Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University
Head of the Center of Excellence in Regional, Urban, & Built Environmental Analytics, Chulalongkorn University
Associate Professor of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University
President of Thailand Section of Regional Science International

Sutee Anantsuksomsri is an associate professor in the Department of Urban Regional Planning at Chulalongkorn University, where he also serves as the deputy dean of the Faculty of Architecture. Additionally, he is the head of the Center of Excellence in Regional, Urban, and Built Environmental Analytics at the same university.

His areas of expertise include urban and regional economics, regional and urban planning, urban development, complex systems, resilient cities, and geoinformatics. Anantsuksomsri has received research grants from various organizations, including Thailand Science Research and Innovation, the Sumitomo Foundation, ADPC, SERVIR, NASA, and USAID.

He has been the editor-in-chief of "Nakhara: Journal of Environmental Design and Planning," which is currently indexed in Scopus Q1. He also serves on the editorial boards of several academic journals. Anantsuksomsri has acted as an expert on the National Smart City Committee and has provided consultancy services for both national and international organizations, including the Eastern Economic Corridor Office of Thailand and the Asian Development Bank. Additionally, he is the president of the Thailand Section of Regional Science International.

Before joining Chulalongkorn University, he held teaching positions at Cornell University and Waseda University. He earned a PhD and a Master of Arts in Regional Science from Cornell University, a Master of Science in Construction Management from Northeastern University, and a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from Chulalongkorn University.

Research Director for International Research and Advisory Service at Thailand Development Research Institute

Dr. Kirida joined the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) in 2015 and is currently Director of TDRI’s Economic Intelligence Service (EIS), a corporate membership program. She leads content development for monthly seminars on critical business issues and specializes in monitoring global and Thai economic developments, including macroeconomics, geopolitics, sustainability, demographics, and technology. She also serves as an independent director of Eastern Polymer Group Plc., director of the Economics Data Committee at Thailand’s National Statistics Office, and advisor to the Thai Housing Association. Previously, she was a Senior Economist at the World Bank Group (1999–2015), focusing on macroeconomics and fiscal policy. A recognized figure in economic and business circles, Dr. Kirida is a frequent media commentator and speaker at high-level forums in Thailand and abroad. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Cornell University (USA).

Henry is an International Partner with the global law firm of Baker and McKenzie resident in its Taipei office; and the first Taiwanese Chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan (ECCT) in its 35+ years history.  On recommendation by his Cornell professor, Henry studied on a German government study grant (DAAD) to the Universitaet Regensburg.

Henry currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Cornell Club Taiwan.  He hosted former President TSAI Ing-we of Taiwan, also a Cornellian, to the Ivy Ball of 2025 hosted by the Cornell Club of Taiwan.  While at Cornell, Henry served as President of the Cornell Arts and Sciences College Ambassadors, and upon graduation, as Vice President of the alumni class of 1984.  Henry also chairs the Low Carbon Initiative (LCI), a platform that brings together the best of European technologies in renewable energies with the Taiwan government.

Patrick is the Chairman of Hocheng Philippines Corporation (HCG), the leading total bathroom solutions provider in the Philippines, blending European technology with Filipino ingenuity since its founding in 1995. A proud Cornellian, he earned his MBA from Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Business in 2000 after completing his BS at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business in 1994.

As the former President of the Cornell Alumni Association of Taiwan (2012–2020), Patrick played a key role in strengthening the Cornell community helping to establish traditions such as student send-offs, Zinck’s Night, and the Ivy Ball of Taipei. A dedicated mentor, he continues to support and guide emerging volunteer leaders within the Cornell network.

Patrick's Big Red legacy lives on through his daughter, Kerrianne Chiu ’27, who is pursuing Urban and Regional Studies at the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning.

Professor of Practice, Paul Rubacha Department of Real Estate; Director of Baker Program in Real Estate

Cody A. Danks Burke is the Director of the Baker Program in Real Estate and Professor of Practice in the Paul Rubacha Department of Real Estate. His teaching is focused on real estate transactions, deal structuring, and equity and debt investing in real estate.

In addition to his academic responsibilities, Danks Burke is a managing director of The Agnew Company, where he manages the company's real estate investment portfolio. He also serves as a strategic advisor to Velocis, a Dallas-based real estate private equity firm. Previously, Danks Burke was a senior investment officer at the Cornell University Office of Investments, where he managed endowment investments in real estate and natural resources from 2006 to 2020.

Prior to joining Cornell, Danks Burke was an associate at the Partnership Fund for New York City, a debt and equity fund that makes investments in New York City businesses. He was special assistant to the president of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and served press secretary and later deputy chief of staff for Colorado Congressman David Skaggs and his successor Senator Mark Udall.

He earned a B.A. in international affairs from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an M.B.A. from the Cornell SC Johnson Graduate School of Management.

Rebecca Q. and James C. Morgan Dean, College of Human Ecology and Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy

Rachel Dunifon joined Cornell's faculty in 2001 and is currently dean of the College of Human Ecology. Her research focuses on child and family policy, examining how policies, programs, and family settings influence less-advantaged children's development. She has secured numerous research grants from institutions, including the National Institutes of Health and the USDA. Her book You've Always Been There for Me explores the dynamics of grandparent-raised children, and she leads groundbreaking research on families affected by the opioid epidemic.

Dunifon is co-director of Project 2GEN, which combines research, policy, and practice to address the needs of vulnerable children and their parents together. She and her colleagues were awarded the inaugural William T. Grant Foundation Institutional Challenge Grant for their project titled "Protecting Vulnerable Children and Families in the Crosshairs of the Opioid Epidemic: A Research-Practice Partnership.”

Dunifon received her BA in psychology from Davidson College and her PhD in human development and social policy from Northwestern University. She completed an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan.

Self-awareness Expert, Author, and Entrepreneur

Ji Gu graduated from Cornell with a BS summa cum laude in 2007. She maintains strong ties to the university as a President Council of Cornell Woman member and was elected a 2024 Asia-Pacific Young Leader.

Ji Gu was the founding dean of Zhen Academy, an institution focusing on helping entrepreneurs improve self-awareness and avoid repetitive mistakes in decision-making. She previously served as co-founder and COO of Laiye Technology (来也), a company that secured $23 million in series-C funding, and was studio head and business director at FunPlus, where she managed international teams developing top-grossing games. She has worked as an analyst for BlackRock and UBS Investment Bank, where she ran analysis for over $16 billion in assets under management and worked on deals worth over $4 billion.

Her first book, Break Out of Your Self-awareness Limits, has been on the Top 10 Best Seller Listing for DJ, DangDang, and featured on Amazon Prime China since its release in 2021. Gu maintains a significant presence on social media with over 2.5 million followers.

After Cornell, Gu earned her MBA from Stanford University. She is the founding program director for the Essential Interpersonal Dynamic Program at the Stanford Center at Peking University. She is an entrepreneur coach at the Tsinghua University MBA program.

Cornell Asia Alumni Leadership Advisor (CAALA)

Mark ’79 (Arts & Sciences) is based in Singapore. He is currently Managing Director at the Asian Leadership International Executive Coaching, part of Asia’s oldest executive coaching firm. He is also a practicing psychologist, specializing in serving Asian business family clients. He was previously Head of Asia Governance and Strategic Initiatives at Standard Chartered Bank. Prior to that he was a partner at Booz Allen Hamilton leading their Asia financial services practice. Mark has lived and worked across Asia for over 35 years. Mark has a MA in economics from UC Berkeley, a MA in Counseling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute, and also studied Chinese at the National Taiwan Normal University.

Mark is a Life Member of the Cornell University Council and currently serves on the Cornell Alumni Trustee Nominations Committee. Mark was a founding member of the Cornell Asia Alumni Leadership Advisors (CAALA) and was instrumental in the forming of the Cornell Club of Singapore, where he continues to serve as a Senior Advisor on the Club Board. Mark was awarded Cornell’s Frank H.T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award in 2022.

Robert manages the Pacific Asia arm of Horwath HTL with offices in Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta and Bali.  Since his arrival in the region with Horwath HTL in 1988, he has developed an extensive background and expertise in the developing hotel and tourism industries through his direct involvement in the planning and analysis of projects across the region.

He has 45 years of experience including work in hotel operations with Pacific Plaza Hotels in northern California and conducting market and financial analyses for hotels, resorts, cruise ships, convention centers, conference centers and restaurants with Laventhol and Horwath in San Francisco.

He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and published numerous research articles in industry publications.

Assistant Professor in Policy and Planning Sciences, Department of Landscape Architecture; Director of the International Program in Design and Architecture (INDA), Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University.

Early in his career, Shusak was a senior associate at Sasaki Associates Inc., an interdisciplinary design and planning firm in Boston, USA. In 2009, he established his practice and has been a full-time faculty member at Chulalongkorn University since 2019, where he teaches urban landscape and site planning studios. He worked as assistant dean in research before becoming the Director of the International Program in Design and Architecture (INDA).

With almost four decades of design and planning experience in multidisciplinary projects, his expertise spans from large-scale master planning to site-scale landscape design, serving the public and private sectors in the U.S. and internationally. His projects include institutional, tourism, resort development, community planning, and residential projects. His current work is urban design and urban landscape research in tropical climate regions.

Shusak began his career in 1988 after earning his Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA) with honors from Chulalongkorn University. He continued his studies at Cornell University, receiving the National ASLA Award of Honor and the Graduate School of Design (GSD) at Harvard University, where he earned the Letter of Commendation for Outstanding Achievement. He later completed his Ph.D. at the University of Tsukuba, Japan, focusing on professional practice and academia.

Chittimas is a distinguished leader in the Thai hospitality sector, serving as Managing Director at Universal Hospitality Joint Venture, Siam Square Tower Company Limited, and D.K. Lam Properties Co. Ltd. She is recognized for her innovative leadership, consistently elevating two of Bangkok’s premier properties.

Upon graduating from the Cornell Hotel School, Chittimas joined Novotel Bangkok on Siam Square as a Board Director and Executive Board member. She now oversees three hotels—Novotel Bangkok on Siam Square, Riverfront Bangkok, and Hyatt Regency Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport—where she continues to refine guest experiences and foster a strong sense of community.

A dedicated Cornellian, Chittimas has been a life member of the Cornell Hotel Society since graduating and served as president of its Thailand chapter from 2004 to 2007. She has actively contributed to the Cornell Club of Thailand since 2010 and is a valued member of its leadership team. In 2020, she further deepened her engagement with Cornell by joining the President's Council of Cornell Women.

Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Government

Peter Loewen leads Cornell's largest and most academically diverse college as the Harold Tanner Dean. Before serving as dean, Loewen was director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. He was also the Robert Vipond Distinguished Professor in Democracy in the Department of Political Science; director of the Policy, Elections and Representation Lab (PEARL); associate director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society; a senior fellow at Massey College; and a fellow with the Public Policy Forum, a Canadian think tank and registered charity.

His research focuses on the future of democratic societies and the politics of technological change, particularly in improving political decision-making and addressing technological disruption. Loewen has co-edited four books, most recently Women, Power, and Political Representation (University of Toronto Press, 2021). He has published his journal articles widely, including in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Medicine, Nature Human Behaviour, and the American Political Science Review.

Loewen earned his PhD in political science from the Université de Montréal and his bachelor's degree from Mount Allison University. He has held visiting positions at prestigious institutions, including Princeton University and Stanford University, and has received numerous awards, including multiple Dean's Excellence Awards.

Professor of History and Southeast Asian Studies, Chair of the History Department

Tamara Loos is Professor and Chair of Cornell’s History Department and former Director of the Southeast Asia Program. She came to Cornell as a graduate student because of its global reputation in Southeast Asian Studies, receiving her degree in 1999. Since then, she has written two books and dozens of articles on the region.

Her first book, Subject Siam: Family, Law, and Colonial Modernity in Thailand, explores the implications of Thailand’s position as both a colonized and colonizing power in Southeast Asia. It is the first study that integrates the Malay Muslim south and the gendered core of law into Thai history. Her second book, Bones Around My Neck, offers a critical history of Siam during the era of high colonialism through the dramatic and tragic life of a pariah prince, Prisdang Chumsai (1852–1935). She is currently writing How to be an Anti-Communist: Cold War Culture in Thailand. It examines the role that Thai and American scholars played in shaping Thai cultural and intellectual history during the Cold War.

Loos’ teaching and articles focus on an array of topics including sex and politics, subversion and foreign policy, transnational sexualities, comparative law, and gender in Asia. She has been interviewed by NPR, BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Rolling Stone, and other global media outlets about the Thai royal family and political protests in Thailand. Loos has mentored over 50 graduate students, most of whom are now in tenure-track positions across the world. She also served as consultant for Bartlett Sher’s Tony Award winning production of Rogers and Hammerstein’s, The King and I.

Cornell Asia Alumni Leadership Advisor (CAALA)

Jeff is the Managing Director of Pacific Rim Resources (PRR) a coal, power and infrastructure developer in China and Indonesia.

For 20 years Jeff was a senior management consultant in China’s energy sector. Jeff was a partner with Booz & Company (formerly Booz Allen Hamilton) leading Booz’s Beijing office. In China he has worked extensively with leading international and domestic energy companies.

Jeff started his career in China with Fuqua Industries where he was country manager for Fuqua World Trade. In 1991 he was elected to the Board of Governors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing and, later was elected the Secretary of the American Chamber of Commerce in the PRC.

Jeff received his received his BA from Cornell University, MBA from the International Business Program at the University of Southern California and attended the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. He and his family have lived in China for over 27 years. Besides his service on the University Council and the Cornell Alumni Association board (as a Director-from-the-Region), he is also active in the Cornell Clubs of Beijing, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Founder, DNA Holdings Corp.

Hector Thomas “Tinky” Navasero is a visionary entrepreneur in healthcare, AI, and public infrastructure. He founded DNA Holdings Corp., the first listed healthcare holding company on the Philippine Stock Exchange, focused on expanding access to affordable and accurate healthcare.

He is also the Founder of Maharlika Rapid Transit Corporation, an AV/EV public transportation system in partnership with Glydways Inc., aimed at solving traffic congestion in the Philippines. Additionally, he established Applied AI Asia and LABX Asia, providing AI-driven primary care services to public schools through innovative healthtech solutions.

With over 35 years of experience, Navasero has built strong partnerships with Ministries of Health, hospital networks, and healthcare firms across Asia. He has led business development and market expansion, scaling companies from startups to multimillion-dollar enterprises.

A member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) and a past director of the Boy Scouts of America, Navasero is also an Ironman World Championship finisher, FAA-licensed pilot, and cellist. He is a visiting lecturer at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and the LogTech Defense Institute. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Electrical & Computer Engineering and a B.S. in Biological & Environmental Engineering from Cornell University.

Professor and Senior Vice Provost for Enrollment Management and Undergraduate Education

Lisa Nishii joined Cornell's faculty after completing her graduate studies, later becoming vice provost for undergraduate education in 2018 and vice provost for enrollment in 2023. She established ILR WIDE in 2022, focusing on Workplace Inclusion and Diversity Education at the ILR School.

Nishii was inspired to pursue a research career when, as an undergraduate student, she discovered research articles that helped her make sense of the often clashing individualistic (American) and collectivistic (Japanese) values underlying her mixed identity and childhood experiences growing up in Tokyo, Japan. Much of her earlier research was on dimensions of cultural differences and their cognitive and behavioral manifestation in applied organizational settings. She is most well known for her pioneering research on climate for inclusion – what it is, how it is shaped by leaders and the consequences for both group processes and individual outcomes.

Nishii earned her PhD and MA in organizational psychology from the University of Maryland at College Park and her BA in economics from Wellesley College. Her academic journey was inspired by her experiences growing up in Tokyo, Japan, leading to research on cultural differences in organizational settings.

Wetang is the Secretary General of the National Board of Digital Economy and Society at Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Technology and Society. He also serves as a board member of the Digital Government Agency and the Electronic Transactions Development Agency. With a distinguished career in digital policy and governance, he has held key leadership roles, including Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry Spokesperson, and Acting Secretary General of the Office of Personal Data Protection Committee. Wetang holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Cornell University and a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Chulalongkorn University.

President of Cornell Club of Thailand and member of Cornell University Council

Sawanee has worked at Baker McKenzie, a global law firm, in Bangkok since her graduation in 1983. She heads the Energy & Infrastructure Group where her focuses are on the project development and project financing of power plants, petrochemical complexes, and mass transits.

Due to the development of the global climate change, she extends her practice to climate transition by working together with stakeholders towards a low-carbon economy.

She also serves as a member of Public Debt Policy and Supervision Committee of the Ministry of Finance.

On the academic side, she is a visiting lecturer on commercial credit facilities law at the Faculty of Law, Chulalongkorn University.

Ginger is an alumni elected member of Cornell University’s Board of Trustees. She recently retired from a long banking career with roles in client revenue development, risk/underwriting, and most recently was Managing Director and strategy head in global capital markets focused on supporting client's environmental and social aspirations for U.S. Bank. Ms. So orchestrated revenue and product opportunities and integrated an ESG risk framework. She also served as the Corporate and Commercial Banking Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Champion developing and implementing strategies for inclusive growth for both career development and to support client initiatives. Ms. So fostered women's development as founding sponsor of NYC Women’s Business Resource Group, promoting career growth through training and storytelling.

At Cornell, Ms. So's volunteer efforts spans across a range of interests including Cornell Alumni Advisory Board, Cornell Mosaic (2018-2023), a founding member of the Cornell Asian Alumni Association, College of Arts and Sciences Advisory Council (2015-19), the Class of 1979 Class Council (1999-present), and a life member of the Cornell University Council and several of its committees having served as Chair of University Council. In 2014, Ms. So was the recipient of the Frank H.T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award in 2014 and an honoree of the Cornell Asian Alumni Association in 2015.

In 1986, Ms. So earned her MBA in Finance at New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business. She resides in Mountainside, NJ with her husband Ruben Chan. They have two grown children, daughter Jasmine Chan '15 AB A&S and Christopher Chan.

Shirlene Song has over twenty years of experience in commercial real estate investment in both China and the U.S. She is a founder and managing partner of WS Ascent, a leading real estate fund in China, and the co-chairman of Concora Group, an operator that builds life science ecosystems in business parks. Through WS Ascent, Shirlene led the redevelopment of DH3 Beijing, the largest urban renewal commercial project to date.

Before founding her own business, Shirlene was a Managing Director at Carlyle and also worked at Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan’s New York offices.

Shirlene currently lives in Shanghai with her husband and three children. She received an MBA degree from Harvard, a B.A. degree from Cornell with Summa Cum Laude and is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa society.

Nigel is a Singapore-based community builder. As co-president (2017–2020), he revitalized the Cornell Club Singapore from dormancy to an active community of 500+ members, and is now an advisor. He founded GoodHood.SG, a nationally-recognized tech-driven social impact initiative democratizing philanthropy, invited as the sole citizen-led contingent among 13 groups at Singapore’s National Day Parade. To date, Nigel has inspired over 20,000 citizens toward social and environmental impact, mobilizing over 80,000 volunteer hours, $4M in donations, 30,000 acts of kindness, and engaged over 100,000 Singaporeans in civic action.

Associate Vice President for Alumni Affairs

Michelle Vaeth graduated from Cornell in 1998 with a BS in biological sciences, concentrating in neurobiology and animal behavior. She now serves as associate vice president for Alumni Affairs, maintaining strong connections with Cornell's extensive alumni network.

Following graduation, Vaeth joined Procter & Gamble, where she spent the next 18 years in roles of increasing responsibility across multiple P&G global business units, including leading brand communications, media relations, public relations, and crisis and issues management for P&G’s $5+ billion global health care divisions. A winner of multiple professional awards, Vaeth notably led global effort Protecting Futures: Keeping Girls in School, which received the first-ever Cannes PR Lion at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity and the United Nations Association of the USA’s Global Leadership Award.

Beyond her professional achievements, Vaeth demonstrates strong community leadership as vice president of the 125,000-member Association of Junior Leagues International and serves on the board of the SPCA of Tompkins County. She divides her time between Ithaca and Tully, New York.

Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development

As Cornell's chief fundraiser, Fred Van Sickle oversees alumni engagement worldwide and leads private support initiatives through the "To Do the Greatest Good" campaign. Since joining Cornell in 2016, he has strengthened the university's development and alumni relations programs.

Prior to Cornell, Van Sickle served as executive vice president for Alumni and Development at Columbia University, where he played a pivotal role in planning, executing, and completing the $6.1 billion Columbia Campaign. He was chief development officer at the Institute for Advanced Study and later director of Principal Gifts at Princeton; associate vice president for Development and assistant dean for development for the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at the University of Michigan; and vice president for Alumni and Development and secretary of the College at Lake Forest College (his undergraduate alma mater).

Van Sickle holds a Master of Education from Harvard University and a Doctor of Education from the University of Pennsylvania. He serves the local community as president of the board of the Finger Lakes Land Trust and as a board member of the Food Bank of the Southern Tier.

Dr. Wilasa Vichit-Vadakan is concurrently the Director for Digital Construction Business at SCG and Managing Director of BIMobject Thailand, a joint venture between CPAC, a subsidiary of SCG, and BIMobject AB. Her work is focused on the digitalization of the construction industry here in Thailand and capturing this opportunity to advance the construction industry towards sustainability, and ultimately netzero. In order to adapt the global state of the art to meet the needs of the local industry, her team collaborates with groups in the North America, Europe, as well as within Asia, such as Japan, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia. She spent her early career as the Clare Booth Luce Assistant Professor specializing in construction materials at the University of Notre Dame before returning to Thailand and joining SCG as a senior researcher, working both in the cement and petrochemicals businesses. Although she loves her work in the industry, she remains strongly committed to education and sits on a number of educational institution boards here in Thailand. She also volunteers to work directly with students and teachers, especially in the area of STEM. She holds a B.S. from Cornell University, an M.S. from MIT and a Ph.D. from Princeton University, all in civil engineering. She has been an active member of the Cornell Club of Thailand since 2007, an active member of the President’s Council on Cornell Women since 2020, and an active member of the Cornell University Council since 2021.

Robert A. and Ruth E. Polson Professor of Global Development and Vice Provost for International Affairs

As vice provost for international affairs, Wendy Wolford supports the university's international community and focuses on strengthening the university's many global connections and interdisciplinary initiatives. Under her leadership, the university has created the Global Hubs partnerships, Global Grand Challenges, and increased support for Scholars Under Threat.

Wolford is an expert on land distribution, use, and governance around the world. She has worked for many years in Brazil and, more recently, in Ecuador and Mozambique, collaborating with local researchers, community members, policymakers, and multilateral organizations. Wolford has published several books, including This Land is Ours Now, about the Brazilian social movement, the Rural Landless Workers (Duke University Press, 2010), and a co-edited volume, The Social Lives of Land (Cornell University Press, 2024). Her most recent book, The Elusive Plantation, is currently under review.

Wolford was a fellow in the Yale Agrarian Studies Program in 2004–05 and a Fulbright Research Scholar in 2016–17 and has received support from the National Science Foundation, Mellon, Ford, the Social Science Research Council, and more.

Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs, Professor, Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Alan Zehnder received his doctorate in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology. He stayed on as a postdoctoral research fellow for one year, and joined the Cornell faculty in 1988. In 1993 he was the faculty member in residence in Hamburg, Germany, for the Cornell Engineering Abroad program. He was a visiting Professor at Caltech in the 1996-97 academic year. In summer of 1998 he served as a Senior Faculty Fellow at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Carderock, Maryland. In 2004 he was a Guest Professor at the Vienna University of Technology. IN 2016 he was a visiting Scientist at the NASA Langley Research Center.  He currently serves as Sr. Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs and has also served as Associate Dean for Diversity and Faculty Development in the College of Engineering. He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Society for Experimental Mechanics.  His teaching and research interests are in mechanics of materials and fracture mechanics.

Professor and David J. Nolan Dean of the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management

Jinhua Zhao joined Cornell as dean of the Dyson School after serving as a professor of economics and director of the Environmental Science and Policy Program at Michigan State University.

Zhao’s research focuses on environmental and resource economics, economics, particularly climate change, renewable energies, and water resources. His research projects have been funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the EPA.

Zhao was a co-editor of the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management and served on the editorial councils of JEEM and the Review of Development Economics and is on the editorial committees of Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Annual Review of Resource Economics, and Frontier of Economics in China. He served on the Environmental Economics Advisory Committee of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board as well as the Air, Climate, and Energy Committee of EPA's Board of Scientific Counselors.

His publications have appeared in, among others, the Economic Journal, International Economic Review, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Public Economics, JEEM, and American Journal of Agricultural Economics.

Yifan graduated from Cornell University with a B. Art and MEng in Computer Science in 2022. He is currently a committee member of the Cornell Club of Shenzhen.

Yifan is the founder of Atlas Research, an applied AI research team focused on exploring the future of creativity and HCI. The team is currently developing an intelligent canvas tool to augment creativity and efficiency for creative professionals. ATLAS Research brings together interdisciplinary talents with backgrounds from Tsinghua, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, and Cornell. The team combines cutting-edge AI research with a deep passion for art and design.

Previously, Yifan and his team successfully built vertical image generation models and applications, combining generative AI with consumer product design and e-commerce.

Prior to founding Atlas, Yifan worked as a product manager at Tencent Games and Tencent Cloud, where he led product development initiatives at scale.