Appointments
Penn State Intercom......April 30, 2001
Sociology
names methodologist
as new department head
Glenn
Firebaugh, professor of sociology, is the new head of the Department of
Sociology, effective July 1.
He joined Penn State in 1988 as professor and senior scientist at the Population Research Institute.
Firebaugh is a methodologist who specializes in the study of social change, international development and demography. His current work focuses on comparing historical and current trends in worldwide income inequality.
Firebaugh's 1999 article, "Empirics of World Income Inequality," recently won the best-article prize from the Center for the Study of Inequality at Cornell University. From 1997-2000, he was editor of the American Sociological Review.
Firebaugh is the recipient of the Faculty Scholars Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Social and Behavioral Sciences for 2001 and received the Distinction in the Social Sciences Award from the College of the Liberal Arts in 2000. Since 1988 the National Science Foundation has supported his research continuously. He is an elected member of the Sociological Research Association.
Campbell first recipient of William S. Pierce professorship
Dr. David B. Campbell, chief and professor of surgery at The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and the College of Medicine, has been named the first recipient of the William S. Pierce professorship in surgery.
Campbell, a graduate of Wabash College and Indiana University School of Medicine, served his residency in general and cardiothoracic surgery at The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, where he is now chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery. He serves on the editorial board of The American Surgeon, is the editor of SESATS (Self Education/Self Assessment in Thoracic Surgery) and is a reviewer for The Annals of Thoracic Surgery and The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.
Pierce is known worldwide for his ground-breaking research in circulatory assist and artificial heart pumps. Pierce led the University team that developed the Penn State Heart, one of the only two air-driven, temporary artificial heart designs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in humans. The pneumatic heart assist, manufactured by Thoratec Laboratories Corp., is now used worldwide to support patients awaiting heart transplant.
An endowed professorship provides funding which honors a renowned professor for past academic achievement and enables the recipient to pursue lines of research or innovative teaching methods.
Smeal College appoints new MBA director of marketing
Kathleen Welch recently joined The Smeal College of Business Administration as the M.B.A. director of marketing.
Welch is a 1999 graduate of the Smeal master of business administration program and received her bachelor of science in accounting in 1984.
Her responsibilities include marketing the MBA program to prospective employers and students as well as providing professional leadership to build and enhance relationships with the business community. Her other responsibilities include participating as a member of recruitment and admission committees and supporting career development activities for students in residence.
Since 1999, Welch was an associate consultant in the Washington, D.C., office of Mercer Management Consulting Inc. From 1985 to 1998, she held a variety of positions with Arthur Andersen and Co., Continental Holdings Inc., CITGO Petroleum Corp. and Hewlett Packard.
Management strategist to join faculty in Smeal College
Donald Hambrick, management strategist, will join the Smeal College of Business Administration as the new Smeal chair in management.
Hambrick is currently the Samuel Bronfman professor of Democratic business enterprise at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business.
Hambrick earned his doctorate from Penn State in 1979. He holds a bachelor of science degree from the University of Colorado and an MBA from Harvard University.
He is the author of numerous articles, chapters and books on the topics of strategy formulation, strategy implementation, executive staffing and incentives, and the composition and processes of top management teams. His recent book, Navigating Change: How CEOs, Top Teams and Boards Steer Transformation, presents leading-edge thinking for executives who are embarking on corporate change initiatives. Another book, Strategic Leadership: Top Executives and Their Effects on Organizations, is extensively used by scholars of executive leadership.
Hambrick is a consultant and instructor in corporate executive education programs.
Cereal research expert joins College of Agricultural Sciences
As part of a renewed research initiative in the quality and uses of cereal grain, the College of Agricultural Sciences appointed Koushik Seetharaman as assistant professor in the department of food science.
Seetharaman's research will focus on cereal foods manufacturing, structure-function relationships in foods and the adoption of genetically enhanced grains.
Seetharaman earned a bachelor of science degree in dairy science and technology from Gujarat Agricultural University in India in 1987, a master's degree in food chemistry from Cornell University in 1990 and a doctorate in food science from Texas A&M University in 1996. He has served as a research associate at the University of Florida's Citrus Research and Education Center (1990-91) and a research assistant at Texas A&M University (1991-96). He worked as a food scientist with Merlin Development Inc. (1996-98) and as a postdoctoral research associate at Iowa State University (1998-2000).