9/9/04 Jennifer Johnson, 334/844-3591 (nesbika@auburn.edu)

SAMUEL GINN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING ANNOUNCES NEW FACULTY

AUBURN - Auburn University's Samuel Ginn College of Engineering welcomes 11 new faculty members to four of its nine departments, according to an announcement by engineering dean Larry Benefield.

Joining the Department of Biosystems Engineering are Mark Dougherty, who holds a doctorate in civil engineering from Virginia Tech; Puneet Srivastava, who earned his doctorate in biosystems engineering from Penn State University; and Yifen Wang, who received his doctorate in food engineering from Washington State University and later served as a postdoctoral research associate. They join John Fulton, assistant professor of machine systems engineering, who came to Auburn University in January. Fulton holds a doctorate in biosystems and agricultural engineering from the University of Kentucky.

In the Department of Chemical Engineering, W. Robert Ashurst, who earned his doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, and Mario Eden, who received his doctorate in chemical engineering from the Technical University of Denmark, will be joining Christine Curtis, a returning faculty member from the Office of the President. Curtis holds a doctorate in analytical chemistry from Florida State University.

New faculty in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering include Emmett Lodree, who earned his doctorate in industrial systems from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and Kevin Gue, who received his doctorate in industrial systems from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering welcomes William Robert Jackson and returning faculty member William Walker. Jackson comes to Auburn from Georgia Tech where he recently completed his doctorate in mechanical engineering. Walker holds a doctorate from Oklahoma State University.

"On behalf of the faculty, staff, and students of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, we are very pleased to welcome our new faculty members," remarks Benefield. "They help advance us toward our vision of positioning the college to become one of the nation's top 20 engineering institutions."

Auburn University is a comprehensive research institution with more than 23,000 students and 6,500 faculty and staff. Ranked among the top 50 public universities nationally, Auburn is Alabama's largest educational institution, offering more than 230 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degree programs.
# # #
sept04:AU-newfaculty