This is another in a series of articles on faculty members' appointments to named professorships.
Qingyan (Yan) Chen, associate professor in the Department of Architecture, is the next holder of the Atlantic Richfield Career Development Professorship in Energy Studies for a three-year term. The professorship, established in 1980, was the first endowed chair at MIT specifically designated to support teaching and research related to energy.
Professor Chen received the BA in engineering from Tsinghua University, China in 1983, and the MA (1985) and PhD (1988), both in mechanical engineering, from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. His principal fields of interest include building ventilation, indoor air quality, building energy analysis and thermal comfort.
Professor Chen was named assistant professor in architecture in 1995 and was promoted to associate professor in 1998. Previously, he was a visiting professor at the Helsinki University of Technology in Finland, a visiting professor at Tsinghua University, a program manager at the TNO Institute of Applied Physics in the Netherlands, and a research scientist at the Institute for Energy Technology in Zurich, Switzerland.
Leon R. Glicksman, professor in the Departments of Architecture and Mechanical Engineering, has been selected as the next recipient of the George Macomber Professorship of Construction Management. The chair alternates every five years between civil and environmental engineering and architecture.
Professor Glicksman received the BS (1959) in mechanical engineering from MIT, the MS (1960) in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and the PhD (1964) in mechanical engineering from MIT. His first appointment at the Institute was in 1962 as an instructor in mechanical engineering. Following a two-year leave in which he served in the US Army's Aviation Material Command, Professor Glicksman returned to MIT as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor of mechanical engineering in 1970 and to professor of thermal science and building technology in the Department of Architecture in 1987. Since that date, he has also been head of the department's Building Technology Group. In addition, he was named professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 1993.
Professor Jeffrey H. Shapiro of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) has been selected to hold the Julius A. Stratton Professorship. Professor Shapiro joined the MIT faculty in 1973 as an associate professor. He received tenure in 1981 and was promoted to full professor in 1985. From 1989 to 1999 he was the associate department head of EECS from electrical engineering. Prior to coming to MIT, he was an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University (1970-73). He holds the SB (1967), SM (1968), EE (1969) and PhD (1970) degrees, all from MIT.
Professor Shapiro's research focuses on the fundamental communication-theory issues that arise in communication, precision measurement and remote-sensing systems that operate in the optical-frequency region (wavelengths from the mid-infrared to the mid-ultraviolet). He is particularly interested in the role of spatial degrees of freedom in imaging systems and in laser beam propagation through the earth's atmosphere, and in the role of quantum noise and its manipulation in high-sensitivity photodetection systems. He is best known for his work on the generation, detection and application of squeezed-state light beams, but he has also published extensively in the areas of atmospheric optical communication and coherent laser radar.
Peter T.C. So, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has been named Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Assistant Professor for a three-year term. The Edgerton Professorships were established in 1973 by the MIT Corporation to honor the late Professor and Mrs. Edgerton.
Professor So, whose specialties include biomedical engineering, functional imaging of cellular transport and noninvasive tissue diagnosis, received the BS from Harvey Mudd College in 1986 and the PhD from Princeton University in 1992. He served as a postdoctoral associate at the University of Illinois from 1992-96, when he joined MIT as an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 27, 1999.
