November 2006

New Faculty Establish Roots at GW

Vesna Zderic, John Conway, and Min Hwang are among the new professors GW is welcoming this fall.

By Jamie L. Freedman

Sixty-seven professors from throughout the United States and the world joined the ranks of GW’s full-time faculty this fall, expanding the depth and diversity of the University’s renowned academic community.

“We brought in some really stupendous people this year,” says Donald R. Lehman, executive vice president for academic affairs. “We’ve been able
to attract so many talented, sought-after scholars because of the accomplishments of our existing faculty and our status as a highly regarded research institution.”

The distinguished group of new faculty comes from every corner of the nation, as well as Europe, Canada, and the Far East. “Some are senior scholars, such as Lee Huebner, the new director of the School of Media and Public Affairs, and Emmy Award-winning journalist Frank Sesno, the school’s newest professor, and all have demonstrated excellence in their fields. We’re delighted to have them on board,” Lehman says.

One impressive newcomer is John Conway, professor of mathematics and chair of the Department of Mathematics. A veteran math professor with some four decades of experience, Conway taught for 25 years at Indiana University, chaired the math department at the University of Tennessee for 13 years, and spent the past three years at the National Science Foundation before taking over the reins of GW’s math department.

Conway’s plans include “extending and strengthening” his department’s areas of research, doubling the number of math majors, and “shaking up” undergraduate math degree requirements. Also under consideration is an additional undergraduate math degree track oriented toward applications.

So far, he’s pleased with GW. “Our graduate students seem quite talented and have a real sense of community, and we have an unusually large percentage of female graduate students—more than half,” he says. “The faculty is enthusiastic and highly committed to improving the department.”

Conway, whose research specialty is subnormal operatives—an area of math combining functions and functional analysis—is the author of seven books ranging from graduate texts to a volume on how to be a department chair. He also serves on the board of trustees of the American Mathematical Society.

“In some senses, it feels like I’m putting the finishing touches on my career,” Conway says. “I hope to be here for several more years and to enjoy each subsequent year as much as the present one.”

Another outstanding new hire is Vesna Zderic, assistant professor of electrical engineering, who specializes in therapeutic ultrasound—the use of high intensities of ultrasound to achieve healing effects deep within the body. “My research interests include ultrasound-enhanced drug delivery, wound healing, high-intensity focused ultrasound therapy for hemorrhage control and tumor treatment, and the development of novel therapeutic devices,” says Zderic.

A native of Serbia, she earned a Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of Washington, where her research focused on the application of high intensities of ultrasound to improve the delivery of drugs into the eye. “I researched ways of bringing therapeutic ultrasound to space to achieve faster stoppage of bleeding in
astronauts,” she explains. Zderic then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Space Biomedical Research Institute.

GW seemed a perfect fit for her, she says, given the University’s expansion of its electrical engineering research into the biomedical area. “The proximity of a good medical school, as well as the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, was also very important in my decision to come to GW,” she adds.
At GW, she’s teaching medical measurement and helping students develop medically relevant devices for their senior design projects. “I’m happy to be here and am looking forward to establishing my research and teaching at GW,” she says.

Also joining GW from overseas is Min Hwang, assistant professor of finance and real estate, who comes to Washington from the National University of Singapore, where he taught for the past four years. A native of Korea, Hwang specializes in financial economics, urban economics, and international economics.

“My main area of research is real estate—specifically, housing markets and the impact of homeownership on people’s investment portfolio choices,” says Hwang, who
is widely published in his field. He earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 2001 and continues to consult for mortgage and private equity insurance companies on the West Coast.

“My first month here has been great,” says Hwang, who teaches managerial economics and real estate finance to GW M.B.A. students. “I’m impressed by the students who are very dynamic, motivated, and eager to learn, and am enjoying the University’s proximity to various real estate-related research institutes and think tanks. I made a wise choice to come to GW.”

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