Academia

Antje J . Baeumner, a professor of biological engineering at Cornell University, has accepted the position of professor and director of the Institute of Analytical Chemistry, Chemo- & Biosensors, at the University of Regensburg, in Germany. The institute is working to develop analytical devices and sensors using optical, electrochemical, mass spectrometric, radiometric, and interface biochemistry methods.

Joel R. Fried has accepted an appointment as professor and chair of the department of chemical and biomedical engineering in the College of Engineering that is a joint venture between Florida A&M University and Florida State University. Previously, he was a professor and the Wright Brothers Institute Endowed Chair in Nanomaterials in the department of chemical, materials, and biological engineering at the University of Dayton. Fried is also a professor emeritus at the University of Cincinnati.

Brett P. Giroir has become interim executive vice president of the Texas A&M Health Science Center. He will be nominated by Chancellor John Sharp to become the interim chief executive officer of the center at the next meeting of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents. An internationally renowned physician-scientist whose work has focused on life-threatening infectious diseases, Giroir most recently served as vice chancellor of strategic initiatives at Texas A&M. Giroir currently holds appointments at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and the Dwight Look College of Engineering. He is also an adjunct professor in the Bush School of Government & Public Service.

Richard A. Gross, an expert in biocatalytic and chemical synthetic methods, has joined Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as chair of the biocatalysis and metabolic engineering constellation and a professor in the chemistry and chemical biology department. Gross had been the Herman F. Mark Chair Professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University.

Kamal A. Rashidhas been named director of Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Biomanufacturing Education & Training Center (BETC), which opened this spring. He will also hold research professorships in three departments: chemical engineering, biology and biotechnology, and chemistry and biochemistry. He succeeds Irene Bern­er, the founding director of BETC, who remains a member of the center’s advisory board. Previously, Rashid had been a research professor and associate director of the Center for Integrated BioSystems at Utah State University.