Faculty Fellows

Slivka Fellows are faculty members and administrators that are affiliated with our Residential College. Students benefit greatly from the opportunity to become acquainted with these individuals outside the classroom–at firesides, over meals, or on excursions in Evanston and Chicago. Our Fellows are encouraged to eat with us at lunch in Sargent Dining Hall. In addition, Slivka has Fellows from various schools and departments. This encourages collaboration and learning across departments and also provides networking opportunities.

Please contact any fellow, by email or otherwise! The Fellows Chair is always happy to introduce any Slivkan to any fellow.

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PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering (minor in CS), UW-Madison
MS, Electrical Engineering, UW-Madison
BS, Applied Science and Physics, UW-Parkside

Contact information:
a-sahakian@northwestern.edu
https://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/research-faculty/directory/profiles/sahakian-alan.html

Professor Sahakian recently completed an eight-year term as the Chair of the EECS Department, and is now serving as Senior Adviser to the Dean of the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. While EECS Chair he hired over 20 new faculty and the US News rankings of the department’s three disciplines moved from 32 to 23 (EE), 28 to 18 (CE) and 35 to 30 (CS). Sahakian is also a member of the academic affiliate staff at NorthShore University HealthSystem (Evanston Hospital) in Cardiology. During his graduate studies he was a senior electrical engineer and microprocessor specialist at Medtronic, Inc. and also worked for Applied Electronics Consultants, Inc. designing and coding algorithms for patient monitoring and operating system software. He also served as a resident visiting scholar in the Center for Excellence in Reliability and Maintainability at the Air Force Institute of Technology Studying reliability science and fault-tolerant computing. Sahakian is a Fellow of both IEEE and AIMBE “for contributions to electrophysiology of atrial cardiac arrhythmias” and has served both as a Distinguished Lecturer and as the Vice President for Publications and Technical Activities for the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. He is currently an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering and for Nature Publishing Scientific Reports (for the fields of Electronics, Photonics and Device Physics). While at Northwestern he received several teaching awards and chairs including the Bette and Neison Harris Chair, the Charles Deering McCormick Chair, the McCormick Teacher of the Year award, the McCormick Advisor of the year award and the Northwestern Alumni Association Teaching award. In addition to cardiac electrophysiology his lab studies electromagnetic and photonic methods of medical imaging and diagnostics, irreversible electroporation and RF ablation for cancerous tumors and other medical applications, and spintronic and other beyond-CMOS logic computational circuits and architectures. His recent research has been funded by the NIH, NSF, Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program, Defense Intelligence Agency (through DOE), Intel and Medtronic. In his spare time he likes to rebuild classic cars and go to the gym. If you see a vintage Lotus or Porsche in the Sargent parking lot, it’s probably one of his projects. You’ll frequently see Alan eating lunch with the Slivkans in the Residential College Room at Sargent Dining Hall.

MS, Computer Science, University of Washington
BS, Computer Science, University of Washington
BA, Mathematics, University of Washington

Contact information:
anjali.agarwal@northwestern.edu

PhD, Civil Engineering, Universidad de Seville PhD, Civil Engineering, Northwestern University
MS, Civil Engineering, Northwestern University
BS & MS, Civil Engineering, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Contact information:
arancha.alarconfleming@northwestern.edu
https://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/research-faculty/directory/profiles/alarcon-fleming-arantzazu.html

Arancha is a Professor in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department (CEE). You may see her teaching EA2, CivE 216 / BME 271, or DTC. She also teaches higher-level courses in CEE such as Structural Steel Design and Matrix Analysis of Structures. Prior to teaching at Northwestern, she worked for over five years for Halvorson and Partners on major building projects such as Torre Cepsa (previously Torre Repsol) in Madrid, which is currently the second tallest building in Spain and fourth in the European Union. She has a lot of stories and experience to share with Slivkans curious about the world of CEE. She is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Illinois and is a member of the Structural Engineering Association of Illinois (SEAOI) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Arancha received her PhD and MS in Civil Engineering from Northwestern University, studying the constitutive modeling of direct measures of strain in simulated fault gauge. She also received a PhD at the University of Sevilla and MS degree from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. She has received several teaching awards, including the 2020 Associated Student Government (ASG) Faculty Honor Roll for Excellence in Teaching, the 2018 Cole-Higgins Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the 2017 Associated Student Government (ASG) Faculty Honor Roll for Excellence in Teaching. Arancha loves going to Sargent for lunch or meeting Slivkans for coffee (many of them will end up in her classes!). In her spare time she likes spending time with her family, cooking and traveling.

Iain is a 4th year PhD student in the department of French and Italian. He specializes in 20th century French literature, with a focus on gender and sexuality studies. His dissertation explores how LGBTQ+ writers in France questioned and reconfigured traditional relational structures in their literary works. Before embarking on his PhD, Iain worked for two years at Wellcome, the global scientific research funder, where he specialized in government and media relations. In his spare time you can find him in his local pottery studio, exploring the Chicago music scene, and baking cookies and sweet treats.

PhD, Electrical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2013
MS, Electrical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2011
BS, Electrical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2009

Contact information:
i-mikhelson@northwestern.edu
https://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/research-faculty/directory/profiles/mikhelson-ilya.html

Ilya is a professor in electrical and computer engineering. Outside of work, he likes playing tennis, running, and biking. He also fancies himself a decent dodgeball player, and tries to play IMs with Slivka when he can.

PhD, English, Northwestern University

Contact information:
k-carmichael@northwestern.edu
https://writingprogram.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/carmichael-kathleen.html

Kathleen Carmichael is Professor of Instruction in the Bobbie and Stanton Cook Family Writing Program where she teaches first-year seminars, intermediate composition, and Design Thinking and Communication (aka DTC). Kathleen also advises first-year, first-quarter students for the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and is happy to talk to Slivkans about her insights from fifteen years of first-year advising. Kathleen’s interests include satire, 18th-century British novels, and the complex ways that literature may drive public policy – an interest that informs her fall quarter seminar on literatures of addiction and her winter ecofiction class. She is currently excited to investigate how the emergence of generative AI tools, applied to writing tasks, may allow for a shift in academic writing – both teaching and practice – towards greater creativity and flexibility of form. Kathleen encourages Slivkans who have been experimenting with any kind of generative AI tools to share their findings and insights with her – she will be happy to pelt you with questions. Kathleen has been affiliated with the Slivka community since fall of 2011 when she became a faculty fellow. Subsequently Kathleen served as associate faculty chair (FQ 2014-SQ 2019) and faculty chair during the pandemic years (FQ 2019-SQ 2022). While Kathleen is proud to point out that Slivka Hall remained standing and largely undamaged at the end of her tenure as chair (if one discounts the mysterious theft of the letters S and V from the signage), she nevertheless deeply regrets her failure to inspire members of the community with universal reverence and affection for spiders of the Chicago wilderness, those masterful materials science engineers who may be seen adorning the exterior of Slivka in fall quarter. She encourages McCormick students in particular to consider these friendly arachnids as their colleagues and mentors in design engineering, from whom the thoughtful student may draw insight, inspiration, and relief from buzzing insects. Be kind – don’t harass the spiders! While Kathleen makes her institutional home on far south campus (555 Clark, to be precise) she may be found in the Sargent dining hall on P2P days where she lends an encouraging ear to Slivkans talking through their latest plans for world domination. Kathleen also enjoys attending Bienen concerts and encourages Slivkans to support their south campus friends by going to theater performances, attending student concerts, checking out the Block Museum, or just joining her for the Skyline Piano Series.

PhD, Biomedical Engineering, Duke University
BS, Marquette University, Milwaukee

Contact information:
ken.gentry@northwestern.edu
https://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/research-faculty/directory/profiles/gentry-ken.html

Ken is a first-year adviser in McCormick and also teaches DTC and Biomedical Engineering courses. He received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University. He likes biking to work, walking and running with his dog, reading books (sci-fi and non-fiction), and watching movies. He thinks Sargent food isn’t bad, but mainly goes for the company.

BS/MS in Computer Science, Northwestern University

Contact information:
kevinhayes2026@u.northwestern.edu

Kevin is a former NU undergraduate student as well as former Slivkan! He completed Northwestern’s BS/MS program for Computer Science in 2026, and is staying connected with the Slivkan community by returning as a Graduate Associate of Slivka.

PhD, Oncology and Cancer Biology, Northwestern University
MS, Molecular Biology, Howard University
BS, Biology, Howard University

Contact information:
latanya.williams@northwestern.edu
https://www.northwestern.edu/fellowships/about/our-team/

LaTanya is the Associate Director for STEM in the Office of Fellowships. Born and raised in Chicago, she developed a love of life sciences from her mother, who shared with her a strong interest in the human body and nutrition. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from Howard University. She also got her PhD from Northwestern in 2014 and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at UIC with a focus on prostate cancer. LaTanya has more than a decade of experience in teaching and advising undergraduate and graduate students. She helps students and alumni to identify international and domestic external awards, and works with students one-on-one through the process. She enjoys spending time with her husband, a fellow scientist, and her two active, young sons who keep her busy and thoroughly entertained. She also enjoys reading biographies, traveling, and trying new restaurants.

BS, Electrical Engineering, Northwestern University
MS, Electrical Engineering, Northwestern University

Nate studied Electrical Engineering for his B.S. and M.S. at Northwestern University. His current research focus is on using grain of rice sized optical modulators to detect neural activity, in addition to using phototransistor arrays to 3D scan biological samples. He greatly enjoys cooking, in addition to woodworking and reading.

Contact information:
nick.winters@northwestern.edu

Dr. Winters is a classicist (and former physicist) specializing in ancient mathematics, science, and technology. He teaches courses at Northwestern on ancient astronomy, ancient medicine, Greek history, and the Greek language (both ancient and modern). His work has also included projects on games, textiles, books and manuscripts, seafaring and navigation, engineering, mathematical theory, and calculating devices from the ancient world. He is a member of the Science in Human Culture program and the Global Antiquities group, and is always excited to help students discover unexpected and creative applications of their scientific expertise. In his free time, Dr. Winters may be found losing at backgammon, playing the piano badly, getting hit in the head with a racquetball, making big pieces of lace for his cat to maul, collecting replicas of ancient scientific instruments, or studying a dozen languages that he might or might not ever use.

PhD, Theater Studies, Cornell University, 2005
MA, Theatre Studies, San Francisco State University, 2000
BA, Theatre, Boston College, 1989

Contact information:
p-civetta@northwestern.edu
https://undergradresearch.northwestern.edu

Peter Civetta is the director of the Office of Undergraduate Research in the Office of the Provost, running programs including the Undergraduate Research Grants (URG) and the Undergraduate Research and Arts Exposition. He advises students on grant proposals, works to foster undergraduate research across the University, and helps to develop new initiatives. In addition to his affiliation with the Writing Program, he is also an Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Theater Department, where he teaches on the intersection of performance and culture, particularly looking at the impact of religion, politics, and comedy. Peter received his BA in Boston College, before working for almost ten years as a professional actor. His research explores the performance of religious/spiritual/moral beliefs in contemporary American society, particularly focusing on the impact of preaching as cultural discourse. In Evanston, Peter runs the non-profit Extraordinarily Sophisticated Imagination Club, a theatre program where children improvise and create their own original plays.

PhD, Chemistry, California Institute of Technology
BS, Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University

Contact information:
stn@northwestern.edu
http://sites.northwestern.edu/nguyengroup/

SonBinh is a Chemistry Professor and has been for 27 years. His research group studies catalysis, inorganic/organic materials, and nanoscale drug delivery. SonBinh teaches organic chemistry in the Spring and was the director of the Integrated Science Program. SonBinh is passionate about cooking and has hosted events in the past teaching Slivkans how to make healthy and budget-friendly meals. SonBinh also likes to survey the local food scene, occasionally hosting events to take Slivkans to Chicago’s Chinatown. If you have any questions about organic chemistry or getting involved in research feel free to reach out to SonBinh.

PhD, Geological and Geophysical Sciences, Princeton University
MSc, Geophysics (minors in: Physics and Mathematics), University of Utrecht

Contact information:
suzan@earth.northwestern.edu
http://geophysics.earth.northwestern.edu/seismology/suzan/

Prof. van der Lee’s work investigates how plate tectonics started, how it is sustained, and when and how it will end. This research contributes to the idea that a secondary deep water cycle, through the transition zone, is a critical factor for sustaining plate tectonics. Suzan also harvests information from seismic waves generated by ambient dynamics in the Earth System and deduces source mechanisms of earth- and marsquakes. Part of the data that is analyzed is acquired through seismological field experiments. Suzan has participated in or led such experiments in four continents.

MDiv, Washington Theological Union, 1999
BA, Philosophy, Assumption College

Contact information:
t-higgins@northwestern.edu
https://sheilcatholiccenter.org/staff/tim-higgins/

Tim is a Campus Minister at Sheil Catholic Center. Tim enjoys taking service trips with students to places such as New Orleans, Border of Mexico and Arizona and Detroit. He enjoys getting to know students at fellow/student lunches at Sargent, at Slivka and cultural events.

BS, California Institute of Technology, 2008
MSc, Oxford University, 2010
PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 2015

Contact information:
t-higgins@northwestern.edutodd.gingrich@northwestern.edu
https://gingrich.chem.northwestern.edu/

PhD, Computer Science, Northeastern University, 2015
BS, Computer Science, Universite de Montreal, 2009

Contact information:
stamourv@cs.northwestern.edu
https://users.cs.northwestern.edu/~stamourv/

Vincent is teaching faculty in Computer Science, and he’s very pleased to consistently have a solid Slivka contingent in his classes. When he’s not teaching, he loves music, cooking, biking, geeking out about any of those, and writing in the third person. He’s a firm believer that taking oneself seriously is overrated, and still has not figured out, how to use commas, properly.

PhD, Chemical Engineering, Stanford University
MS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois
BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois

Contact information:
w-burghardt@northwestern.edu
https://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/research-faculty/directory/profiles/burghardt-wesley.html

Wesley R. Burghardt is an Associate Dean for Undergraduate Engineering, and as such, he is responsible for McCormick’s undergraduate education program, including “the curriculum, professional development, and personal development.” Burghardt joined the Northwestern faculty in the 1990s, and has in the past served as chair of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, in which he is now a professor. His research interests seek to understand the dynamics of complex fluids during flow, and he has developed pioneering optical and X-ray scattering methods for studying the structural dynamics of polymers. He has been honored with teaching awards, including being named a Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence in 2011.