8 Auburn Engineering faculty named to 2020 promotion, tenure list

Published: May 27, 2020 9:24 AM

By Chris Anthony

Auburn University Provost Bill Hardgrave has announced the names of faculty who have been awarded promotion, tenure or both at Auburn University for 2020. The following Auburn Engineering faculty received promotions or tenure:

Selen Cremaschi, the B. Redd Associate Professor of chemical engineering, was promoted to full professor. Cremaschi joined the Auburn Engineering faculty in 2016 after beginning her career with the University of Tulsa. Her research interests include process synthesis, design and operations; optimization under uncertainty; energy systems engineering; techno-economic and life cycle analysis; and cancer care engineering. She is a recipient of the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award and, in 2018, was named in that year’s Class of Influential Researchers presented by the journal Industrial and Engineering Chemical Research. Her research group has published one book chapter and 87 peer-reviewed manuscripts. Cremaschi’s research work has been consistently supported by industrial collaborations in addition to federal agencies totaling over $8.6 million. She earned a doctorate in chemical engineering from Purdue University.

Sean Gallagher, the Hal N. and Peggy S. Pennington Associate Professor of industrial and systems engineering, was promoted to full professor. Prior to joining Auburn in 2012, he spent 27 years performing ergonomics research with the U.S. Bureau of Mines and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) as a senior research scientist. Gallagher’s research interests include musculoskeletal disorder etiology, ergonomics and work physiology. In addition to being a certified professional ergonomist (CPE), he is also a fellow of both the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and the American Industrial Hygiene Association. He is a two-time winner of the International Ergonomics Association/Liberty Mutual Medal in Occupational Safety and Ergonomics (2013 and 2018). Gallagher earned a doctorate in industrial and systems engineering from the Ohio State University.

Joel Hayworth, associate professor of environmental engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering, was awarded tenure. Hayworth joined the Auburn faculty in 2010 after stints with the Tennessee Valley Authority Engineering Laboratory, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and Hayworth Engineering Science. Hayworth’s research interests include environmental science; contaminated site assessment and remediation; physical and chemical function in estuarine systems; and endocrine-disrupting chemicals in natural systems. He has produced 27 peer-reviewed publications and been awarded 17 grants worth $12.9 million. Hayworth earned a doctorate in civil engineering, with a focus in hydrology and hydraulics, from Auburn University.

Peter He, associate professor of chemical engineering, was awarded tenure. He joined the Auburn faculty in 2016 after a decade on the Tuskegee University faculty. His research interests include Internet-of-Things (IoT) enabled smart manufacturing, systems engineering enhanced machine learning and big data analytics, cancer informatics, and general modeling and control of manufacturing processes. His research has been supported by various federal and state funding agencies, including the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. departments of Agriculture, Energy and Transportation. He is a senior member of both the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He earned a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Elizabeth Lipke, the Mary and John H. Sanders Associate Professor of chemical engineering, was promoted to full professor. Lipke joined the Auburn faculty in 2008 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship in the Cardiac Biolectric Systems Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on production of therapeutic cells for cardiac regeneration, design of biomaterials to support blood vessel re-endothelialization and establishment of bioengineered 3D cancer models to advance research and drug testing. Lipke is a recipient of the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award and was an invited participant in the National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. During her tenure at Auburn, she has authored 32 research publications, which have been cited more than 1,140 times. Lipke has three patents, three patents pending and three provisional patents. She has won numerous Auburn University awards for teaching, mentorship and research. Lipke earned a doctorate in chemical engineering from Rice University.

Mark Schall, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering, was promoted to associate professor with tenure. A member of the Auburn faculty since 2015, Schall performs research in the areas of ergonomics/human factors, occupational health and safety, and innovative technologies designed to improve human performance. He is a certified professional ergonomist (CPE) and the recipient of a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Mentored Research Scientist Development Award, a prestigious early career award. Schall won the college’s Research Award for Excellence in the junior faculty category in 2018. He earned a doctorate in industrial engineering from the University of Iowa.

Tao Shu, assistant professor of computer science and software engineering, was promoted to associate professor with tenure. He joined the Auburn faculty in 2016 following appointments as senior engineer at Qualcomm Atheros and assistant professor at Oakland University. Shu’s research interests include network security and privacy; applied cryptography; big data-oriented network information processing and protocol design; wireless networking; and network economics. Shu has published over 70 refereed papers in top journals and conferences. He earned a doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Arizona and a doctorate in communication and information systems from Tsinghua University in China.

Yi Wang, assistant professor of biosystems engineering, was promoted to associate professor with tenure. He joined the Auburn faculty in 2015 after serving as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Center for Advanced BioEnergy Research. His research interests include bioprocess engineering, metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, applied and industrial microbiology, biofuels and biochemicals, and bioremediation. He won an Early Career Award from the Association of Overseas Chinese Agricultural, Biological, and Food Engineers and the college’s Research Award for Excellence in the junior faculty category, both in 2019. Wang has authored over 60 peer-reviewed journal publications. He earned a doctorate in agricultural and biological engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Media Contact: Chris Anthony, chris.anthony@auburn.edu, 334.844.3447