians: Dating, Mating and Becoming American, explores the link between dating and marriage choices and the assimilation process. Her research interests are currently focused on the experiences of South Asians in the United States and South Asian American identity but she is also more generally interested in the family, gender and immigration and ethnicity in American life. In Fall 2005, she joined the Social Science Department at the Borough of Manhattan Community College.
Vamsicharan Vakulabharanam is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Queens College, CUNY. Dr. Vakulabharanam received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts in 2004. His research and teaching interests include development economics, political economy, mathematical methods, and economic history. His dissertation, is a methodologically and conceptually innovative study of “Immiserating Growth: Globalization and Agrarian Change in South India, 1985-2000.” He has forthcoming articles and conference presentations on issues of irrigation, cotton farming, the relationship between Indian economic liberalization and the sustainability of peasant households in South India.
Xinzhou (Joe) Wei is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications at New York City College of Technology , CUNY. Dr. Wei received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science at the Graduate School of CUNY in May 2002. His research interests include signal processing, telecommunication, and computer network security. Dr. Wei served as the Session Chair in the 9th World Multi-Conference on Systematics, Cybernetics, and Informatics. He is also serving in the Information Technology Advisory Committee at NYC College of Technology.
Ming-Chin Yeh is an Assistant Professor in the Urban Public Health Program, Nutrition and Food Science at the School of Health Sciences, Hunter College, CUNY. upon Dr. Yeh received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; MEd, Columbia University; MS, New York University; BS, Taipei Medical College, Taiwan, and completed his training at the Yale University Prevention Research Center.. His research involves developing innovative intervention strategies on overweight / obesity prevention and control. Another research interest focuses on promoting fruit and vegetable consumption in multi-ethnic populations.
