The University Scholars Program is delighted to announce the addition of two new Faculty Fellows to our team: Distinguished Professor Carey Rappaport from the College of Engineering and Professor Erin Cram of the College of Science. Their tremendous talents as researchers, evident enthusiasm for working with students, and delight in creative collaborations will surely be tremendous assets to our program.
Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Carey Rappaport serves as an Associate Director of the Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems. Rappaport has been a professor at Northeastern University since 1987, mentoring scores of undergraduate researchers along the way. He received dual SBs, SM, and Eng from MIT in 1982 and the Ph.D. from MIT in 1987. Rappaport's research has focused upon developing and integrating electromagnetic, acoustic, and optical sensing technologies to detect hidden objects and to use those technologies to meet real world subsurface challenges ranging from humanitarian demining to noninvasive breast cancer detection.
Professor of Biology Erin Cram, who has been a tremendous supporter of the Scholars Program, will also be working with us this year. In her research, she uses the nematode C. elegans to investigate the role that the interactions between cells and their extracellular environments have in controlling tissue architecture, cell survival, and cell migration. Such processes are important for normal animal development and are disrupted in many human diseases. In collaboration with Dr. Carolyn Lee-Parsons of chemical engineering, Cram is also working to improve production of drug compounds by the medicinal plant Catharanthus roseus. Cram was the recipient of the 2011-2012 Excellence in Teaching Award. Cram earned her B.S. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley.