The Katz School of Science and Health has bolstered its faculty for the fall semester with a new crop of experts in STEM fields, underscoring its leadership in pioneering education and research in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, computer science and digital marketing.
“Our new faculty has a wealth of industry know-how, academic experience and innovative research in multiple disciplines,” said Paul Russo, dean of the Katz School and vice provost of , “reaffirming our commitment to giving students access to leading minds in STEM fields and equipping them for success in an evolving digital and scientific landscape.”
Department of Graduate Computer Science and Engineering
Ming Ma, assistant professor of computer science, whose research expertise spans artificial intelligence, geometric modeling and medical imaging, has published more than 40 papers in leading journals. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Stony Brook University.
Yucheng Xie, assistant professor of computer science, specializes in the intersection of machine learning and healthcare, with a focus on developing smart healthcare solutions and addressing IoT security challenges. He holds a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Purdue University.
Vince Zhu has worked on improving how computers can learn to recognize and separate over 200 different human organs in medical images, focusing on using advanced deep learning techniques, like transformers, to make the system smarter at understanding and processing these images. He holds four master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins University: in data science, in computer science, in applied and computational mathematics and in business administration.
M.S. in Artificial Intelligence
Adam Faulkner, a senior manager of data science at Capital One, leads a team in the Genesis (Gen AI Systems) group, focusing on using large language models for natural-language processing tasks, especially for answering questions. He holds a Ph.D. in linguistics from the City University of New York.
Xiaopeng Tao has held several academic posts at Queens College, City University of New York, Fudan University and Fordham University, teaching courses and publishing widely in mathematics and theory; programming and data structures; and machine learning and artificial intelligence. He holds a Ph.D. in computational linguistics from Fudan University.
M.S. in Biotechnology Management and Entrepreneurship
Erik Dykema teaches classes at the intersection of law and technology. He began his law career as a patent litigator with King & Spalding LLP. In 2013, he founded CaseRails, a legal tech startup, litigating intellectual property and medical technology cases in cooperation with several premier law firms. He holds a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.
Liz Hamburg, founder and CEO of Candoo Tech, teaches Technology Entrepreneurship and Venture Creation. Her company focuses on digital literacy and tech support that aims to enhance the independence and safety of older adults. She holds an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School.
Shifra-Liba Klein is an expert in molecular biology, biotechnology and computational biology, with a focus on research, product development and industry applications. She holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences.
Diana Matkowich has extensive experience in business development and management in well-established and startup companies in and out of the regulatory environment. She holds an MBA from Rutgers University.
Jonathan Taub, a business development professional at Biobina, has expertise in developing business plans for biotech ventures. He holds an M.S. in Biotechnology Management and Entrepreneurship from the Katz School and an MBA from Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business.
M.S. in Cybersecurity
Mitch Haviv is head of cybersecurity and technical infrastructure at Terra Holdings/Brown Harris Stevens, a major New York City real estate company, and has decades of experience on Wall Street in technology and financial market data. He holds an MBA in finance from New York University and an M.S. in computer science from the Polytechnic School of Engineering at New York University.
Kevin McKenzie, VP and CISO at Ferguson, is responsible for global information security at the company. He holds a doctorate in career and technology education and an M.S. in business administration from Clemson University.
M.S. in Data Analytics and Visualization
Kun Bao is a staff software engineer at Uber Technologies in New York, where he leads the design, development and optimization of software systems critical to Uber's operations and engineering productivity. He holds a master’s degree from New York University.
Yueming Xing, who has held executive positions at major U.S. banks, teaches the course Project Management. His expertise includes quantitative trading, risk management and marketing analytics. He holds an M.S. in statistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Liyang Yan, a veteran of Yahoo, Facebook and Amazon, teaches the course Analytics Programming. As an engineering manager at Amazon, Yan led machine learning and Generative AI projects. He holds an M.S. in computer science from New York University.
Dylan Zheng, a senior data engineer specializing in machine learning at one of the largest IT consulting firms in North America, is an expert in data science, machine learning, deep learning and business intelligence, and holds an M.S. in data science from Brown University.
M.S. in Digital Marketing and Media
Larry Cohen has extensive experience creating financial models, such ROI and LTV, using large structured and unstructured datasets. He holds an MBA from Baruch College.
Ray Manna has spearheaded digital initiatives for business-to-business and leading pharmaceutical healthcare brands for over 25 years. He holds an MBA in international marketing from the City University of New York’s Zicklin School of Business.
