2026 Faculty Promotions

Greg Fox, Ph.D., has been promoted to associate professor in the College of Aeronautics. With an aviation career that has spanned five decades Gregory Fox brings years of practical experience and qualifications in both military and civilian piloting and senior aviation management responsibilities that augment his academic teaching duties, including expertise in: aviation safety management; aviation accident investigation; flight operations and flight standards on large and small piston, turboprop and turbofan jet airplanes; safety oversight, certification, surveillance, compliance and audit of airlines and airports; ICAO SARPs compliance and development of national civil aviation authorities; Part 61 and Part 141 pilot ground training; airline transport pilot (ATP) with B747, A320, A340, DC-3, SMEL ratings, advanced ground instructor (AGI), instrument ground instructor (IGI); crew/company resource management (CRM) and threat and error management (TEM); air navigation standards; regulatory and safety investigation; international aviation safety promotion and multinational cooperation in regional safety oversight and aviation oversight in developing nations.

Angel Otero, ’01 M.S., ’22 MBA, Ph.D., is an associate professor of accounting information systems in the Nathan M. Bisk College of Business who has been awarded tenure. Prior to joining Florida Tech, Otero worked at Deloitte, the largest of the global Big Four accounting firms. His research centers on the application of emerging technologies in financial and IT audits, as well as in broader accounting environments. Otero has authored more than 35 peer-reviewed conference and journal publications in leading academic and professional outlets such as the International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, consistently ranked among the top accounting journals, as well as the highly regarded The CPA Journal, Today’s CPA and ISACA Journal, among others, reaching a global audience of accounting and IT audit professionals. He is also the author of the widely adopted textbook Information Technology Control and Audit, currently in development for its sixth edition, which has been used by universities across the United States and internationally, underscoring his global impact on accounting and IT audit education. In 2021, Otero served as academic project lead on an industry-funded collaboration with a regional accounting firm, enhancing the university’s visibility and strengthening the applied focus of graduate instruction in IT auditing and internal audit.

Manasvi Lingam, Ph.D., has been promoted to associate professor in the Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences. His research focuses on a variety of topics, such as planetary habitability, origins of life, searching for signatures of life, space exploration and mission design, space and astrophysical plasmas and molecular biophysics. His work has been funded by NASA and the Templeton World Charity Foundation. He has published 110 papers and two books published by Harvard University Press and Cambridge University Press, received the 2024 Rosalind Franklin Society Award in Science and is the senior editor for Astrobiology.

Mirmilad Mirsayar, Ph.D., has been promoted to associate professor of aerospace engineering with tenure in the Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences. His research focuses on fracture mechanics, mechanics of advanced materials, advanced composites and additive manufacturing. He has co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed journal publications and his research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, NASA and the U.S. Department of Transportation. His recognitions include being named among the world’s top 2% of researchers by Stanford University and Elsevier from 2021 to 2026, being recognized as a top scholar by ScholarGPS in 2024, ranking in the top 0.24% of scholars globally and receiving the 2024 faculty excellence award for research in his department.

Kim-Doang Nguyen, Ph.D., has been promoted to associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering. His research integrates advanced machine learning, data science and control technologies to enable autonomous robotic systems in applications ranging from collaborative industrial robotics to precision agriculture. His research efforts have secured more than $1 million in external funding, including more than $800,000 as a principal investigator at Florida Tech, from NSF, NASA, USDA and industry partners. In 2024, he was honored with the faculty excellence award for research (department level).

Son Nguyen, Ph.D., has been promoted to associate professor with tenure in the Department of Mathematics and Systems Engineering. A distinguished scholar in applied mathematics, Nguyen’s work stands at the intersection of complex stochastic systems and real-world dynamics. Nguyen’s academic journey is marked by international rigor and excellence. Nguyen’s research portfolio is as vast as it is impactful, focusing on: stochastic games and optimal control (developing advanced frameworks for decision-making under uncertainty), population dynamics and epidemiology (applying stochastic models to understand and predict biological trends and disease spread) and financial mathematics (utilizing mathematical rigor to navigate complex market behaviors). His current work, which has received support from the Simons Foundation, explores cutting-edge “mean-field” models and regime-switching systems. He serves as an associate editor for the SIAM (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics) Journal on Control and Optimization.

Darshan Pahinkar, Ph.D., has been promoted to associate professor with tenure in the Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering. His research focuses on developing heat-driven energy systems that can replace electrically driven counterparts through innovations in materials, components and transport phenomena. He received a National Science Foundation engineering research initiation (ERI) award in 2024 and is a co-principal investigator on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Earthshots (2023) multi-university initiative. He is also the recipient of faculty excellence awards for research from both the MCE department and the College of Engineering and Science in 2025.

Toufiq Reza, Ph.D., has been promoted to professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. His research includes waste valorization by recovering nutrients, critical minerals and high-value chemicals. He is also developing novel methods for harmful algal bloom remediation. He has received more than $8M in funding from multiple agencies, including the NSF, USDA, DOE, Florida Sea Grant, FDEP and EPA. He is one of the world’s top 2% cited researchers database from 2021 to 2024, published by Stanford University.

Robert Usselman, Ph.D., has been promoted to associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. His research lies at the interface of biophysical chemistry, molecular biology and advanced imaging, focusing on quantum-enabled microscopy to investigate redox biology, protein dynamics and cellular signaling. He has led the development of advanced microscopy instrumentation, including hyperspectral imaging systems and optically detected magnetic resonance microscopy platforms, enabling new capabilities in biological sensing and imaging. His work is supported by federal funding agencies, including the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation and the Army Research Laboratory.

Bo Wang, Ph.D., has been promoted to associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. His research focuses on the development of machine learning approaches for metabolomics studies and their applications in human health, nutrition and environmental science. He has received two NSF grants for machine learning applications in metabolomics and multiomics studies, as well as one environmental science grant from the Gulf of America Alliance. In addition, he has received three subawards (NIH and USDA) through collaborations on human health and nutritional studies. He has published 50 peer-reviewed journal articles.

Shaohua Xu, Ph.D., has been promoted to professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Science. His research focuses on Alzheimer’s disease. His group applies an interdisciplinary approach, including theories and methods developed in physical sciences and engineering, to understand how amyloid plaques are formed and how the plaques harm neurons. He introduced the linear colloid aggregation theory for protein self-assembly and amyloid fiber formation. He identified amyloid plaques as hydrogels capable of suffocating axons of neurons in his recently introduced denied access model as an early event in Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis. His research received financial support from NASA Kennedy Space Center, Space Florida, the Community Foundation for Brevard and private donations.

Marshall Jones, ’19 DBA, ’20 M.S., has been promoted to associate professor in the School of Psychology. Jones leads the Center for Applied Criminal Case Analysis and is a co-founder of the Institute for AI in Policing at Florida Tech. His research focuses on leadership development in policing, officer selection and retention and innovative analytical methods for understanding violent crime, including cold case investigations and crime patterns in Indigenous communities. His work has been widely disseminated through scholarly presentations, practitioner training and invited lectures at organizations including the FBI National Academy and continues to shape evidence-based approaches to leadership and decision-making in the criminal justice system.

Catherine (Kate) Talbot, Ph.D., has been promoted to associate professor in the School of Psychology. Her research examines the evolutionary and biological bases of sociality, approaching these questions from a comparative, evolutionary and translational perspective across multiple nonhuman primate species. Her work spans a range of topics including face recognition, social cognition, prosocial behavior, behavioral inequality and decision-making. A central focus of her current research program is the development and validation of a naturally occurring monkey model of the core social deficits seen in autism spectrum disorder. Her ongoing work with collaborators examines how biological markers such as oxytocin and vasopressin relate to social functioning—research with direct translational implications for autism. She recently co-developed Florida Tech’s new animal behavior and cognition B.S. program, and her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the American Psychological Association. In 2025, she was the recipient of COPLA’s researcher of the year award.

Wanfa Zhang, Ph.D., has been promoted to professor in the School of Arts and Communication. Zhang is a political scientist who studies the political, economic and social dynamics of contemporary China within the broader framework of international relations and comparative politics. Zhang’s scholarship integrates international relations theory, quantitative methods and geopolitical analysis to investigate issues such as great power competition, China’s foreign policy and state-society relations. His work includes empirical studies of political attitudes among future elites, analyses of China’s rise in the global system and contributions to understanding security and governance in the Asia-Pacific region, with implications for both political theory and international policy.

Bill Bowman has been promoted to associate librarian. As the engineering and science librarian, he acts as the library’s primary point of contact for students and faculty in aerospace, physics and space sciences, biomedical engineering and science, chemistry and chemical engineering and mechanical and civil engineering. He serves on numerous committees across campus, including the various incarnations of the AI implementation committees, research council and faculty senate. In recent years, his research has been focused on AI, how students use it and the quality of its output when used for research.

Chelsea Carroll has been promoted to associate librarian in the Evans Library. In her position as head of library instruction, Carroll coordinates the program of classes, workshops and instructional opportunities offered by the library, which impacts thousands of undergraduate and graduate students each year. She also teaches COM 2012: Navigating the Information Landscape. Her research focuses on information literacy, pedagogy and assessment.

Nancy Garmer is the associate dean of Evans Library, providing strategic leadership with a strong focus on user experience, student engagement and student success. A dedicated library leader and campus partner, Garmer’s work centers on creating inclusive, supportive environments that empower students to thrive both inside and outside the classroom. Her expertise spans academic support services and student success frameworks, with a particular emphasis on aligning library services with broader institutional goals and community outreach.

Kristin Heifner has been promoted to assistant librarian in Evans Library. She is the liaison to the School of Psychology and School of Behavior Analysis, the administrator of the Florida Tech Scholarship Repository and the manager of the CraftLab at Evans Library. Heifner’s research focuses on the delivery of library services, with a recent emphasis on implementing the personal librarian program.

Suzanne Kozaitis ’85 has been promoted to librarian at the Evans Library. Her decades of service to Florida Tech have focused on improving access to electronic resources, supporting the development of integrated search tools and facilitating student success. In her current role, she guides the growth and management of the library’s scholarly collections through strategic planning, budgeting, acquisitions and assessment. Throughout her career, she has been an advocate for open access initiatives to increase the visibility and availability of research outputs produced by the Florida Tech community and beyond.