My hearty congratulations to all faculty members who have recently achieved promotion or promotion and tenure. This significant milestone reflects hard work, dedication and outstanding contributions to both their academic fields and to the university community, especially to our students. It was a pleasure to review the dossiers of our candidates and see their many accomplishments. Their commitment to excellence in teaching, research and service has not only enhanced Florida Tech but also has shaped the next generation. Thus, we celebrate the achievements of these faculty and look forward to their continued success and impact in the years ahead!
Sincerely,
John Z. Kiss
Provost and Senior VP for Academic Affairs
College of Engineering and Science
Kelli Hunsucker, Ph.D., has been promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences at Florida Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on biofouling, biofilms, and ecological engineering. She is currently funded by the Office of Naval Research to study the efficacy of ultraviolet light (UVC) for biofouling prevention. In 2022, she was the recipient of the John Beakley Florida Marine Science Educator of the Year award.
Christopher Bashur, Ph.D., has been promoted to Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Florida Institute of Technology. His interdisciplinary research focuses on tissue engineering and drug delivery, particularly for engineering small-diameter vascular grafts and promoting tissue vascularization. He has received grant support for this research from sources including the American Heart Association, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. This also includes a recent NSF MRI equipment grant for a new scanning electron microscope for Florida Tech where he was the co-PI.
Pavithra Pathirathna, Ph.D., has been promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the Florida Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on analytical and electrochemistry, developing advanced sensors for in-vivo and in-vitro applications to detect multiple neurotransmitters and toxic metal ions, providing insights into their role in neurodegeneration. In 2022, she received NSF funding to advance the development of an innovative electrochemical sensor for multi-target analysis. In 2023, she was honored with the Outstanding Educator at a Research Institute award by the ACS Orlando Section and named Educator of the Year by United Third Bridge, Inc.
David Harris, Ph.D., has been promoted to Associate Professor of Physics at Florida Institute of Technology. Since joining Florida Tech in 2019, Dr. Harris has received multiple teaching awards, including the Phi Eta Sigma Excellence in Teaching Award in 2020 and 2021, the Student Government Association Excellence in Teaching Award in 2020, and the 2024 Excellence in Teaching Award from the College of Engineering and Science. His research focuses on galactic astrophysics and space technology.
Vipuil Kishore, Ph.D., has been promoted to Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Florida Institute of Technology. As the Principal Investigator of the Functional Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Laboratory at Florida Tech, his research focuses on developing novel biomaterial processing strategies to fabricate functional scaffolds for use in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Dr. Kishore has received two NIH R15 AREA grant awards, totaling over $800,000, for projects on 3D/4D printing of bioceramic gradient incorporated collagen constructs for ACL reconstruction. He has published 40+ peer-reviewed journal articles, 2 book chapters, and presented over 70 conference abstracts.
Ryan White, Ph.D., has been promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Systems Engineering at the Florida Institute of Technology. He directs the NEural TransmissionS (NETS) Lab, where his group investigates the mathematical foundations and real-world applications of artificial intelligence, including autonomous spacecraft navigation and inspection, information-theoretic representation learning, explainable AI, and human-inspired computer vision. His work has been supported by the Air Force Research Laboratory (where he was also awarded two Summer Faculty Fellowships with the Space Vehicles Directorate), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, NIST, NSF, NVIDIA, and Google. In 2018, he was named Professor of the Year for COES by the Florida Tech Student Government Association.
Michael King, Ph.D., has been promoted to Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He directs the Identity Lab, where his research focuses on advancing the science of human identification—with an emphasis on biometrics—in both cyber and physical environments. In addition to his faculty role, Dr. King holds a joint appointment as a Research Scientist in the L3Harris Institute for Assured Information and has served as principal investigator on over $12M in sponsored research. Before entering academia, he completed a distinguished 14-year tenure in the U.S. intelligence community.
Nezamoddin N. Kachouie, Ph.D., has been promoted to Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Systems Engineering at Florida Institute of Technology. With expertise in Electrical & Computer Engineering, Systems Design Engineering, and Biostatistics, his research spans machine learning, statistical modeling, and AI to interdisciplinary challenges in public health, cancer research, and climate change with funding exceeding $2M from NSF, NASA, the Florida Department of Health, and other federal and state agencies. Currently, his research lab, SVM (Statistics, Vision, and Machine learning), comprises over 20 members, including undergraduate, MS and PhD students, postdocs, and research associates. Last month, he received the university’s highest research honor, the Charles E. Helmstetter Award for Excellence in Research.
Norito Takenaka, Ph.D., has been promoted to Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Florida Institute of Technology. The foci of his research are the development of new organocatalysis methods and natural product total synthesis. His current research has been funded by National Institutes of Health, NIGMS since 2020 to present (totaling $869,217).
Pallav Ray, Ph.D., has been promoted to Professor in the Department of Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences at Florida Institute of Technology. He specializes in tropical climate dynamics and variability, utilizing observations, models, and theory. Dr. Ray’s recent research includes atmospheric oscillations in the tropics, land-air-sea interactions, near-equatorial cyclones, and improving rainfall predictions by incorporating overlooked processes in climate models. Dr. Ray has secured $3 million in external funding from DOE, NASA, and NOAA, and has published in leading journals, including those in the Nature portfolio.
College of Psychology and Liberal Arts
Kenneth Pike, Ph.D. in the Pre-Law and Humanities programs, has been promoted to associate professor with tenure. Bridging his expertise in philosophy and his legal training as a JD, Pike’s program of scholarship spans a diverse range of topics, including legal philosophy, political theory, technology, applied ethics, and children’s rights. His work is well-regarded and addresses urgent questions in applied ethics such as the status of children and the role of technology.
Nikki Souris, Ph.D. in the Pre-Law and Humanities programs, has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure. Her program of scholarship focuses on the area of virtue ethics and vulnerability as it applies to the legal standing of child soldiers in Africa and immigrants to the U.S. Her work has resulted in several research awards. She is currently working on her second book, under contract with Palgrave, titled The Cruelty is the Point: Cruelty as Political Vice. Souris also serves the university as the Faculty Athletics Representative.
Yanek Mieczkowski, Ph.D. in the Humanities programs who teaches history courses, has been promoted to Associate Professor. A political historian, Mieczkowski has written six books including Eisenhower’s Sputnik Moment: The Race of Space and World Prestige, Gerald Ford and the Challenges of the 1970s, and most recently Surviving War Oceans Apart: Two Teenagers in Poland and Japan Destined for Life Together which examines the experiences of teenagers surviving World War II in regions particularly devastated by the war. Additionally, he has published extensively in popular press outlets, demonstrating his ability to communicate political history in an accessible and engaging way.
Patrick Aragon, Ph.D. a core faculty member in the Clinical Psychology program and assistant director of clinical training for the program, has been promoted to Associate Professor. In his role, Aragon has developed and implemented many advances in student clinical training, he has substantially grown the number of clinical student practicum sites to now include Brevard Schools and he secured a prestigious practicum site at Winter Haven Hospital funded through the Winter Haven Foundation. Aragon just published his first book titled Essentials of Mental Health.
