Irma T. de Alonso, Ph.D. (University of York), Professor, Economics.  She has won several FIU awards in the areas of teaching, advising, research, and service.   In addition to her association with the Department of Economics and the Honors College, she is also affiliated with Caribbean and Latin American studies, the Women's Studies program, and the Freshmen Interest Groups (FIGs). Her reseach and teaching areas include Economics of the Caribbean, Women, culture and economic development, Quantitative methods, and Principles of Economics.  Additional information may be found at http://www.fiu.edu/~alonsoi

Christopher Brown, Ph.D. (University of Delaware), Professor, Biological Sciences.  Dr. Brown has worked extensively in Japan, the Philippines, and Scandinavia and was a Senior Fulbright Scholar in the US-Sweden exchange of 1995.   Most often he is cited for the discovery that the maternally-derived thyroid hormones that are deposited into fish eggs can and do influence larval development.  Large-scale applications of this discovery are in use in hatcheries in Japan and Brazil.  Dr. Brown’s educational background includes a BS in Biology with Honors from union College, New York, in 1978, a PhD from the University of Delaware, and 5.5 very happy and productive years as a staff scientist at the University of California, Berkeley.  His first faculty appointment was at the University of Hawaii, in 1989, leading to tenure and promotion to Full Professor within 5 years.  Like a ship leaving a sinking rat, he came to FIU in 2000, just as his colleagues in Hawaii were preparing to go out on strike.  Here at FIU, Dr. Brown’s primary focus is on the establishment of a Marine Biology Program on the Biscayne Bay Campus.

Stephen M. Fain, Ed.D. (Teachers College, Columbia University), Professor, Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.

Mary G. Free, Ph.D.(University of Georgia), Associate Professor and Associate Chair, Department of English?Biscayne Bay Campus.  Shakespeare and his rivals (the ones most people know nothing about) constitute Dr. Free’s primary area of study although contemporary British drama creeps into her publications and presentations as well.  Despite her claim that "anything after Milton is way too modern," she remains an avid fan and defender of television commercials and what they tell/teach us about today’s world.  When not demystifying Renaissance texts, she spends time playing with Merlin and Polly, her Australian shepherds, and improving her tennis game.

Bernard S. Gerstman, Ph.D. (Princeton University), Professor, Physics.  Research specialty in theoretical biophysics; specifically the non-linear dynamics of protein folding and its mathematical similarity to anti-chaos, the interaction of laser energy with biological material, and the origin and evolution of the genetic code.  Professor Gerstman has been invited to speak about his research at institutions and conferences around the country and around the world. He has also developed new courses within the Department of Physics such as the "Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe."

James E. Huchingson, Ph.D. (Emory University) teaches in the Department of Religious Studies. With a background in aerospace engineering and the history, he offers courses in his scholarly interests of science and religion and environmental ethics (as a member of the affiliated faculty for the Department of environmental Studies) and is the author of texts in both fields.  Other course titles, including "Plagues in Medicine and Myth," " Spaceflight in Myth and Reality," and  "Native American Religions," reflect his passion for interdisciplinary and integrative approaches to knowledge.

Anthony Maingot, Ph.D. (University of Florida), Professor, Sociology and Anthropology. Dr. Maingot, a native of Trinidad, has taught at Yale University (1966-72), the University of the West Indies, Trinidad (1972-74) and, since 1974, at FIU. He was a member of the Constitutional Reform Commission of Trinidad, 1971-1974. Dr. Maingot is co-author of A Short History of the West Indies, now in its fourth edition; and author of: Small Country Development and International Labor Flows: Experiences in the Caribbean; The United States and the Caribbean; Trends in US-Caribbean Relations. His The US and the Caribbean in the Post-Cold War Era is forthcoming.

Tomislav Mandakovic, Ph.D. (University of Pittsburgh), Professor, Decision Sciences.  Full Professor of Decision Sciences, and Visiting Professor Universidad de Chile.  Researcher and Consultant on Total Quality and Productivity Management, Strategic Decision Making, Project Management, and Operations Management.  During the last ten years has taught and held academic positions, and consulted for manufacturing and service organizations in the private and public sectors, in Chile, Spain, Central America and the USA.  Has published numerous articles and participated in various international conferences. Has received awards for his teaching and research.

Pete E.C. Markowitz, Ph.D. (College of William and Mary), Associate Professor, Physics.  Prof. Markowitz joined FIU in 1995 initially in a bridge position with the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) in Virginia.  His research interests focus on the quark structure of nuclei, and the electroproduction of quarks and anti-quarks (or matter and anti-matter).  A series of experiments measuring strange quark effects in atomic nuclei are mapping out the behavior of these elusive and unstable particles.  The experiments use high energy accelerators to bombard various target materials and then to measure the subsequent particles which are produced. During his time at FIU he has taught Nuclear Physics, Modern Physics Laboratory, and the introductory physics sequences, as well as a FIG and the Freshman Experience course.

Florentin Maurrasse, Ph.D. (Columbia University), Professor, Earth Sciences.  Stratigraphy, paleoceanography, and paleogeography of the Caribbean.  Radiolarian and smaller foraminiferal biostratigraphy. Litho- and biostratigraphy of deep sea sequences in the Caribbean Sea and exposed deep sea sequences on land. Climate changes as recorded in pelagic sequences. The Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary in southern Haiti and other Caribbean sites.   Other interests include carbonate facies development and distribution in the Plio-Pleistocene carbonates of South Florida and their relation to the region's hydrogeology.

Lesley A. Northup, Ph.D. (Catholic University), Associate Professor, Religious Studies with research and teaching interests in American religion, ritual studies, mythography, and popular religious practice, Dr. Northup covers a number of different bases in her field.  Her current work in contemporary developments in American religious organizations has resulted in a series of volumes of the Religious Documents of North America Annual.  Dedicated to pedagogical innovation and improvement, she works closely with the Academy for the Art of Teaching and other units committed to better serving students.

Kevin O'Shea, Ph.D. (University of California), Los Angeles, Associate Professor, Chemistry and Graduate Program Director.   His research interests are in the areas of photochemistry and reactive oxygen species www.fiu.edu/orgs/chemistry/facweb/oshea.   He joined FIU in 1991 and teaches undergraduate and graduate classes in organic chemistry.    His teaching efforts have been recognized with University Teaching and TIP awards.  He has been the faculty advisor for the award winning student affiliate chapter of the American Chemical Society (ACS) at FIU, a member of education committee for the American Photobiology Society and on the task force for undergraduate programming at National ACS Meetings.  In 1992, he became a member of the Honors College and will be team teaching the second year honors course.   He has over thirty peer-reviewed publications and has had over forty students work in his research laboratory on projects supported by the NSF, Petroleum Research Fund, Research Corporation, and the Henry and Camille Dreyfus Foundation.

Darden Pyron, Ph.D. (University of Virginia), Professor, History. Prof. Pyron served as the first chairman of the department from 1971-1977 and has taught here ever since. He teaches courses in intellectual history, Western Civilization, Greece, The American South, the Civil War, and contemporary or twentieth century American history and culture. He has won the University Teaching Award twice, won the TIP award twice, and loves teaching. He writes books about American cultural history and the American South, among these: Recastinig: "Gone with the Wind" in American Culture and Southern Daughter: The Life of Margaret Mitchell. He most recently published a biography of the performer Liberace, called Liberace: An American Boy. The two biographies were very widely reviewed in the popular press. The former has been translated into Czech and German, the last to reviews as widespread and notable as the English versions. The former was also a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. He will be working on another biographical project: an edition of the memoirs of the Civil War general, William Tecumseh Sherman, to be called General Sherman's War of the Rebellion.

Constantino Manuel Torres, Ph.D., (University of New Mexico) Professor, Art History, Visual Arts Department, University Park Campus. Primary interest in the art and archaeology of psychoactive plant use in the Central Andes. Conducts research and archaeological work in the Atacama desert of northern Chile. Teaches courses in non-western art, including Art and Shamanism, Precolumbian Art of the Andes, and Precolumbian Art of Mesoamerica. His publications include: "The Use of Anadenanthera colubrina var. Cebil by Wichi (Mataco) Shamans of the Chaco Central, Argentina." Yearbook for ethnomedicine and the study of consciousness 5: 41-58, with David Repke as second author. VerlŠg fŸr Wissenschaft und Bildung, Berlin, 1998. "The role of cohoba in Ta’no shamanism." Eleusis, Piante e Composti Psicoattivi, n.s., no. 1: 38-50, Museo Civico di Rovereto, Trento, Italy, 1998.

Michael Wagner, Ph.D. (Florida State University), Professor, Music.  Prof. Wagner has been at Florida International University in Miami, Florida since 1973.  He holds degrees from the State University of New York at Fredonia, Teachers College, Columbia University and the Florida State University with further graduate work at both the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School of Music.  Before living in Florida, he was a member of the United States Military Academy Band at West Point, New York, a recitalist and a concert performer on the Clarinet.  He has taught in the public schools of New York State and has been the Orchestra and Band Director at the State University of New York at Geneseo.  As an Educator, his credentials include invitations to lecture about music rehearsal technique and classroom management in The Peoples Republic of China, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, the Republic of the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Haiti.  For twenty-five years he has worked with teachers throughout the United States as well.  Dr. Wagner is the author of two music education textbooks and many research reports in the areas of neurology and audiology as it relates to music listening, and teaching presentation style.

Editor's Note: Beginning with the 2002-2003 academic year faculty in the Honors College will be designated as Fellows of the Honors College.