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New Joiners @ the PI as of 1st Nov. 2010
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Dr. S. M .Muyeen
Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering
Dr. Muyeen received his B.Sc. Eng. Degree from Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET), Bangladesh formerly known as Rajshahi Institute of Technology, in 2000 and M. Sc. Eng. and Dr. Eng. Degrees from Kitami Institute of Technology, Japan, in 2005 and 2008 respectively, all in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. His PhD research work focused on wind farm stabilization from the viewpoint of LVRT and frequency fluctuation. After completing his Ph.D. program he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow under the versatile banner of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) from 2008-2010 at the Kitami Institute of Technology, Japan. His research interests are power system stability and control, electrical machine, FACTS, energy storage system (ESS), Renewable Energy, and HVDC system. He has published over 50 international papers. He has published two books entitled Stability Augmentation of a Grid-connected Wind Farm and Switched Reluctance Machine. He has also served as an Editor of the book entitled “Wind Power” in 2010. Dr. Muyeen is the member of IEEJ, and IEEE.
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Dr. Redy Mardiana
Visiting Research Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering
Dr. Mardiana received his Ph.D. degree from Osaka University, Japan in 2002 and a Masters of Engineering degree from Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia (1997). He has served as a research fellow at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Tokyo, Japan for two years. He worked as assistant professor of power engineering at Bandung Institute of Technology and an engineering consultant at the same university for 6 years, where he taught both graduate and undergraduate courses, supervised graduate students, and worked on research projects. He joined the Petroleum Institute in January 2010. His research interests include high voltage engineering and power system protection. He served as chairman of the 14th Asian Conference on Electrical Discharge (ACED), 2008 and as a member of international steering committee of ACED since 2008.
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Rodney J. Simmons, Ph.D., CSP
Associate Professor of Health, Safety and Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Rod Simmons is Associate Professor of Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) Engineering, with a primary assignment to support the new M.Eng. degree program in HSE Engineering at PI. He came to PI after two years at the other end of Asia, where he served as a visiting faculty member at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Tunghai University (Taiwan). Previously, he was Associate Professor and Safety Program Chair at Illinois State University, Adjunct Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering at the University of Cincinnati, and technical director for the Board of Certified Safety Professionals. He has consulted for a number of major corporations, including Boeing, General Electric, Caterpillar, Jacobs Engineering, and Procter & Gamble, in addition to assignments with the US Navy’s Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Naval Surface Warfare Center, NASA-Ames Research Center, Kuwait Petroleum Company, Kuwait University, EQUATE, China Airlines, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and others. He is the only faculty member in the world to be certified by examination in five areas of professional safety practice. He completed his Ph.D. at Texas A&M University, and also holds advanced degrees from Harvard University and California State University. A popular keynote speaker, he is the author of over 50 technical articles and presentations, in addition to co-authoring two books: An Engineering Approach to Occupational Safety and Health in Business and Industry and System Safety and Risk Management. He is serving a 4-year term as Director for Education and Professional Development for the System Safety Society, and is Associate Editor for the Journal of System Safety. He’s the only two-time recipient of the System Safety Society’s Educator of the Year Award (1992 and 2009), and received the President’s Award in 2010.
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Dr. Nader Vahdati
Associate Professor & Assoc. Chair, Mechanical Engineering
He received his B.S. (Magna Cum Laude) and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Portland, Oregon. In 1989 he graduated from the University of California, Davis with a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering with a specialization in Dynamic Systems and Controls. Prior to joining the PI, he was an associate professor at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore for 9 years, and prior to NTU, he spent 12 years at Lord Corporation, an aerospace and automotive company, located in Erie Pennsylvania.
His research interests include active, and semi-active vibration and noise control using advance suspension systems, MR and ER-fluid devices, hard disk drive dynamic modeling, energy harvesters and storage technology, new sources of energy, fracture mechanics or metal and rubber components, and biomedical devices. He has supervised 6 completed M.S. theses, 3 completed Ph.D. dissertations. He has published over 45 journal and conference articles. He is member of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
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Dr. Oleg Shiryayev
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Oleg Shiryayev was born in 1979 in Moscow, Russia. He studied mechanical engineering at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, USA, and received his B.S.M.E. degree in 2002. Oleg continued his studies with Dr. Joseph Slater and earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in 2003 and 2008 respectively.
During his academic career Dr. Shiryayev worked on many different research projects involving nonlinear dynamics. He investigated a method for identification of nonlinear state space models for fluttering panels, and developed a parameter estimation technique for modeling of nonlinear behavior of bolted joints. He participated in the development of a model of a jet engine for studying
its dynamics during in-flight power extraction, and helped develop a novel approach for passive vibration suppression using shunted piezoelectric actuators. His recent research has been focused on development of an automated vibration based technology for detection of fatigue cracks in turbomachinery components.
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Dr. Imad Barsoum
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Barsoum received a M.Sc. with honors in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Utah and a Ph.D. degree in Solid Mechanics from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden. He has experience from teaching in undergraduate and graduate courses in Solid Mechanics at KTH.
Since he graduated he has been working as a research engineer in the field of transmission gearboxes and gear technology at the R&D division at Scania, which is a heavy truck manufacturer in Sweden. He is also co-founder of an engineering consulting firm in Sweden, Barsoum Engineering Consulting Inc., specialized in stress analysis and fatigue design of load carrying structures.
Dr. Barsoum’s research interest is in the field of mechanics of material including micromechanical, constitutive and ductile failure modelling of high strength steels under complex loading conditions, plasticity theory and mixed mode fracture mechanics. He is author of several journal papers and has presented his work at several international conferences. Dr. Barsoum’s work has been internationally recognized by distinguished researchers for which he received the annual doctoral student award from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2007.
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Dr Yap Yit Fatt
Research/Teaching Associate, Mechanical Engineering
Dr Yap received his Ph.D. (2007) in Mech. Eng. from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, M. Eng. (2002) and B. Eng. (2000) from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). For his Ph.D., he worked on modeling of small scale multiphase flow problems. He was a research fellow in NTU where he worked on modeling of two-phase flows with the narrow-band particle level-set method. His research interests include, but are not limited to, the development and application of numerical methods for problems involving heat transfer and fluid flow.
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Dr. Francisco M. Vargas
Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering Department
Dr. Francisco M. Vargas joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Petroleum Institute in January of 2010. Prior to joining the Petroleum Institute, he served as Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico. He has also been an active member of the Research Chair in Solar Energy and Thermal-Fluid Sciences at the same institution. Dr. Vargas holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, from Rice University, and M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Environmental Sciences and Chemical Engineering, respectively, from Tecnológico de Monterrey, in Mexico. Dr. Vargas has also worked for the Flow Assurance Team of Chevron Energy Technology Company in Houston, Texas and for DeepStar, a joint industry technology development project supported by a number of oil companies. Dr. Vargas is the manager for the Production Chemistry R&D project. His areas of expertise include general thermodynamic modeling, analysis of phase behavior of petroleum systems and deposition of asphaltenes.
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Ernest Afari
Lecturer of Mathematics, AUP Department
Ernest Afari has joined as Lecturer of Mathematics in the Advanced University Placement (AUP) Department. He received his B.Sc. (Hons) in Mathematics (Major) and Physics (Minor), and a Diploma in Education from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana and his M.Sc. in Mathematics from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. He is currently completing a PhD from Curtin University, Perth, Australia. He is an Ontario Certified Teacher and has spent over 20 years teaching in high schools and colleges in Canada, Ghana, UAE, and Qatar. His research interests include teaching and learning with a focus on students’ perceptions of their learning environment, the use of games to improve students’ attitudes towards learning, and Computer-assisted instruction as an effective tool in enhancing student learning. He has presented at local and international conferences and submitted two manuscripts to international journals for review.
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Dr. Jean-Pierre Atanas
Assistant Professor of Physics, AUP
Dr. Jean-Pierre Atanas has joined as an assistant Professor of physics at the Advanced University Program. He received his BS (with first-class honors) in Physics from the Lebanese University, Lebanon and his higher diploma D.E.A. in Physics from the University of Paris VI, France. In 1999 he graduated from the University of Paris VI, France with a Ph.D. in physics. He spent 10 years in academia at the Paris IX University, France, and Lebanese Universities and 2 years in the private sector of telecommunications where he served as R&D manager. His research interests include development of smart materials for nanotechnology and problems related to surface physics. He has supervised two completed MS theses and has published many articles in several international journals.
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Apart from above personnel following have joined various departments of PI:
Mr. Saif Al Mehairi is the new Head of Compensation & Employee Relations in Human Resources Department.
Ms. Fatima Al Shaali joined the Finance Department as Head Management Accounts.
Mr. A. Jebbouri has joined as a Senior Laboratory Technician in Petroleum Engineering.
Mr. Jamie Whelan and Mr. A. Syed Ali are the new Laboratory Engineer and Senior Laboratory Engineer in Chemical Engineering.
Mrs. Qudsia Zaidi, Anish T. Khaleefa, and Mr. Mohammad Faraz Iqbal have joined as System Analysts; while Mr. El Badri Khaled and Mr. Mazen Haytham Msouty are two new System & Network Engineers.
Mrs. Lilia Alejandra Trevino Garza has joined the Institutional Research & Assessment department as Quality Assurance Coordinator.
Mr. Shereef Cherikkallan has joined as Assistant Web Master in External Affairs department.
Ms. Mila Prce and Mr. Saher Saqer have joined the HSE team as HSE Inspector and Traffic Safety Supervisor respectively.
Ms. Khadija Jishi has joined as WISE Registration Coordinator, while Ms. Najla Chahine is the new Admin Assistant for Registry.
Ms. Fais Jahan has joined as Admin Assistant in Petroleum Engineering.
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