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To help introduce new members of the university's faculty to the Memorial community, the Gazette continues its series of faculty profiles. Our latest faculty members come to us from Egypt, China, Sweden and even one returning home. The featured faculty in this issue bring their diverse research expertise in the areas of gambling, environmentally-friendly technology in the offshore oil and gas industry, drug delivery in cancer treatment and radio communication engineering.
| Cheng Li | Anne-Marie Sullivan |
| Dr. Vlastimil Masek | Dr. Husam Younes |
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| Cheng Li |
Cheng Li
Assistant professor, electrical and computer engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
Research interests
“Personal communication is only going to get bigger and better as
technology advances – it was just starting to get noticed when I
began my studies and it has really taken off since,” said Cheng
Li. Since he began the study of radio communications engineering, Mr.
Li has been researching mobile and wireless communications systems.
The focus of his doctoral work has been on designing the architecture
for a multicast packet switching system for broadband communications.
He plans to continue work on this switch architecture and on applications
for wireless communication networks after his doctoral work wraps up.
Experience
While studying in China, Mr. Li worked as a research assistant in the
Communication Research Centre at Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT).
Following graduation he was employed as a communications and electronics
engineer with Baosteel in Shanghai, and a network system group manager
with Nokia China Investment Co. Working in various aspects of the communications
industry has given him a unique insight into new technology and its potential
applications. Since coming to Memorial in 1999, Mr. Li has worked in the
Faculty’s Centre for Digital Hardware Application Research (CDHAR).
Background
Prior to starting his doctoral studies here at Memorial, Mr. Li received
a bachelor’s degree in communication engineering from HIT in China.
He then went on to complete a master’s degree in telecommunication
engineering at the same institution, focusing on trunked mobile communications
systems and switching technologies.
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| Dr. Vlastimil Masek |
Dr. Vlastimil
Masek
Assistant professor, electrical engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
Research interests
Dr. Masek’s research focuses on data logging for more accurate and
precise sensing techniques that could ultimately bring environmentally-friendly
technology to the offshore oil and gas industry. Since he began the study
of engineering, Dr. Masek has long been interested in process control
and robotics and finds the interdisciplinary nature of the research appealing.
His graduate research focused on fuzzy controlled mobile robots (their
reasoning being neither hot nor cold, but somewhere in between) and later
on the ultrasonic sensors of mobile robots.
Experience
Looking for some industrial experience, Dr. Masek accepted an opportunity
to work with ABB Corporate Research in Sweden. He worked for almost three
years as a research scientist working in the mechatronics group and then
moving into sensors and robotics. Dr. Masek plans to take his experience
working with process control and apply it to aspects of the oil and gas
industry while here at Memorial. The relevance to the oil and gas industry
would mean optimization which could lead to cost-effectiveness and more
environmentally-friendly processes.
Background
Dr. Masek received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering
from the University of West Bohemia in the Czech Republic. Pursuing an
interest in electrical engineering and armed with a scholarship from the
Japanese government, he went on to complete a master’s, then a doctorate
degree at the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo, Japan. After
completing his studies he remained for one year as a post-doctoral research
associate in the Satellite Venture Business Laboratory.
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| Anne-Marie Sullivan |
Anne-Marie
Sullivan
Assistant professor, recreation
Human Kinetics
Research interests
Recreation, and its potential to bring balance to one’s life, has
always been of interest to Ms. Sullivan. She has studied the impact of
recreation on the lives of various societal factions, and is currently
focusing her PhD research efforts on the gambling habits of young people.
Recognizing how deeply entrenched gambling is in post-secondary culture,
her research strives to locate the point on the continuum where youth
shift from leisure gambling to addiction. Ms. Sullivan is studying identity
challenges associated with such high-risk behavior, aiming to capture
the perspective of her subjects on their recreational habits.
Experience
Ms. Sullivan has dedicated much of her research to understanding the role
of recreation in people’s lives. During her MA, she conducted action
research with a group of Alzheimer’s patients and their families,
examining the impact of recreation on their quality of life, as they viewed
it to be. A grant from the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Center during
her PhD also enabled her to study the effects of gambling on identity
formation in young adults. In addition, she has worked in both the United
States and Canada as a recreation therapist, teaching for a period of
three years at Brock University.
Background
A native of Newfoundland and Labrador, Ms. Sullivan worked in Jasper National
Park as a young adult, eventually heading to Dalhousie University in Halifax
to pursue her interest in therapeutic recreation. She completed her undergraduate
work, going on to work as a recreation therapist in New Mexico and British
Columbia for a few years. While in BC, she became increasingly aware of
the misconceptions surrounding her field of interest, and felt compelled
to pursue graduate work in the hopes of changing such attitudes at the
educational level.
“Recreation is about providing balance in one’s life,”
she said. “I want students to value their work, and all that they
can contribute to people’s lives.” Ms. Sullivan earned an
MA in recreation from the University of Waterloo, followed by the start
of her PhD at Guelph in family relations and human development. She has
taught courses at Brock University, and, this past winter, accepted a
position as assistant professor of recreation in human kinetics at Memorial
University of Newfoundland.
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| Dr. Husam Younes |
Dr. Husam Younes
Assistant professor
School of Pharmacy
Research interests
Dr. Younes’ research is on polymeric drug delivery systems for cancer
treatment. He is looking for an approach that will deliver treatment in
an efficient localized and sustained manner. His work utilizes cytokines,
which are soluble glycoproteins released by cells of the immune system
that act through specific receptors to regulate immune responses. Dr.
Younes is looking at ways to deliver cytokines through a system that is
biodegradable but which will maintain the stability of these proteins
and achieve localized action. He is also looking at ways of using biodegradable
polymers to deliver genes. This field of research is aimed at directing
specific genes to areas of the body where their presence has been demolished
or reduced as a result of a certain diseased state. Dr. Younes said if
this study is successful, it will be a new approach for enhancing cancer
therapy.
Experience
Dr. Younes joined the School of Pharmacy in November, following education
and work experience in the field of pharmaceutics and drug delivery. He
earned his pharmacy degree in Egypt in 1992 and worked for a year as a
community pharmacist before pursuing a master’s degree in pharmaceutical
technology and industry at the Jordan University of Science and Technology.
He worked for two years in the pharmaceutical industry in Jerusalem before
moving to Alberta to do a PhD at the University of Alberta in pharmaceutical
science. He brings a new research expertise to Memorial’s School
of Pharmacy, and is involved in teaching new graduate and undergraduate
courses in pharmaceutics and physical pharmacy as well as setting up a
laboratory for his research and taking on graduate students.
Note to all deans and directors: If you have new faculty members and
would like them featured in this series, please contact Deborah Inkpen,
communications co-ordinator (research), at inkpend@mun.ca.
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