UAlbany Welcomes 40 New Faculty This Fall

By Bethany Bump

ALBANY, N.Y. (Aug. 22, 2023) — The University at Albany is welcoming 40 new faculty this fall, including 18 who specialize in artificial intelligence.

The hires are part of an unprecedented hiring push to add 49 new faculty this year, including 27 who specialize in artificial intelligence-related disciplines as part of UAlbany’s AI Plus initiative to embed teaching and research about AI across all academic programs. The hires will include a new director of the AI Plus institute, a hub for interdisciplinary AI research involving faculty from across campus. Searches for the remaining 10 positions are still underway.

The hiring push represents a significant expansion in the number of new faculty joining the University this year and was made possible, in part, by $5.2 million in new state funding.

“Listening to these new faculty members introduce themselves at orientation — hearing about their work and their enthusiasm for collaboration — was inspiring. It reinforced why we have made such a strategic investment in our workforce this year,” said Carol Kim, UAlbany’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. “As a university, we are engaging in new initiatives to help address some of society’s most pressing challenges and prepare our students to live, work and flourish in a radically changing world — artificial intelligence, healthy aging, social and health equity. We are inviting all our faculty — across every discipline — to engage in one or more of these initiatives.”

The new faculty are joining 25 different departments across eight schools and colleges, including the newly launched College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering (CNSE), a union between UAlbany’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the former College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering.

While CNSE will serve as the primary hub for the University’s artificial intelligence research, the University made a concerted effort to hire AI faculty across schools, colleges and disciplines. New AI hires have backgrounds and expertise in areas such as atmospheric sciences, epidemiology, social welfare, psychology, mathematics, statistics, digital forensics, political science, education and philosophy.

The University also hired several new faculty for leadership positions this year.

Jeff Offutt joined the University this summer as professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science. He comes from George Mason University, where he worked for 31 years, including most recently as associate chair of the computer science department. His research focuses on software testing, software evolution and computer science education.

Ariel Pinto also joined this summer as professor and chair of the Department of Cybersecurity. Pinto comes from Old Dominion University, where he served as associate professor of engineering management and systems engineering. His research interests include cybersecurity, risk management, cyber systems, project risk management, risk valuation, risk communication, extreme-and-rare event, decision-making under certainty, dependency analysis and cascading risk.

The University also hired Jessica Castner to serve as professor and director of its new nursing program at the School of Public Health. Castner previously served as the 2021-22

Distinguished Nurse Scholar-in-Residence at the National Academy of Medicine, where she held a prominent role in developing health policy related to climate change and disasters, environmental health, clinician wellbeing and artificial intelligence applications at the federal level. A board-certified emergency nurse and asthma educator, Castner is also considered an international expert in emergency nursing.

Here is a list of new faculty:

College of Arts & Sciences

• Alessandra Buccella — assistant professor, Department of Philosophy
• Soma Dash — assistant professor, Department of Biological Sciences
• Sarah Domoff — assistant professor, Department of Psychology
• Barbara Giunti — assistant professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics
• Gaurav Malhotra — assistant professor, Department of Psychology
• Max Turner — assistant professor, Department of Biological Sciences
• Zheng Wu — assistant professor, Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences
• Zi Yang — assistant professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics

College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering

• Nathan Dahlin — assistant professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Xin Li — professor, Department of Computer Science
• Chong Liu — assistant professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Jeff Offutt — professor and chair, Department of Computer Science
• Seetal Potluri — assistant professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Xiaoyang Shi — assistant professor, Department of Environmental and Sustainable Engineering
• Bu Zhao — assistant professor, Department of Environmental and Sustainable Engineering

College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security & Cybersecurity

• Eric Best — assistant professor, Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security
• Angela Ford — assistant professor, Department of Information Sciences and Technology
• Phung Lai — assistant professor, Department of Cybersecurity
• Ariel Pinto — professor and chair, Department of Cybersecurity
• Abdulhamit Subasi — associate professor, Department of Information Sciences and Technology

Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy; School of Criminal Justice

• E. Stefan Kehlenbach — assistant professor, Department of Political Science
• Bo Li — assistant professor, Department of Public Administration & Policy
• Jason Robey — assistant professor, School of Criminal Justice
• Kayla Schwoerer — assistant professor, Department of Public Administration & Policy
• Justin Zimmerman — assistant professor, Department of Political Science

School of Business

• Sukwoong Choi — assistant professor, Department of Information Systems & Business Analytics
• Yeasung Jeong — assistant professor, Department of Information Systems & Business Analytics
• Xuecong Lu — assistant professor, Department of Information Security & Digital Forensics

School of Education

• Haesol Bae — assistant professor, Department of Educational Theory & Practice
• Nicholas Bell — assistant professor, Educational & Counseling Psychology
• Jonathan Foster — assistant professor, Department of Educational Theory & Practice
• Elizabeth Jach — assistant professor, Department of Educational Policy & Leadership
• Deborah Schussler — professor, Department of Educational Policy & Leadership

School of Public Health

• Jessica Castner — professor and director of Nursing
• Chanup Jeung — assistant professor, Department of Health Policy, Management and Behavior
• Muntasir Masum — assistant professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
• Melonie Walcott — assistant professor, Department of Health Policy, Management and Behavior
• Xin Wang — assistant professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

School of Social Welfare

• Cheng Ren — assistant professor
• Angie Wootton — assistant professor

Editor's note: The total number of new faculty has been updated to include an additional hire in the School of Education.