Dynamic Dozen

Twelve teacher/scholars join the Harvey Mudd faculty

With the addition of 12 teachers/scholars—three of them alumni—the College has 116 faculty members charged with educating future scientists, engineers and mathematicians and inspiring them to become passionate problem solvers who understand the impact of their work on society.

Chemistry

Colm Healy

PhD, chemistry, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland; visiting assistant professor at HMC for the past two years

Research interests: Uses materials chemistry to tackle climate change, energy storage and conversion, renewable fuels. In Healy’s Hybrid Materials Chemistry Lab (HMC@HMC), researchers examine organic- inorganic hybrid materials, which combine some of the properties of traditional organic plastics with traditional inorganic glasses.
Fun fact: Over a five-year period, Healy lived on four different continents.

Maduka Ogba

PhD, chemistry, Oregon State University; postdoctoral fellow, Pomona College; recent faculty member, Chapman University

Research interests: Utilizes computational chemistry methods and high-performance computing to develop cost-effective and environmentally friendly catalytic reactions. Researchers in Ogba’s group investigate using cheap, earth-abundant and environmentally sustainable salts to convert environmental pollutant molecules into useful drugs and materials.
Fun fact: Ogba is a cinephile and was an avid member of dance crews as an undergrad.

Computer Science

Jonathan Chang ’17

PhD, computer science, Cornell University; data science fellow, Cornell Center for Social Sciences

Research interests: Studies ways to promote healthier interactions in online communities. From a technical perspective, develops new algorithms and computational models to characterize and detect behaviors that are harmful to online communities. Explores, from a social perspective, how such technologies can best be leveraged to create tools and policies with a positive impact.
Fun fact: Chang spent all four years at Harvey Mudd in East Dorm. He’s also a big fan of Hong Kong style cuisine.

Vidushi Ojha ’17

PhD, computer science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; software engineer for two years after college

Research interests: Focuses on broadening participation in computing by examining the institutional policies and classroom practices that foster students’ learning and well-being. Ojha’s research affords students an opportunity to learn a variety of qualitative and quantitative skills while working on topics directly relevant to their own experiences.
Fun fact: Ojha loves boba, books and board games. Other Harvey Mudd alums in the family: brother, Class of 2019; husband, Class of 2018.

Tim Randolph

PhD, computer science, Columbia University

Research interests: At the intersection of computer science and mathematics and focused on using new mathematical tools on hard problems in exact and parameterized complexity. He has published peer- reviewed research on cryptography, mathematics, management science and computer science education. Promotes equity and inclusion in computer science.
Fun fact: Randolph enjoys trail running, reading, vegan baking and all forms of outdoor adventure.

Engineering

Marissa Lee ’18

PhD, mechanical engineering, Stanford University; previously an HMC visiting assistant professor

Research interests: Lee has collaborated with clinicians nationwide to enhance patient mobility. She intends to bring biomechanics and data science experience—which she further developed with the Philadelphia Phillies, a Major League Baseball team—to establish a research group that studies human mobility and performance and will focus on quantifying and improving movement in natural environments and uncovering relationships among bone, injury and treatment outcomes.
Fun fact: Lee is halfway through her goal of watching a baseball game at every Major League Baseball stadium.

Adyasha Mohanty

PhD, aerospace engineering, Stanford University

Research interests: Designs algorithms for improving the localization of autonomous systems in challenging environments and under challenging dynamics using AI and physics-based models, sensor fusion and principles from information theory. Seeks to design autonomous systems that function safely in the most unpredictable scenarios while bridging the gap between theoretical principles and practical implementations.
Fun fact: Mohanty loves doing Zumba dance and considered becoming a Zumba instructor.

Hixon Center for Climate and the Environment/Biology

Jessica Guo

PhD, biology/biological sciences, Northern Arizona University

Research interests: Studies plant-environment interactions under extreme climate, focusing on drylands subject to potentially lethal combinations of heat and drought. Co-principal investigator of an NSF-funded Research Coordination Network that aims to build a robust database of plant water potential and spur synthetic research across disciplines, such as plant ecophysiology, remote sensing and ecosystem modeling.
Fun fact: Guo almost became a herpetologist (a scientist who studies amphibians and reptiles), but “plants are easier to find and require less paperwork,” she says.

Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts

Jia Yi Gu

PhD, architecture, UCLA; taught at UCLA, USC, SCI-Arc, University of Toronto and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; worked in Berlin, Barcelona and Anyang, China\

Research interests: Works at the intersection of art and architecture. Research focuses on histories of knowledge production and display practices in art and architecture. Gu is director and curator of MAK Center for Art and Architecture and has served as director of Materials & Applications, a Los Angeles-based project space for experimental architecture. Co-founder of architecture studio Spinagu with Maxi Spina.
Fun fact: When traveling abroad, Gu organizes diasporic Asian food tours as a way of experiencing and better understanding the many cultures that constitute a locale, in particular the immigrant communities.

David Wilson

PhD, ethnomusicology, University of Chicago; DMA, vocal arts, USC; taught voice at NYU’s Joint Music Program and at Stanford

Research interests: Investigates why music is a crucial tool to modern nationalism, why music is so attractive in contests over national legitimacy, and why the exact role of music is difficult to describe in nationalist contexts. Addressing music’s capacity to educate individuals about the “correct” emotional relationship between everyday citizens and the nation-state in 20th- and 21st-century Taiwan and China. Author of Substack newsletter Unmusable, which explores music and media in Taiwan and China.
Fun fact: Wilson enjoys British mystery TV, Duolingo and binge-watching the Great British Baking Show.

Sarah Stefanos

PhD, sociology and environmental studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Research interests: Focuses on Ethiopia and Uganda and questions of globalization, race and ethnicity, indigenous peoples, inequality, migration, work and entrepreneurship, politics and political economy, environment and natural resources, and development. Co-founder of W2E Ltd, a waste-to-energy research company in Uganda that specializes in biogas systems and technological/business innovations at the intersection of energy and agriculture.
Fun fact: While in Ethiopia, broke an ankle falling into a meditation pool at a fancy hotel that was hosting a conference by the Breakthrough Institute.

Mathematics

Andrés Vindas Meléndez

PhD, mathematics, University of Kentucky; graduate certificate in Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx studies

Research interests: Algebraic, enumerative and geometric combinatorics, and mathematical and computational approaches and applications of data science and mathematics for social justice. Previously, an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow and lecturer at UC Berkeley; postdoctoral scholar at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (now Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute).
Fun fact: Meléndez adopted an Australian Cattle Dog mix puppy from a shelter.