Three nationally prominent researchers have come on board at FAU, and I want to offer them a warm welcome on behalf of the university community.
Dr. Daniel Flynn, a renowned breast cancer researcher, stepped into the top leadership position in our Division of Research earlier this month. He came to us from the University of Delaware, where he was associate dean for research in the College of Health Sciences. Over the past 20 years, he’s been awarded more than $40 million in research grants. As vice president for research, Dr. Flynn will lead the charge to take FAU into a whole new era of discovery and innovation.
Today we announced that Dr. Jason Hallstrom, a computer scientist who is revolutionizing the field of sensing technology, will head the newly created Institute for Sensing and Embedded Network Systems Engineering at FAU (ISENSE@FAU). His work focuses on the development of small wireless computing devices that can collect, analyze and disseminate information in real time on everything from changes in the environment to changes in the health of individuals. ISENSE@FAU will be an interdisciplinary research hub, drawing talent from both inside and outside FAU to tackle grand challenges head-on through novel hardware, software and ideas. Dr. Hallstrom spent more than a decade at Clemson University, where he was director of technology for the Institute of Computational Ecology.
Dr. Gregg Fields, a prolific inventor who holds seven U.S. patents, has been named chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and director of the Center for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology in FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. He’s conducted groundbreaking research at organizations that include the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies, Scripps Florida, the H. Lee Moffitt Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. In March he’ll be inducted into the National Academy of Inventors, a high professional distinction.
In the critically important field of research, as in all other arenas, FAU is playing to win!