Dr. James Tangorra will be joining the Mechanical Engineering Department as an assistant professor effective September 2007. Dr. Tangorra received his Ph.D. from MIT in mechanical engineering. His research interests are in the areas of biologically-inspired propulsion devices for underwater and aerial vehicles. He has served as a technical manager for ONR MURI for a project to develop propulsion mechanisms that emulate aquatic animals to increase the efficiency of mechanical underwater vehicles.

Dr. Ulrike Wegst, will be joining the Materials Science & Engineering Department effective September 2007. Dr. Wegst received her Ph.D. in Materials Science from Cambridge University. Her research involves the study of structure, mechanical and tribological performance of biological materials and surfaces. In her current appointment as a Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart, she has developed a novel method for in situ micromechanical testing using scanning electron microscopes (SEM) and Focused Ion Beam (FIB) systems.