The School of Arts and Sciences welcomed another bumper crop of stellar new faculty members in 2011. Each one brings accomplishments to the Johns Hopkins community. Here is a sampling:
Soojin Park joins the Department of Cognitive Science as an assistant professor following her post-doctoral fellowship at MIT. Her research focuses on the constructive nature of visual perception and neural representation of scenes. Park earned her PhD in cognitive psychology from Yale University.

Akira Omaki is a new assistant professor in the Department of Cognitive Science, who comes to Johns Hopkins following his postdoctoral research at the University of Geneva. His research focuses on first/second language acquisition, adult/child language processing, and theoretical syntax. Omaki earned his PhD in linguistics from the University of Maryland.

Anand Gnanadesikan is a new associate professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, who joins Johns Hopkins after serving as a lecturer at Princeton University. Primarily interested in the vertical circulation of the ocean and the connections between physical circulation, the biosphere, and large-scale ocean chemistry, Gnanadesikan was a member of the Oceans and Climate Group at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. He earned his PhD from the MIT/ Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program.

Nadia Altschul joins the Department of German and Romance Languages and Literatures as an assistant professor whose research bridges disciplinary historiography and intellectual history, and currently focuses on postcolonial studies, tempo-rality, and the “Middle Ages” in Latin America. Altschul earned her PhD in Spanish and Portuguese from Yale University.

Andrea Krauss is a new assistant professor in the Department of German and Romance Languages and Literatures, who comes to Johns Hopkins after teaching German literature at the Free University of Berlin, the University of Erfurt, and the University of Zurich. Krauss’ research and teaching focus on the intersection of literature, philosophy, and aesthetics. In addition, she has been working extensively on literary theory and methodology. Krauss earned her PhD from the Free University of Berlin in 2001 and her venia legendi (habilitation) from the University of Zurich in 2010.

Michael Kwass joins the Department of History as an associate professor. He comes to Johns Hopkins from the University of Georgia. Since publishing Privilege and the Politics of Taxation in Eighteenth-Century France: Liberté, Egalité, Fiscalité, for which he received the David Pinkney Prize, Kwass has been working on consumer culture in the age of Enlightenment. Kwass earned his PhD in history from the University of Michigan.

Marc Kamionkowski is the newest professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He comes to Johns Hopkins from the California Institute of Technology, where he served as a professor of theoretical physics and astrophysics. With research focusing primarily on particle dark matter, inflation and the cosmic microwave background, and cosmic acceleration, Kamionkowski was a 2006 recipient of the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award. He earned his PhD in physics from the University of Chicago.

Nicolas Jabko, a new associate professor in the Department of Political Science, comes to Johns Hopkins following his service as the research director of Sciences Po, Paris. His work focuses on inter- national political economy with a focus on the European Union, democracy and accountability in advanced capitalist societies, and the euro and monetary stability. Jabko earned his PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Ho-fung Hung joins the Department of Sociology as an associate professor. He comes to Johns Hopkins from Indiana University at Bloomington, where he served as the associate director of the Research Center for Chinese Politics and Business. His research focuses on global political economy, contentious politics, nationalism, and social theory. He earned his PhD in sociology from Johns Hopkins University.

Hans Lindblad is a new professor in the Department of Mathematics, who comes to Johns Hopkins following his time as a visiting member at Mittag-Leffler Institute. His research concerns basic mathematical questions about nonlinear wave equations arising in physics. Lindblad is also interested in existence, stability, and behavior of solutions to hyperbolic differential equations. He received his PhD in mathematics from the Lund Institute of Technology.

Kate Okikiolu joins the Department of Mathematics as a professor following her years at the University of California, San Diego. Her research focus is harmonic analysis, spectral theory, and geometry. She studies elliptical determinants to geometry and investigates the properties of different dimensions in space. Okikiolu received her PhD from the Universityof California, Los Angeles.