Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering welcomes new faculty

Meet CSUB’s latest faculty

By California State University, Bakersfield

August 24^th, 2020

This year the School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering welcomes eight new tenure-track faculty members. Read on to learn a bit about each one.

Dr. Matthew Herman, Department of Geological Sciences

Dr. Matthew Herman comes to Bakersfield most recently from The Netherlands, though the geophysicist originally hails from the Midwest. After earning degrees from Amherst College and Penn State, Dr. Herman worked as a postdoctoral scientist at Utrecht University in The Netherlands for three years before joining CSUB’s Department of Geological Sciences.

Bakersfield was the perfect place for Dr. Herman to continue his work studying earthquakes, more generally lithospheric geodynamics, or how the Earth’s tectonic plates bend, break, flow, and otherwise deform, he said.

“I study the physical properties of tectonic plates and how they interact with each other to produce the world we inhabit,” Dr. Herman said. “More practically speaking, I apply my understanding of geodynamic processes to constrain earthquake hazards. The idea is that by helping to understand what drives earthquakes around the world, I can help society to better anticipate and prepare for their effects.”

Joining Dr. Herman in Bakersfield is his wife, Kate, and their first child later this fall. He’s a fan of hiking, basketball, volleyball, cooking and science fiction and fantasy. He is already happy to be a part of the CSUB family, noting the geology team’s close-knit dynamic.

“It was important to me that I found a place where I could continue my research and at the same time work closely to develop the next generation of geoscientists through courses and student research opportunities,” he said. “I feel very optimistic that CSUB is that place!”

Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering welcomes new faculty

Dr. Anna Cruz, Department of Geological Sciences

Originally from a small town in Brazil, Dr. Anna Cruz has taken her work all over the world. After earning degrees at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro and Federal Fluminense University, the geochemist worked onboard different research ships and continued her work in Germany’s Center for Marine Environmental Sciences. Her journey’s next stop is the CSUB Department of Geological Sciences, where she was previously a post-doc researcher and lecturer in 2018-2019.

“I found the Department of Geological Sciences to be a friendly and supportive place to develop my teaching and research career,” Dr. Cruz said. “As a first-generation student I feel that I can relate to many of the students at CSUB and I look forward to helping them engage in science.”

Through her research, Dr. Cruz studies past climate change using marine sediment cores. She is currently reconstructing intermediate water circulation pathways in different ocean basins over the last 40,000 years. She uses geochemical analyses of microfossils from sediment at the bottom of the ocean to try to understand these changes over time.

“In the light of modern changing climate, we must undertake detailed studies to understand how changes in ocean circulation can affect climate in the future,” she said. “This work will help us to better understand ocean circulation and the Earth’s likely response to changing climate.”

When she is not working, Dr. Cruz enjoys cooking traditional Brazilian food, traveling, and spending time with her husband, Chris, and their dog, Rigi.

Dr. Kanwalinderjit Gagneja, Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Dr. Kanwalinderjit Gagneja will join CSUB’s Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science following her most recent post as an assistant professor of computer science at Florida Polytechnic University.

At CSUB, Dr. Gagneja will work with other faculty, students, and industry partners to develop novel solutions to cybersecurity problems related to the Internet, Internet of Things devices, the cloud, and Autonomous Vehicles (AV).

“The faculty in our department is wonderful,” she said. “I plan on working with them on shared interest research projects. My educational philosophy is student-centered and oriented toward optimized student learning and success. I believe in meaningful and wholesome education that prepares our students for an ever-changing job market.”

Dr. Gagneja earned her PhD in Computer Science & Engineering from North Dakota State University, Fargo. She is excited to explore the outdoors and organic farming industry in Bakersfield and also enjoys traveling, cooking, gardening, and listening to music.

Dr. Sungwook Hong, Department of Physics and Engineering

Many faculty members and students will already know Dr. Sungwook Hong when he starts as an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Engineering this fall. Before accepting this position, he was a full-time lecturer at CSUB.

“I am extremely excited to join the CSUB faculty and look forward to productive collaboration with colleagues,” Dr. Hong said. “I wish to serve as a good model as an educator and adviser for diverse students, regardless of their race, gender, and family background. I am strongly motivated to inspire students’ lives because I believe quality education has its power.”

With degrees in mechanical engineering from Kyung Hee University in South Korea and The Pennsylvania State University, Dr. Hong now researches computational modeling and simulations of complex nanoscale systems, investigating on an atomic-level reaction mechanisms of reactive systems. He encourages students who are interested in this field to reach out to him for research opportunities.

“I am motivated to actively work with our NSME students to investigate research topics in energy conversion and 3D-printed materials, which will help us resolve energy- and materials science-related issues,” he said.

Dr. Hong and his wife met at Penn State as doctoral students, and she is an assistant professor in the education department at Cal State LA. They have two young daughters and enjoy traveling throughout the United States and beyond.

Dr. Lorelei Punsalan, Department of Nursing

Certified nurse practitioner Dr. Lorelei Punsalan has been helping patients for years, most recently in the field of neurology. Now, she will share her expertise with the next crop of nurse practitioners when she joins the Department of Nursing as an assistant professor after two-and-a-half years working in the department as a lecturer.

“I am excited to be joining the CSUB faculty on a full-time basis,” Dr. Punsalan said. “The nursing department has been very supportive of me as a budding professor."

Dr. Punsalan is originally from the Philippines, where she worked in journalism before immigrating to the U.S. in 2001. She earned degrees from Lakeview College of Nursing in Danville, Illinois; Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles; and Brandman University in Irvine. For her Doctorate in Nursing Practice degree, she studied the impact of brisk walking on gait and fall in patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease.

“I feel that joining the CSUB faculty on a full-time basis will provide me with more opportunities to collaborate with other professors and provide more avenues for scholarly projects,” she said.

Nursing has become a tradition for Dr. Punsalan’s family. Her husband, Homer, is also a nurse practitioner and their two daughters are following in their footsteps: Ana will graduate from nursing school in December and Pilar is a registered nurse at Adventist Health Hospital.

Dr. Mostafa Abdelrehim, Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

From Egypt to Japan, Dr. Mostafa Abdelrehim’s academic career has taken him around the globe. Now, it has brought him to CSUB’s Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, where he will start as an assistant professor this fall.

Dr. Abdelrehim holds degrees from Assiut University in his home country of Egypt, the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology, and Kyushu University in Japan, and he also studied at Brown University as a postdoctoral researcher and interned with Samsung.

“Being faculty was always my dream since I came to the U.S.,” he said. “The department (at CSUB) is full of young, talented motivated researchers, many of them with research similar to mine, which would create a potential for future collaboration.”

At CSUB, Dr. Abdelrehim will continue his research on Network-on-Chip, the network through which processor cores in computers communicate with each other. His research involves designing these networks to be fast, reliable, and consume low power.

No stranger to hot summers, Dr. Abdelrehim said he is excited about living somewhere with a similar climate to his home country. His wife, Aaya, and their three daughters are excited to move to California. In his free time, Dr. Abdelrehim enjoys reading, playing tennis, and cooking Middle Eastern food.

Dr. Amin Malek, Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Dr. Amin Malek will join CSUB’s Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, following faculty positions at Cal Poly and the University of Nottingham. Here, he will continue his work on two projects: design and fabrication of advanced silicon photonic transceivers for 5G network, and the Smart Campus Initiative, which aims to create a single unifying model of the campus as a tool for data-driven decision making.

“The immediate focus will be on minimizing the risk of COVID-19 infection by monitoring and managing the social distancing order on campus during the current pandemic,” Dr. Malek said of the initiative. “But its applications can and will get extended to other aspects of campus life and campus planning.”

Dr. Malek has earned degrees from the Indian Institute of Science and Universiti Putra Malaysia. He is a fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy, a senior member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and a member of the Engineering Council, Institution of Engineering and Technology and Optical Society of America. Joining the CSUB faculty, Dr. Malek said, will challenge him to grow as an educator and a scientist.

“To me, successful faculty members here are those who quickly learn to translate their narrow research agenda into a wider spectrum,” Dr. Malek said. “It’s my passion to combine my industrial and research experience with my lecture to offer students an educational experience based on a modern content.”

In his free time, Dr. Malek enjoys playing tennis and football, as well as surfing. He looks forward to meeting his colleagues in person and working together with the CSUB community.

Dr. Marcia Golmohamadi, Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Dr. Marcia Golmohamadi joins the Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science most recently from Vermont, where she previously worked in research and development at Green Mountain Semiconductor Inc. Originally from Iran, she holds degrees from Khajeh Nasir Toosi University of Technology, Missouri University of Science and Technology, and the University of Vermont.

Dr. Golmohamadi’s research involves design, development, modeling, and characterization of multi-polarized Multiple-Input Multiple-Output wireless channels with a specialty in machine-to-machine (M2M) communication systems. She looks forward to continuing her research at CSUB.

“I am particularly interested in a faculty position in a department that values teaching as well as research,” she said. “I believe that CSUB provides a good balance between these two tasks.”

In her free time, Dr. Golmohamadi enjoys hiking, mountain biking, and doing yoga, as well as reading and gardening. She said her husband, Amir, is a “constant source of support and encouragement.” She is looking forward to life in Bakersfield.

“It's a perfect city size, not too big, not too small and it is also a diverse city, which is an important living factor for me,” she said. “Furthermore, I am excited that the mountains are about one-and-a-half to two hours away. I have also heard that I can find very good Mexican food in Bakersfield.”