Columbian College is welcoming nine new full-time faculty members from an array of disciplines, bringing the total number of full-time scholars to 464. Each of these academics adds skills and expertise that enhance the college’s strengths across the sciences, social sciences and humanities.
Sarah S.V. Cantor (Department of Romance, German, and Slavic Studies) received a PhD in Italian from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research examines the role of gender and women in Italian literature. Before coming to GW, she served as an assistant professor of practice in Italian and director of the Italian Foundations at Texas Tech University. She has published articles in numerous international journals including Forum Italicum: A Journal of Italian Studies and California Italian Studies.
Farshad Foroozan (Department of Mathematics) has served as a professorial lecturer and a visiting assistant professor in mathematics at GW for nearly two decades. He holds a PhD in applied mathematics and scientific computation from the University of Maryland at College Park and a MA in pure mathematics from the City University of New York. At GW, he has taught courses in, among other topics, stochastic calculus, financial math and both mathematical modeling and computing in mathematics. He is the recipient of numerous excellence in teaching awards.
Fabien Goulay (Department of Chemistry) earned his PhD in physics at the University of Rennes, France, and his MS and BS at the University of Bordeaux, France. He previously served as an associate professor and the associate chair of graduate studies with the C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry at West Virginia University. He has received research funding from, among other institutions, the National Science Foundation, and has published work in major peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Physical Chemistry and the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry.
Matthew Hamilton (Department of Political Science) joins CCAS as the director of the Politics and Values Program. His areas of expertise include international affairs, political theory and artificial intelligence. He holds a PhD and a MA in government from Georgetown University, where he was the managing director of the Initiative on Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Citizenship program. He also received a MA in theological studies from Princeton University. His writing has appeared in publications such as Oxford Intersections: AI in Society and International Affairs, and he has received research grants from major institutions including the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Michael LaForest-Tucker (Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration) earned his PhD from the University of Virginia in economics and his BS from the University of Michigan in economics and political science. He was previously an instructor in economics and an analyst at the United States Air Force Academy. He is an affiliate at the Crime & Education Lab at the University of Chicago and the Criminal Justice Research Center at Pennsylvania State University. He specializes in public economics, labor economics and the economics of crime. His work has appeared in publications such as Nature, the Journal of Quantitative Criminology and the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.
Elizabeth Pierri (Department of Forensic Sciences) obtained a Master of Forensic Science from GW. She has served as the deputy director for operational support at Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) since 2003. She has been an adjunct professor and lecturer in forensic sciences at GW for nearly a decade and has taught at the NCIS Academy. As a forensic science practitioner, educator and federal law enforcement officer, she has more than 20 years of casework and leadership experience spanning major crime scene investigations, courtroom testimony, bloodstain pattern analysis and global law enforcement operations.
Rebekah Rogers (Department of Biological Sciences) received her PhD in biology from Harvard University. Prior to coming to GW, she was an associate professor of bioinformatics and genomics at the University of North Carolina, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Irvine, and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. She has received research grants from institutions such as the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of General Medical Sciences, and she has published research in major peer-reviewed journals including Science and Molecular Biology and Evolution.