Two faculty members have been appointed to undergraduate program leadership positions in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics (MEM), effective January 1, 2024.
Teaching Associate Professor Christina V. Haden will serve as MEM Associate Chair, succeeding Teaching Associate Professor Murat Ozturk, who will take on the newly created role of Director of Undergraduate Advising in MEM.
"As MEM enrollment continues to grow, we're enhancing our advising capacity to provide crucial support for our undergraduate students," says Professor Arindam Banerjee, Chair of the MEM Department. "Christina's active engagement in ABET, the curriculum committee, capstone advising, and the Women in MEM Mentoring Group is now formally recognized through her appointment as Associate Chair. Murat, having spent extensive hours guiding students while taking on the multifaceted responsibilities of Associate Chair, continues his invaluable service as a trusted advisor in his new position.”
Haden holds doctoral and bachelor's degrees in mechanical engineering and a master's degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Virginia. Her research involves the probabilistic life analysis of additive manufactured metals, with experience in fields including cellular mechanics, polymer electrochemistry, and biomimetics.
“Christina is the first female Associate Chair in MEM's history,” says Banerjee. “With her appointment, ME now has two female faculty members in leadership roles, with Hannah Dailey having taken up the role of Director of Graduate Studies earlier in the summer of 2023.”
Ozturk served as a research engineer and senior associate at Lehigh and the NASA-Langley Research Center prior to joining the Rossin College faculty. His research interests include mixed boundary value problems, singular integral equations, computational mechanics, solid mechanics, fracture mechanics, finite elements, and wave propagation in solids.
“We're grateful for the continued dedication of these faculty members in helping our students and strengthening our department," Banerjee says.
